my problem with being open about my life

Sometimes things happen in my life that I don't really want to talk to anyone about. These things are often unpleasant or just not nice to hear about, and for that reason I tend to avoid telling people unless I trust them. These things don't happen regularly, but when they do, and I tell someone, I will only tell them if I think they will understand how to handle it.

Occasionally my trust is misplaced, and I find myself opening up to someone who just wants to shut me up so they can focus on what they deem to be important. And this is swiftly followed by me feeling let down and usually taking some time out to myself to prevent myself from feeling worse. 

There are lots of things in my life that I have never told anyone, because I'm just not ready yet, and there are other things in my life that I have told one or two people about, because I trust them and believe it's important for them to know what's going on for me so they can understand that my behaviour may be different for a certain period of time. I tell people these things, not to ask for advice, but to make them aware of what's happened.


One thing that I don't like is when my feelings are just ignored. It takes a lot for me to open up about something, and anyone who knows me well is completely aware of this, so to have my feelings invalidated by someone merely because they don't want to hear them is hurtful to me. For my problems, issues, feelings, to be reduced to nothing by someone else is unfair, especially if I take time and effort to make sure that I listen to them and help them when they need it.

Sometimes all someone needs is for someone else to listen to them and not silence them, so that the person knows that someone out there cares.