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At any given time, the average person has about 12 secrets. They don't have to be extreme; many people keep their political and religious views to themselves, especially when they believe others will agree with them. Some also choose to hide their finances if, for example, they have a lot more or a lot less than it appears.
Point is, we possess a wide variety of personal classified information. So Reddit user Zippping got interested in the most colorful chapters. They recently made a post on the platform, inviting folks to reveal the strangest secrets someone has ever told them. And replies didn't disappoint!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I was 14, a female friend told me that her uncle was molesting her but she was too afraid to speak and asked me to please not say anything. That same afternoon i went to the police station with a friend, anxious asf, and told the police everything. The next week police came to my highschool and took my girl friend. A few days later her mother called mine to thank me and a few months later the uncle was in jail, and still is to this day. I don't know how i had the balls to do that but i'm very proud.
According to Dr. Justin Lehmiller, a research fellow at The Kinsey Institute, the host of the Sex and Psychology Podcast, and the author of 'Tell Me What You Want', our secrets can be "about something positive and exciting, such as a surprise party you're throwing, a new job offer you received, or an engagement proposal you’re about to make."
"Positive secrets like this are the kinds of things we often feel the urge to confess," Lehmiller told Bored Panda. "We want to share the good news and find a way to channel our excitement."
But "at the same time, most of us carry negative secrets—that is, we hold information that could potentially make us look bad to others if it got out. This is the kind of information we're often afraid to share because it makes us vulnerable; however, we sometimes still want to share it anyway. For example, someone who is having an affair might confess this to a close friend, perhaps because they want to talk through the complex and mixed feelings they have, or perhaps they just want to share their excitement about doing something taboo."
When people confess their negative secrets, it's usually a means of facilitating intimacy with another person. "Disclosing information you wouldn’t normally tell other people can be a powerful way to build closeness," Lehmiller highlighted.
#2
Friend of mine pulled the plug on his father. Was very illegal to assist anyone where he lives but his father asked him to do it.
Jessica SpeLangm 5 months ago
Shouldn't be illegal, and a person should be allowed to die how they want to. As long as nobody else gets hurt.
#3
My HS girlfriend told me her stepdad had been showering and sleeping with her since she was 13. I started dating her when I was 17. She was extremely experienced and very sexually active, which a young guy would enjoy, but it was over sexual and I knew something was up. I asked her and she told me all about it. I tried to handle it, but could not. Her little sister had also just started to be molested. I told them they needed to tell their mother or I would. Well they did and guess what? I was basically kicked out of the relationship. I became the bad guy. I wish now that I could have helped her or dealt with it better. But I hadn't dealt with anything like that. We broke up and their family carried on. It wasn't incest, but it was wrong. She did marry and have children and it looks like a nice situation. Unfortunately her younger sister died of an overdose when she was in her 30's. I'm now in my 50's and this whole situation still bothers me.
Lehmiller said that we're drawn to hearing other people's secrets for a variety of reasons.
"One is that it can make us feel normal. Almost all of us are carrying around at least some information we don't want to share because we're afraid of being judged, such as having a 'deviant' sexual fantasy. When we hear that other people are having the same thoughts, this can help to reduce feelings of shame, embarrassment, and anxiety because we realize we aren't alone," the psychologist explained.
#4
When I was like 10, my father bragged to me about basically torturing another kid in his highschool. They called him names, locked him into lockers frequently, laughed at him crying in there.. and one time, drenched him in gas and pretended to light him on fire with their cigarettes. He thought it was funny that he cried and pleaded for them not to light him on fire.
He told me about these stories at dinner to "calm me down", after I cried and screamed like hell when he forced me to extinguish a candle with my fingers.
#5
Not told to me directly— My evil ex-roommate was laughing about how stupid her boyfriend was because she manipulated him into paying for an abortion that wasn’t his.
She thought it was absolutely *hilarious* that he never asked, and was *truly* concerned for her health and wellbeing.
She was loudly bragging about it on the phone and I could hear her through my bedroom wall. She’s genuinely one of the worst people I’ve ever met. .
But we also understand the burden that comes with it. "When someone volunteers a secret, we may also be reluctant to hear it because we then bear some responsibility for keeping the other person's information secret," Lehmiller said.
"For example, let's say your best friend tells you they cheated on their spouse—but you're friends with their spouse. Now you're in a pickle. You might feel the need to keep your friend's secret, but you might also feel the need to disclose it because someone else really needs to know it. And no matter what you do in this situation, someone will get hurt."
#6
This girl told me she spanked her daughter until she threw up because she wet her pants when she was 18 months old and then she had no trouble going to the bathroom. This her advice when I said my daughter was just over 2 and not quite ready for potty training. I didn't take her advice.
#7
She was aware that one of her children were being abused by his 2 brothers and did nothing.
#8
Guy told me he and his cousin had hooked up at every family get together since they were 9. He's almost 40 and married.
Every now and then we hear someone say they lead completely honest lives and do not keep any secrets. According to Lehmller, there is a chance they might be telling the truth, but we will never know for sure.
"Sometimes we lie to keep our secrets hidden. And, sometimes, the information we keep secret is the information we've lied about. As a social psychologist, I suspect it's the rare person who never keeps a secret. The ability to keep a secret has a certain power—as does the ability to selectively reveal a secret when it suits your purposes. Humans are reluctant to voluntarily give up power, and the ability to keep a secret (or choose when to reveal it) is one power that everyone has."
#9
Guy told me he’s sterile. His wife doesn’t know, nor do her 3 kids.
Lyoness 5 months ago
Is it possible he's wrong? If he had a vasectomy, men who've had have them have gotten people pregnant. It's very rare but if he had one and it didn't take that'd explain the kids. If he was tested years ago and been told he was sterile his sperm could have increased and he isn't aware. Hopefully it's one of those and not that his wife has cheated.
#10
Dude straight up said out loud in class "idk what the big deal is about sleeping with a cousin, it's no different than a FWB"..... The silence after that was sooooooo loud.
#11
A coworker told me that his son had been molesting his daughter. They were 10 and 8, or somewhere in that range. I gave him some phone numbers to get help.
#12
He was sleeping with his male friends on their guy’s only camping trips. Wife didn’t know.
#13
A classmate at her old school had a deadly peanut allergy so she put peanuts in her food to see what would happen….
#14
They they gave their 5 year old step daughter spoiled milk because the little girl “is a b***h”.
#15
When i was a kid an aunty admitted to burning down her boyfriends sisters house with kerosene.
two-sided llama 5 months ago
I like to imagine that she just said that casually over dinner like it was nothing.
#16
Classmate in grad school was in a long-term relationship with her brother. They lived together and had no plans to stop.
#17
My grandmother was pregnant before marriage (the father was someone other than my grandfather). She put the baby in a home for the mentally ill. My dad had no idea he had an older brother until after both his brother and his parents died. It explained why we weren’t allowed to talk to certain family members. They knew and disagreed with my grandmother. They were the ones to spill the beans many years later.
Katie Lutesinger 5 months ago
How on earth would a BABY be considered suitable for a mental hospital??
#18
Thought I caught my gf cheating. Turns out she was selling her urine to some internet pervert. So I guess I did, but not what I expected.
Robert Beveridge 5 months ago
I would be willing to bet you a tenner the "internet pervert" used it for a d**g test.
#19
In college our biology lab was about five benches, with four to five people working at each one.
My bench had three girls on it, one of whom would tell the others stories about how she was dating her uncle.
The stories were all graphic, horrific, and weird. She did not have an inside voice, and the entire lab was fully aware.
Not sure if its a secret? But it should have been...
Anna Ekberg 5 months ago
How does someone even come up with the thought: " hmm, i think i'm gonna date my niece".
#20
Girlfriends brother pretended to go to school for 3 years and made fake school reports.
#21
That she was now married to the man her ex-husband caught her cheating with - his father/her kids' grandfather.
#22
I had a friend come home to visit and during a lunch out he told me he had messed around on his wife. But he didn’t stop there, he went on to tell me that he had slept with over 100 women since they had gotten married. He then broke down and cried in a crowded restaurant and sobbed for like ten minutes. That was like 5 years ago and they’re still married.
#23
Less depressing one: A friend told me once that they use a hairdryer to dry their whole body off after a shower... not friendship ending but it made me realize that people truly have completely different perspectives.
#24
Girl I used to go to school with would wait till her parents got drunk and nick cash from their wallets.
badmotorfinger 5 months ago
This doesn't seem that odd. When I was a young miscreant I would steal a little cash from my folks now and then. They weren't even drunk.
#25
During a class reunion a high-school classmate admitted that cityscapes turned him on. Apparently he had a skyscraper fetish.
#26
My friend told me he would regularly lurk around hospitals at late hours with his dating apps on and pick up nurses.
#27
One of my coworkers, 6 months pregnant at the time, smoking in the employee parking lot.
“Please don’t tell anyone!”.
#28
She and her husband, with whom she has two kids, are first cousins.
Matthew Savestheworld 5 months ago
I am in USA Tennesse. First cousins is not illegal, but still frowned upon. Illegal incest is limited to siblings, parent and child, and grandparents.
#29
I reunited with a friend I hadn't seen for a while and she told me she's poly now, she has a boyfriend, but her husband doesn't know.
#30
My nephew told me he ate a Skittle from out of a garbage can, yesterday. He didn't mention who's garbage it was, so...the size of the Eww is dependent on where the garbage came from.
What do you think ?
similarly 5 months ago
Lol, I'm less bothered by the incest than I am the constant Alabama jokes.
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Joy 5 months ago
TRIGGER WARNING! (animal abuse) A co-worker once told me that as a very young child, he was forced to drown a litter of kittens. He was adopted later and was raised in a loving family in a new country, but he said that he can never own a pet now. He's scarred for life.
KimB 5 months ago
:( I hate how some humans treat animals...truly sickening
Load More Replies...
The Doom Song 5 months ago
I recently found out my grandmother had what sounds like dissociative identity disorder. She had maybe 3 or 4 different personalities. I thought that was rather interesting
KimB 5 months ago
I'm not knocking anyone if being with your cousin is your thing. It's just definitely not mine lol. I have two male cousins one is a raging alcoholic and the other an overly opinionated loud mouth man-child (think MAGA). The last time we were in the same house he challenged me verbally and lost badly everyone was laughing at him, then he stepped on my foot intentionally and hard grinding his heel on my toes so I punched him in the shoulder HARD and sent him to the floor butt first. I kicked his a** when we were kids and I will do it as an adult if I have to!! Then I get in trouble with my aunt because of course she only sees what I do not what he does...lol gotta love family! : D
Apatheist Account2 5 months ago
Fortunately, I've never fancied any of my relatives, or even their partners. I'm sure it was mutual :(
Load More Replies...
Averysleepypanda 5 months ago
TBH, I hate these threads that have become more and more common on BP. They have just become trauma dumping post without any trigger warnings. Always sends my nervous system out of whack. I would avoid clicking them, but there is no way for me knowing based on the title
Petra 5 months ago
What do you mean there's no way of knowing based on the title? Secrets are secrets for a reason. They're never wholesome. At least 99% of the time, anyways.
Load More Replies...
ANGEL BABY 5 months ago
I had to stop reading, absolutely horrible, especially dealing with children!!!!
similarly 5 months ago
Lol, I'm less bothered by the incest than I am the constant Alabama jokes.
Load More Replies... Joy 5 months ago
TRIGGER WARNING! (animal abuse) A co-worker once told me that as a very young child, he was forced to drown a litter of kittens. He was adopted later and was raised in a loving family in a new country, but he said that he can never own a pet now. He's scarred for life.
KimB 5 months ago
:( I hate how some humans treat animals...truly sickening
Load More Replies... The Doom Song 5 months ago
I recently found out my grandmother had what sounds like dissociative identity disorder. She had maybe 3 or 4 different personalities. I thought that was rather interesting
KimB 5 months ago
I'm not knocking anyone if being with your cousin is your thing. It's just definitely not mine lol. I have two male cousins one is a raging alcoholic and the other an overly opinionated loud mouth man-child (think MAGA). The last time we were in the same house he challenged me verbally and lost badly everyone was laughing at him, then he stepped on my foot intentionally and hard grinding his heel on my toes so I punched him in the shoulder HARD and sent him to the floor butt first. I kicked his a** when we were kids and I will do it as an adult if I have to!! Then I get in trouble with my aunt because of course she only sees what I do not what he does...lol gotta love family! : D
Apatheist Account2 5 months ago
Fortunately, I've never fancied any of my relatives, or even their partners. I'm sure it was mutual :(
Load More Replies... Averysleepypanda 5 months ago
TBH, I hate these threads that have become more and more common on BP. They have just become trauma dumping post without any trigger warnings. Always sends my nervous system out of whack. I would avoid clicking them, but there is no way for me knowing based on the title
Petra 5 months ago
What do you mean there's no way of knowing based on the title? Secrets are secrets for a reason. They're never wholesome. At least 99% of the time, anyways.
Load More Replies... ANGEL BABY 5 months ago
I had to stop reading, absolutely horrible, especially dealing with children!!!!
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