I pulled out my old copy of On Lies, Secrets and Silence by Adrienne Rich; the binding is dry, cracked and worn at "Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying."
If I could, I'd post the entire piece here. Even decades later, her words are still powerful, piercing.
"In lying to others we end up lying to ourselves. we deny the importance of an event, or a person, and thus deprive ourselves of a part of our lives. Or we use one piece of the past or present to screen out another. Thus we lose faith even with our own lives." (p. 188)
When we are willing to share a previously buried or hidden truth with someone else, we shed a layer of false self and allow more of our true essence to be known. Some people have built up so many layers of false self that they feel heavy, weighted down; perhaps the false self and true self have become almost indistinguishable from one another.
Once you turn the corner toward truth, lies stick in your throat like strep, tender, inflamed, raw. Truth becomes the balm for your soul.