It is important to bear in mind that “gossip” or a “rumor” is quite different from a “secret.” While the first ones tend to involve one person’s malicious disdain for someone else, the latter mostly speaks of the self alone.

It is you, the mirror and that discomforting reminder that keeps bouncing back to the psychic surface to say: “remember me?” or “you’re mean.”

A secret may be even more monstrous to your own set of morals than to others’. And while the secretiveness gamut is rather wide, multi-layered and complicated, it usually involves avoiding social embarrassment, but also the realization that we have failed to hold honesty as a prerequisite for our self-serving ambitions.

As long as a secret involves private individuals, it may seem harmless. But when secrets hold social significance, it is a matter of journalistic duty for us to make them secrets no longer. And that we love to do.

But we at the Post love personal secrets too. Not because they expose someone’s weaknesses, but because they reassure us of our own vulnerability as humans.

So we asked our staff to anonymously reveal some of their most private secrets. Here is what the assignment managed to unearth out of our most hidden depths.

Secret 1

“I love my boyfriend very much but I hold a lot of anger with him for breaking off our two engagements. I hope there will be another that he will stick to, otherwise I'm afraid I'm wasting my time.”

Secret 2

“My mother has attempted suicide multiple times and it wasn't until she slit her wrists and rubbed her blood on my cheek that I realized that I had to get out. I'm afraid that I will turn out like her. But yet I still love her — why?”

Secret 3

“When I was in 5th grade I thought I invented masturbation. Luckily I only told one other kid about it before realizing that I was both wrong and weird for talking about it.”

Secret 4

“To everyone else, I'm a strong-willed, independent, dedicated, confident person. But to me, I'm just an insecure, unsure, in need of affirmation. I am really scared of failing, for if I were to fail, people might see the "me" that I see.”

Secret 5

“When I'm overwhelmed with school and work I plan on eating binge. Sometimes I will go to three different fast food drive-thrus in one night. After I am done devouring masses of food, I purge and release it all. Many people think that this is disgusting, but it is my secret, my way of controlling myself. It's very ritualistic, the whole process. I hide from everyone and then hide all of the evidence (food wrappers) so that no one around me knows. After I am done getting rid of it all, I flush twice, clean the toilet, wash my hands and brush my teeth. Afterwards, I feel rejuvenated and am satisfied, ready to carry on with my daily activities. Other times, I look for more food, and do it all over again.

This has been going on for ten years, and it's my little secret.”

Secret 6

“How come guys are always interested in the girls who can't offer them anything more than sex? If guys only knew what they were missing out on with me...they'd think again. Where is my prince charming?”

Secret 7

“I haven’t purchased textbooks for a class in the last two years.”

Secret 8

“I haven't filed my taxes in 5 years and don't intend to this year either.”

Secret 9

“I can't believe I thought I was in love with him. All he did was feed me lines...and I believed every single one of them. I hope he's ashamed of how much he hurt me. I'm better off without him.”

Secret 10

“Truth be told, but I've let my addictions get the best of me -- literally. I often wonder what the "responsible me" of three years ago would do if they could see the me now. Would they laugh, or would they cry?”

Secret 11

"I used to have a major cocaine habit. Many times I would do lines in the bathroom before class."

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