Kate Hackett
Revealing your innermost secrets really takes a level of intimacy that is hard-won and difficult to find. Unless you’re talking purely to strangers on the internet. Then it’s just a free-for-all.
Redditor u/ooMEAToo recently posted on the AskReddit sub wondering what “dark secret are you hiding from everyone?” and people spilled their guts all over the viral thread. We compiled the top answers in a list for you – let’s see what evils lie within.
1. This guy sucks
When I was a teenager, I worked at a novelty tourist shop near me. Being the idiot that I was, I stole a wad of cash from the store. It was $100 in ones. I told nobody, but they knew it was missing. Right about the same time, a coworker who was always trying to get me fired was telling someone she got about $100 in tips from her other job. They ended up firing her because they didn’t trust that it wasn’t her.
2. The plan
When I was 16, I conspired with a heroin addict I met online to help me off myself with heroin and dump my body in a dumpster in exchange for my valuables. I lived in a small town and he was in a bigger city where my school had an upcoming trip. We planned for me to slip away during the trip and meet up with him to do the deed. He chickened out last minute and ghosted me.
3. Evil neighbor
When I was young (probably around age 9 or 10) I was walking home with my dog from a house around the block when he cut the corner and walked diagonally through the yard of this super mean old lady who live at the end of your street. She was in her yard at the time tending to these really fancy-looking rose bushes she had growing in beds along the border with her neighbor. My Dog was a very friendly golden retriever who didn’t even really come near her and certainly didn’t do anything threatening, but she sprayed the fuck out of him with some kind of insecticide or other chemical she was using on her roses. I ran back home with the dog and hosed him off. He coughed a bunch, but seemed otherwise fine. I didn’t tell my parents because somehow I thought I was going to get into trouble for letting the dog walk in her yard. I’m glad I didn’t tell them, though, because I decided that night to sneak downstairs, out the half-bath window, and down the street to her yard where I cut down every goddamn rose bush I could get my hands on.
4. Let her go
When I was younger I lived with my grandmother. Not long after I turned 18 her health started to decline, that sort of decline that you know means she won’t be around for much longer. Over the months I did my best to take care of her. Getting her to the hospital when she needed, and other things. We had someone coming every day to help her with things I couldn’t. Well what my family doesn’t know is that the night she passed, I was in the living room watching TV. My dog was in bed with my grandma, and I started to hear him whimper, and bark. I knew what was happening, I knew that if I acted I could potentially save her. I didn’t want to watch her suffer anymore though, to watch her live with so much pain, and unable to do anything for herself any more. So I made the choice to let her pass before making any calls. She lived 92 years, and the only regret I have is that she passed a month after I would have graduated if I hadn’t been kicked out of school. She had been in good enough health at the time to go to my graduation. I still kick myself for how stupid I was back then.
5. IBS
I had an IBS attack once and had to violently shit in a church grounds behind someone’s car. Used underwear to wipe too and left that there. Not proud.
6. Accidents
My PTSD isn’t getting better. I have nightly nightmares of the industrial accident I was in. I see my coworker ripping his burnt face off every night. I no longer scream in my sleep because of it. I’m no longer terrified as much by it. Even though I know it’s not my fault I feel an enormous amount of guilt for what happened to him. Sometimes when I’m not sleeping I’ll hear the scream he made in the distance and it’ll make my blood feel like ice. Therapy hasn’t done much
7. Gave me up
I found my adoption papers a few years ago when I was looking for a copy of my birth certificate. I know my birth mom I just never had a relationship with her. My maternal grandmother took me in in 2002, I never knew she adopted me I just knew that one day I ended up living with her after telling her one day I don’t want to go back home lol . I also found the letter that my mom wrote as to why she was giving me up. That one really hurt.
8. The cruise
I was molested on a cruise ship by an employee when I was 8… happened about 30 years ago
9. Eating
I’ve struggled with disordered eating for atleast a decade. It ebbs and flows. I know it’s unhealthy, but the toxic part of me loves the feeling of being empty. Several years ago it was really bad. I was at my lowest weight ever, I had brain fog, difficulty breathing. When I started eating again my stomach would get really bloated even if I only ate a small amount.
10. He died
2 years ago one of my best friends and I went halfsies on a fuck ton of xanax. on june 8th we both took xanax from the batch we split, i woke up, he didn’t. no one knows i had anything to do with the drugs that killed him, and i don’t know if i can ever bring myself to tell someone
11. Murder house
My wife, her mom and I bought a house about two years ago, just from talking to the neighbors I’d gathered that the family who lived here before had a daughter that was mixed up with the wrong people, we had some random person knock on our door at night saying he needed gas (we are down a long driveway, no way you’d randomly walk up to OUR house to ask for help), I think he was looking for the people who used to live here, and then another time Sunday morning making pancakes for the family I get a knock on the door and it’s 4 sheriffs officers saying they received a 911 call that hung up and it was from the house, we don’t have a land line and I asured them my wife and 2 year old did not make any call, they mentioned a name of the previous occupants and I let them know we moved in earlier this year and they seemd ok with that and left.
Anyways I was doing some yard work and struck up conversation with the neighbor, he saw the police cars and asked what was up, I told him the situation and he just goes “oh yah that family was messed up, the cops were probably being cautious considering the shooting” what shooting I ask, he kinda looks at me with a sad worried face “the shooting in your house” wait what I say truly baffled, he then proceeds to tell me that about two years before the father in the house confronted his daughter and boyfriend he didn’t like and shot and killed the boyfriend in the house.
Our state doesn’t have a disclosure law so we never knew, I was blown away, all the strange happenings kinda made sense now, he said the freinds of the victim had kinda terrorized them for a while cause the police were taking so long to press charges, slashed tiers, midnight fireworks odd shit that the neighbors hated. I was shocked but just said “that’s crazy, but hey do me a favor and never tell my wife or MIL about that, they are a little spooked by things like that.” So the TRDL is that we live in a murder house and I’m the only one of my family that knows.
12. Missed the call
After my fiancé passed, I napped all the time for over a year. My aunt was calling me one day and I just denied her call, went back to napping. It was my aunt calling because my grandma (who was very sick with cancer) wanted to say happy birthday a day before my birthday. Grandma died the next day. I should have picked up the damn phone.
13. Half siblings
My brother and I did a 23 and me. We discovered we have a half sibling, same father, who is older than us. I messaged them but no reply. Since the half sibling is older, it was during my father’s military career (which was short lived because he got a dishonorable discharge that he hides from his family still)
14. The worst husband
I was married for 13 years to my best friend. We had what I thought was a great, easy marriage. One day our five yo daughter told me he was having her perform oral sex on him. I was shocked, devastated and afraid. He was one of those fun guys everyone loves to be around. I immediately called the police and he was arrest. When they started investigating him they found out that he had been arrested while in college for exposing himself to very young boys. He only got a slap on the wrist that time because he came from a very wealthy family. One of his uncles was Governor of the State we lived in. I was so ashamed I told our friends that he had an affair and moved away. But the truth was that he was in prison for five years. I picked up the pieces, sent our daughter to therapy and spent the next 15 years being a mother. Paying for private school, cool trips, etc. She was my life. Then when she went to college he reached out to her over Facebook. When I saw she was communicating with him I was shocked, devastated and afraid all over again. I called and told her that she was an adult but I thought she should be careful because he’s not safe. She hung up on me and has not spoken to me since. That was four years ago. I send her $40,000 a year still to pay for her medical school. It’s all been almost unbelievable. Thank you for allowing me to share it here.
15. Japan
My grandpa was stationed in Okinawa, Japan during the Korean war, while in the Marines. He hooked up with a woman there, and she got pregnant. So, I have a Japanese aunt and a few cousins, in Japan, whom I’ve never met before.
16. Assault
My cousin raped me when i was a kid and to this day i haven’t told anyone about it. It’s been probably around 25 years ago or so which makes me feel like it’s not worth addressing after so much time. I absolutely hated it when his mom asked me why i didn’t invite him to my wedding. I still don’t know how i should have responded to keep that a secret
17. Not married
My wife and I aren’t officially married. No one knows. We had a ceremony and everything, reception… the whole nine yards. We just never did the official paperwork. We realized that since she’s going back to school, it benefits her financially to go through financial aid as “single” rather than “married.” When she finishes up, we’re going to head over to town hall and finish the last step
18. Murderer
One of my closest co-workers, who is an integral part to our very large corporation killed a man in his late teens and threw the body in a lake. He only got off on a technicality. I work remotely so I don’t build a lot of personal relationships with people I work with regularly. I googled his full name. It freaked me out at first. But I’ve kinda gotten over it. I wonder if anyone else knows. It happened 40+ years ago. He will retire soon and then I might ask another co-worker about it. I just don’t want to stir the pot.
19. Death
Most people in my family think that my mother recently died suddenly from complications due to cancer, but she really died from the toxic effects of Oxycodone, Morphine, Fentanyl and Methampetamine.
20. Pipe
In middle school I made a smoking pipe out of copper pipe just for fun. I know you should not smoke out of copper as the fumes are potentially toxic. My step-dad took it from me and started using it. He smoked with it for years. I hated him for physically abusing me so I never said anything. It’s now 30 years later and he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s and likely only has a few years to live. I hope he rots in hell. I don’t know if it had any effect, but I like to think the copper pipe played a role in his sickness as karma for being an asshole.
