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We've all kept secrets in our lifetime. Some of those can remain wrapped up in years. Others are out in the open in hours.
All in all, secrets are really difficult to keep - no matter how hard we try.
New research has now found that keeping a secret isn't great for your mental well being.
A study published on PsycNEThas found that concealing a secret can increase an individuals anxiety and is a draining influence on the mind.
A team at Columbia University surveyed 600 participants and found that 96 percent currently had a secret, mostly of a romantic nature.
From there they asked them, in the space of the last month, how often they were having to hide the secret or how frequently they were thinking about it.
The latter, mind-wandering, was found to be twice and it was the reason that caused the most damage.
The result was the same amongst random tourists that the team spoke to in New York City.
This would suggest that it is not necessarily the nature or the content of the secret but more how the mind reflects on the information which has an effect.
Further analysis found that poor wellbeing had less to do with the secrets importance but the repetitive nature of keeping it in your head, instead of telling anyone.
In an interesting turn, the researchers asked 186 people how constantly reflecting on a negative life event, that was public knowledge, mentally effected them.
Although the negative event group admitted that the experience was unpleasant it was still the secret group that had a worse sense of wellbeing and weakened authenticity.
The research concludes that having people think about secrets can further the study on the subject, with the hope that they can develop a way top help people deal with secrets in the future.
Therefore, heed the advice of Cumberbatch...
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