15 people share the secret they can't tell anyone because it will ruin their life.

We all have secrets.

Some of them are as small as a favorite movie we're too embarrassed to own in public, and others are major enough they could forever change how family and friends view us.

Feeling like you need to hold a secret for long can be a heavy experience, especially since the weight of it compounds and the idea of airing it out to the public sounds less and less possible. Luckily, anonymous spaces like the internet can serve as a space to offload secrets without irreparably changing your life.

In a popular Ask Reddit thread, people shared the one secret they think would ruin their life if they shared it out loud.

1. From Glasgow351:

I found out I had a half-brother (From Dad), and the only reason I found out about it was because he had leukemia, and they thought I'd be a match for a blood marrow transfusion.

2. From superthrust123:

I have a bad back and from time to time it goes into a full spasm. One day I was getting out of bed, and as my foot hit the floor I went into a full spasm. I have no idea how, but a perfectly formed turd fell out the leg of my shorts and landed on the floor.

Due to my spasm, I fell and landed right in the poop. The commotion woke up my gf at the time, and she ran over to check on me. I blamed the dog. I've never actually told anyone this before.

3. From littlelessgoodhere:

The story everyone knows is my boyfriend and I voluntarily left our place of work because our relationship went against policy, and we valued our relationship more than our crappy jobs. The truth is we got caught f#@king in my car before work, and left in order to avoid repercussions.

4. From AdWorried5791:

I left my job at an electronics manufacturing company in 2002, but they continued paying me my full salary, including all incremental raises and an annual bonus until they offered me a very generous redundancy package in 2022 due to 'departmental restructuring', including an £85,000 lump sum contribution to my pension fund. I even got the quarterly magazine and annual Christmas card sent to me.

In March of this year (2023) I got an invite to the 75th anniversary of the company, went along, had a great time at the free bar, and nobody realized I hadn't worked there for over 20 years. You've got to love a good administrative error. ??

5. From icleanjaxfl:

I collect welfare for being disabled, but at least once a week I double my pain meds in order to work for cash. If the State found out it would be bad news, but I haven't yet figured out how to survive on $900 a month.

6. From fredwaterfordisdead:

I’m 40 and my parents have no idea that I never actually graduated college. I went for almost 6 years and never felt like I really knew what I was doing. School wasn’t necessarily hard for me but I just couldn’t bring myself to focus or be dedicated to it.

My parents were SUPER obsessed with the idea that everyone needs a degree to get any decent job, so there was a ton of pressure, and dropping out wasn’t an option.

Sooo, I “graduated” in a winter semester and “decided not to walk the stage” since the December ceremony was always pretty small and I knew they wouldn’t think that was weird. This happened to be during the recession in the 2000s so I had an excuse for not finding a conventionally professional job right after that.

Now, I actually have a really good job with a company that focuses on hiring people based on experience, skill, and personality, so it turns out I didn’t even need that degree. But I will never tell my parents the truth.

Edit: Dang, I did not expect this to get so many responses from others in a similar situation! Thanks for sharing your stories, I’m glad to hear that others were able to find their own way despite familial pressure.

To those saying “now it’s on the internet and no longer a secret,” this is an old throwaway account and I specifically switched over to post this comment. Also, I am aware that people have murdered over this type of lie (yikes!), but I very much love my parents and am also not a raging psychopath, so worries on that front!

7. From ShakeTheEyesHands:

While addicted to m$th, I accidentally got caught up working for a N*zi gang in my hometown. They were just having me smurf and collect money for them, but by the time I realized what they were all about, they weren't about to let me just stop working. So I kept doing it until I was able to leave my hometown and make it out to Tampa.

The things I got involved in while working with them could put me in prison for 20 years. Most of my family think I lived a pretty normal junkie life back then, but they have no idea how easy it is to get involved with big-name dealers in a town with such a high cartel presence.

8. From Skitzonwheels2378:

After fleeing domestic violence and trying to make a new life, I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, I'm fighting it but I'm just so tired of life. My last baby turns 18 this week and I feel like I've done all I'm supposed to. I'm sick of being strong for everyone else when all I want to do is go, I'm just so damn tired.

Edit: wow, woke up this morning to this blowing up. I can thank everyone enough for the kind comments , messages and overall support. I have somewhat a better outlook on things, at least for today anyway, suppose just 1 day at a time. I wish I could bless you all with awards and thanks but for now upvotes will have to do. Thanks, you don't know how much your kind words and thoughts mean to me ?

9. From Grand-Impact-4069:

I hid the extent of my alcoholism from everyone since I was 15, I’m now 35 and 8 weeks sober. No one knows I’m sober now as they’ve never known I had an alcohol issue.

10. From Jasher1125:

I once jacked off to a picture of George W Bush’s bulge when I was like 12.

11. From Winne_Pooh:

I haven't asked my long-term partner to marry me because I don't know who I would invite to the wedding. Her side would be full. Mine would just be close family.

12. From HumanSlaveToCats:

I've gained over one hundred pounds since the start of the pandemic and fallen into the deepest depression I've ever experienced. If you were to see me in person, you wouldn't think I was depressed, I'm very good at masking it. But if you were to come to my home, you'd know. I haven't had anyone in my home in almost two years. Right now I have bags of garbage that stink that I need to take out.

I need to vacuum and mop my floors. My bed is broken on one side so I sleep at a slant. My couch is covered in boxes, bags, and just nonsense. I haven't folded my laundry in ages. My shower door is broken. I'm really struggling and I don't have anyone. Both my parents live in different parts of the country. I'm an only child. I don't know what I'm going to do.

13. From Milfons_Aberg:

Five years before my stepdad died of Alzheimers and Leukemia, I noticed he was very quiet in the evenings when I visited him and my mom. I asked him 'Why don't you want to talk a bit more?', to which he responded 'If I don't say anything I can't say anything wrong.' I took it to mean that he was afraid of conflicts with my mom, and said that I would want to hear anything he had to say.

After he died I realized why he said what he said. I was at a lunch with them when he tried to ask me something but put in completely wrong nouns, nonsense choices, and every time he did that my mom started laughing and said 'Hahaha, now you've totally gotten things weird!'

She didn't know she was being condescending because she didn't know he was getting advanced dementia (none of us knew then), and she just brushed his mistakes off as being silly mistakes. She couldn't know it shamed him so much that he stopped talking, since he didn't trust his words anymore, nor his sense of balance.

I will never ever explain this to my mom, not even if I am super-angry. I would do unretractable damage to my relationship with her, she mourned him deeply.

Edit: To the heartless people insulting my mother over this post, she stood with my stepdad to the very end, sat with him in his room in the nursing home when he sometimes would scream for a half-hour in mortal dread as he realized the consequences of his worsening condition.

Those days would completely crush her. She suffered more than anyone I know have done, and also saw her own dad die of cancer in her youth, so you know nothing of her sacrifice.

14. From DammitCollins:

One of my closest family members offered me sex during one of the most mentally unstable times of his life. I wasn't interested, nothing else happened, and the topic never came up again. One of the main reasons why I haven't brought it up in-family is because his marriage is already unstable and I don't intend to make it worse.

15. From Silentguy_99:

I fall asleep every night in horror because my former best friend and I haven’t talked in 3 years because for her 21st birthday we both got massively blackout drunk and smoked I have no idea what happened that night. But she’s never answered a message I’ve sent since.