Most secrets are like pebbles but they accumulate over time until they drown you. That is unless you throw one out each time they start to build.

I classify a secret as anything that isn’t said. You don’t say it so its weight is kept inside to weigh you down. When you say it out loud to someone, the words carry the weight out of your body.

"He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore." - Sigmund Freud

Given time, all secrets eventually come out. I think it’s because it weighs you down. It gets heavier over time until it becomes unbearable and you want any excuse to just unburden yourself. This might be why a serial killer might confess to everything he did when questioned by the police. I’m thinking of Dennis Nelson.

Sometimes, secrets that are held in too long will get unburdened in destructive ways. Such seems to be the case when a couple fights over something small like using a coaster or what to eat for dinner. The issues at hand are small but they were the push that set off an avalanche.

It’s scary to unburden oneself with small secrets so often. It might free the soul but it might ruin a reputation. However, this might lead to the more important question of why such a reputation build on falsity matters? Some definitely might. The point is that one should choose which reputation to protect by keeping some secret pebbles with the self.

Everything else? Let it out. Bit by bit. Sooner the better. Weights from secrets not only make the soul heavy but it transfers over to the mind and body. I’m inclined to believe one will regret keeping secrets instead of telling them. Sometimes, short term pleasures of unburdening the self are also good for the long term as well.