You make perfect sense to me. The only ones who get to see all the sides are the ones that share an intimate relationship with me (not meant in a sexual context here). Since I am always trying to hide my "real" self (which includes my "illness-me"), this is very hard to deal with, because I am so aware of how much stress I can create for them, which starts the cycle of guilt and shame and, well, I'm sure you know how it all goes...

Strangers only have to have compassion for an extremely short period of time - family and loved ones must deal with this stuff all the time, so one can easily see the difference in the impact made on each the two.