{"id":1994,"date":"2009-12-10T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2009-12-10T09:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beyondblue\/2009\/12\/go-ahead-tell-your-secret.html"},"modified":"2009-12-10T09:00:37","modified_gmt":"2009-12-10T09:00:37","slug":"go-ahead-tell-your-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2009\/12\/go-ahead-tell-your-secret.html","title":{"rendered":"Go Ahead, Tell Your Secret!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PostSecret1.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s something to remember the next time you don’t know whether or not to fess up to something embarrassing or unbecoming, or maybe flat-out evil that you did: if you hold too many of those secrets inside, you increase your chances of becoming depressed. A 2005 study published in the Journals of the British Psychological Society found that feeling ashamed of personal qualities and behaviors … and especially secret shame … contributes to chronic depression. <\/p>\n

For this reason I was intrigued by the movement PostSecret<\/a>, started by a fellow Marylander, Frank Warren, in which he collects everyone’s secrets.<\/a> On postcards. The latest collection of cards, just published in a gift book entitled “PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God”<\/a> is fascinating. As I read through it, I felt like I was peaking inside the lives of people I didn’t know–learning something about them that I shouldn’t know–and yet comforted in some odd way by their confessions. Among them:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n