Originally Posted by
GlassPinata
The idea of social humiliation and exposure is very disturbing. I felt anxious simply reading your post.
What I have to say about it is this: people think about us a lot less than we think they do. They are mostly focused on their own lives, their own problems. If a few people know some "secret" about you and think you are weird, oh well. Might they tell others? Possibly. Although it sounds like this happened awhile ago, and if they were going to tell others, they probably would've already done it by now.
If they do tell others, you must remember that these others will be hearing it secondhand, and may not even believe it, and will probably just brush it off and forget about it, as we tend to do when we hear strange stories about people secondhand, as opposed to witnessing them ourselves. These stories will likely have little impact on "other people" who do not know you well or who were not there and did not hear these things directly from you. The stories are unlikely to go farther, and will probably soon be forgotten.
There is always a new scandal coming up, or some new juicy gossip. No one ends up in the spotlight for long, especially if they don't want to be there.
But everyone ends up there once in awhile, usually unwillingly, and it can be excruciating for a person with anxiety.
Just remember that everyone has secrets that they wouldn't want others to know, and most people are able to feel empathy for someone whose secrets are being exposed. Most people have some basic core of decency and truly do not want to tear others down or humiliate them.
What I'm saying is, trust the world to treat you kindly, even if they cannot be trusted to fully understand you.
Best wishes.
PS- I just reread your post and saw that you exposed this secret while sleep talking.
For heaven's sake, just tell people it's not true and that you were having a terrible dream, or something.
"Sleep talking" doesn't mean "telling the truth". We often say crazy things while talking in our sleep. Everyone knows this.
The worst anyone could say about you is that you talked in your sleep and said crazy things.
That is not really juicy enough gossip to bear endless repeating, so I doubt it will go much further.
But if it does, simply tell anyone who asks that you sometimes sleep-talk, and the things you say in your sleep do not make sense, are not true, and that you don't remember them afterward.
Truly, if someone who was not there were to hear this gossip secondhand, I very much doubt it would have any impact on them, or change their opinion of you at all. It is simply not very interesting gossip.
"So and so talked in his sleep."
I mean, so what?
I would not worry about this.