To think one should never unburden oneself to a stranger?

[TheCleverLemur]

There’s so much advice out there encouraging people to “open up” and “talk to someone” but I’m starting to wonder if that’s always wise, especially when it’s someone who doesn’t really know you. Maybe I’ve just seen too many situations where vulnerability was met with awkwardness, judgement or worse - gossip. There’s also something about unloading your deepest thoughts to someone who has no context that feels… off. Like it cheapens the emotion or risks it being misunderstood.

AIBU to think some things are better kept private or at least saved for people who truly know you?

Why would you be unburdening yourself to a stranger though? When people say ‘talk to somebody’ they probably mean your sister or your best friend. Not the person next to you on a train.

Who's advising you to unload onto strangers?

Depends.

if the stranger is your therapist, then go right ahead.

God no! Don’t go unburdening yourself to me. I’m useless at empathy and constructive advice.

I think when people say "open up" and "talk to someone" they generally mean a therapist or other person who is trained to listen to people's problems, not a random person in line ahead of you at the pharmacy.

I am of the view that we as a society should talk more about mental health issues, I don’t mean tell the woman serving in the post office about your ocd struggles or the Amazon driver about how your depression is today, but with family, colleagues, friends the more normalised mental health becomes the less hiding and shame there is. Mental health issues are still seen as secret and not something to be discussed, however many people feel comfortable talking about having a migraine, sciatica, tennis elbow, diabetes, short sightedness, etc why can’t we be more open about our mental health struggles?
a few years ago I decided to just be open and mention how I was feeling about things and it was eye opening how many other people were feeling the same or had their own issues that they shared, it definitely makes you realise you are not alone and takes away a lot of the “I’m the only one who feels like this” which can make mental health worse.