Hello ladyrain: My best wishes on your upcoming therapy. I've told more than my share of lies during my lifetime as well. I also became a master at being secretive. Some of it was for the protection of others. But a lot of it... most of it really... was for my own.

I'm getting old now & I just keep to myself. So there's no longer much of anything to lie about or anyone to lie to. The one thing I will add though is that the one time I actually did come out & tell the real truth, it turned out nobody really cared anyway. Sometimes I think things that are troublesome to us, things that cause us guilt & shame, are of much greater import to us than they are to anyone else. More often than not, I think, we are our own worst critics.