Keeping secrets damages your health

A recent study claims that keeping secrets may be damaging to mental health because they drive up stress, causing sleeping problems, wrinkles and sickness. Photo / 123RF

It's time to spill the beans.

A recent study claims that keeping secrets may be damaging to health because the internal torment drives up stress, causing sleeping problems, wrinkles and sickness.

Scientists say that 95 percent of people keep an average of 13 secrets at a time, with five of these being so private they are never spoken out loud.

The experts at Columbia University in New York said the amount of time thinking about that skeleton in the closet is more harmful to health than the secret itself, reports Daily Mail.

Dr Michael Slepian, the lead author of the study, concluded that the frequency of thinking about secrets, not hiding them, was the main reason of increased levels of stress.

He previously thought the weight of the secret, or how "bad" it was, equated to a lower level of mental health.

However, in his new study he found it was rather the amount of time thinking about a secret that led to problems down the line.

Researchers said one of the most frequently kept secrets were sexual fantasies about a non-partner or having sexual relations with a non-partner.

Other commonly held secrets were sexual orientation, poor self-image, finances, poor job performance, addiction and having an abortion.

These undisclosed thoughts can cause stress hormones, such as cortisol, to go wild.
High cortisol levels can lead to bowel problems, high blood pressure, metabolism issues, aged skin and a weak immune system.

Dr Slepian found these secrets can even make mundane activities a huge burden.

Dr Slepian said to the Atlantic: "The bad news is that even when you don't have to hide your secret, you might still frequently think about it to the detriment of your well-being.

"But the good news is, if what's most harmful is your thinking about the secret, if we could get you to think about it less, or change how you think about it, we could mitigate that negative effect."

Secrets may also impact the way we correspond to others.

A University of Maryland in College Park study in 2016 found people who have dark secrets tend to change their language and behavior when messaging friends.

The results revealed that secret-keepers tended to be more socially active and "hyper vigilant" than usual.

During the secret keeping period, those with something to hide sent 1.14 emails per month to people they were trying to hide it from compared to 0.67 emails per month before they held the secret.

There was also a very slight increase in the length of their emails.

Secret keepers responded more quickly to those they were trying to keep in the dark, picking up the time from 13.1 hours before they had a secret, to 4.96 hours, after a secret.

They also used marginally more second person pronouns and more present tense verbs in emails to their friends.

Most common secrets people keep

According to a study by researchers at the University of Columbia, 95 percent of people keep secrets.

The average person keeps 13 secrets at a time, with five being so personal they are never spoken out loud.

Here are some of the most commonly kept secrets:

• Telling a lie
• Romantic desire
• Sexual behavior
• Finances
• Social discontent
• Family issues
• Extra-relational thoughts
• Physical Discontent
• Ambition
• Violating trust