Are you truly yourself around other people or do you just act like “yourself”? Do you create a persona of how you want others to see you and wear that persona like a costume whenever you go out? Do you find yourself acting how you think you should based on how others see you instead of acting based on how you feel? If so, it’s perfectly understandable. To put yourself out there, to wear your true face, is to risk being rejected. Wearing the persona provides a degree of protection; it hurts less if others reject the persona instead of rejecting you.
Your persona may be largely based on you. Certain aspects of your personality, things you do whether you’re around other people or by yourself, subjects you’re interested in, etc. In this case, the persona is less of a disguise and more of a covering which reveals select parts of you while keeping others hidden. Most people probably have this kind of persona rather than one which is completely fabricated and contains no aspects of themselves.
However, even if your persona is not far off from you and you didn’t intend to create it or use it, how do you talk to anyone about this? If you’ve been unintentionally hiding behind a persona around other people, then the thought of revealing your true self feels strange, as if you’ve been dishonest without meaning to do so. This isn’t typically taught in schools, at home, or anywhere else in life, so there aren’t many resources out there about how to effectively have this conversation.
What do you do about revealing aspects of yourself that you normally keep hidden? If you are known for being funny and upbeat, do you keep acting that way even when you feel down or do you let your true feelings show? Maybe you’re always there for others when they need help; when you need help, do you ask for it, keep helping others even if you’re secretly hurting, or stay quiet and try to help yourself? It should be easy to open up to friends and be vulnerable around them, but actually doing so is difficult, especially if you haven’t done it before. I wish I had easy answers for these questions and issues but I don’t. I don’t have any kind of answers here. If you have some, I’d love to hear them.