The internet is a chamber of secrets.
Since the invention of the chatroom, people have taken on anonymous usernames and spilled their souls to strangers online.
There's something singularly empowering about being able to share your biggest secrets from the safety of anonymity. You receive the catharsis of sharing, without taking on the risks of IRL circumstances changing.
This is precisely why the annals of Reddit are full of family secrets, relationship secrets, and personal secrets that are protected from in-person fall-out.
Got busted with a lot of computers from my work, about $25K worth, and plead guilty to Grand Theft (F).
They spelled my name wrong, wrong birthday, and I never gave them my DL or SSN. 'I don't remember it,' I said over and over during my 90-day incarceration.
That was 34 years ago and I background check my name every few years with a racy heart each time. Nope. Not there.
I was a heroin addict in my 20s. Been clean 9 years, and no one I work with, or associate with at this point in my life (besides wife, kids, and immediate family) realize that 10 years ago I was an unrecognizable shell of who I am now.
I often think of suicide. I have two kids and they’re the only reasons I am here.
I draw furry porn and make great money off of it. I have a normal job but I use the art money for things I want like expensive clothes or bath and body works candles.
When I was 11, a friend of mine tried to steal a candy bar from a store and we got caught. We were told that we were banned for life. I went back in 40 years later and walked around like a boss.
One time in elementary school, there was this really big important test…I was out sick that day, as were a handful of other kids (flu season).
There were like 6 of us total who had to make up the test, we were put in a separate room and told to be quiet and focus on our tests, our teacher would be checking on us very soon.
A few minutes after she left, a voice calls out “…does anyone know the answer to number 7?”
Next thing you know, we’ve got one kid looking out at the door while we all discuss and tell each other the answers. I think the teacher checked on us once after a while but we were already mostly done and at a lull.
We all got A’s and high B’s. I know this isn’t a life-ruining secret, but I’ve been holding that in for almost 20 years lol.
My friend burned down our school. He gave me the lighter the same day, but I never realized until a week later, I was literally in possession of crucial evidence and could be charged for it despite not having any involvement in the arson.
It's in my jewelry box to this day.
I don't know about 'ruin my life' but as a rule I'm not very open with people about my mental health issues. I had something of a paranoid episode about a year and a half ago which couldn't really be kept to myself.
Pretty soon after I fell out of contact with all of the people who saw me like that, as well as anyone who might have been told about it secondhand.
I still don't know how I left things with that group of people honestly, it was a bit of a haze from my point of view. All I know is that I haven't reached out to them, nor have they reached out to me. I just took it as a clean break and tried to move on.
I've been making 3D NSFW content for years and during peak pandemic it became my main income. Now it's both my wife's and I's full-time job. Proud of the work, but it would ruin our relationships to family and friends if it got out.
I have schizoaffective disorder. Most people do not know outside of a few close friends. I don’t tell people because they will use it as a reason to invalidate me.
Even when I’ve opened up on here outside of the SZA sub, people have tried to infantilize me or have offensively tried to tell me what’s best for me or school me about my disorder as though I am not living with it.
The world likes to pretend it’s becoming all woke about mental health, but it’s not. So I don’t tell people. If I were open about it, it would prevent me from getting jobs or making friends, and people would suddenly view me as incapable.
As though they know best. Because people are f**king stupid. And watch things like “A Beautiful Mind” and suddenly believe they know everything.
Me and my wife make porn and watch them together. Then make more porn.
In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max’s toupee and I glued it on my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog.
When my mom sent me to the summer camp for fat kids and then they served lunch I went nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out.
But the worst thing I ever did — I mixed a pot of fake puke at home. Then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony.
Then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa — and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience.
And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life.
I have dentures, and I’m 25. Maybe not life-ruining. But people definitely look at you differently. Fun party trick though.
I skipped my brother's wedding. Told him I had strep throat. I just hated his now wife.
That I've had a thing for my ex's mom for a very long time.