I get so guilty if I say something and it wasn’t completely the truth and I feel so sick and I often confess it and then it makes things worse for the other person. My therapist wants me to do exposure therapy by telling white lies, and it’s killing me. I can barely look my wife in the eye because I feel like I lied to her and it’s such a burden for me to carry and I feel disconnected from her.
I can understand this, I often feel as though I owe people the courtesy of explaining everything that’s going on in my mind. The thing is you don’t though. While you think it makes the situation better because you’re being such a good person, the reality is you’d probably just confuse the living daylights out of the other person. When I’m struggling I just say “I’m feeling very anxious right now, and I’m using the tools I’ve learned to deal with it” and leave it at that.