Keeping secrets causes brain damage

According to neurosurgeons, having to carry secrets with you “for life and death” can damage your brain.

In life, everyone has secrets, more or less. You may think that as long as the secret is buried, it will not have any consequences. But in fact, having to carry secrets in your life "to live with, to die with" can damage your brain. Writing down these secrets will be one of the simple ways to help you improve your mental health.

Keeping secrets causes brain damage

According to neurosurgeons, the prefrontal cortex is responsible for decision-making, complex thinking, and deception. When you keep a secret, you imagine a series of worst-case outcomes because the orbitofrontal cortex is signaling to you how dangerous it is to keep a secret. The result is chronic irritability and, in extreme cases, the onset of paranoia.

When paranoia sets in, cortisol, the stress hormone, increases and has a number of effects on the body and brain. It can affect memory, metabolism, blood pressure, and even the part of the brain where reaction time and focus are controlled.

Writing down secrets can “rescue” the brain

The reason we get anxious when we keep secrets in our brains is because we are thinking about them too fast. There are so many thoughts about the consequences that you can't keep up with them.

One way to deal with this is to write these secrets down. By writing down what worries us, we tend to think about it more optimistically.

Although there is no concrete evidence to explain this phenomenon, it is possible that writing down secrets can help us gain insight into the things that worry us.

How to write?

How to improve your mental health by writing down your feelings. When writing, focus on how you feel about something rather than trying to explain why it happened. A reflective writing style will yield positive results.

Here are instructions on how to write:

1. Write 20 minutes/day for 4 consecutive days

2. Write about your secrets and should be very personal and important matters.

3. Write continuously without worrying about spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Keep putting pen to paper until you're done.

4. Write only for yourself, absolutely avoid letting others see.

5. Avoid writing anything that might push you into a negative state. When you find yourself in this state, stop writing and take a break before continuing.

6. You will feel sad and disappointed when you start this exercise and that is normal. It will only take a few hours for these feelings to subside.

In this exercise, you are encouraged to write down your deepest and most honest feelings about what happened, and it is important to emphasize that what you write is for you only. Be patient and kind to yourself, and if you are worried about someone else reading it, destroy it as soon as you are done.

A few weeks later, write down how you feel about the writing process and how it has helped you feel better. We believe that this simple practice will help you become a calmer, more optimistic, and happier person.

According to SKDS