Appendix E- Example of self-disclosure

Appendix E

Example of Self-disclosure

When forming my current relationships and friendships with others self-disclosure was a very important factor. For me this was for two reasons. Firstly, I am a very open person; I tell everyone and anyone everything about me, and it doesn’t bother me to tell all. Though, it does tend to bother me if I disclose information about myself to someone I consider a friend and then she or he discloses nothing about themselves. To me this comes across as a sign that they don’t trust me or don’t like me enough to share their thoughts and information about themselves. Luckily, most of my friends are similar to me and are very open people.

A second reason that self-disclosure is important to me is that it shows that the person isn’t afraid to commit to a relationship or friendship. Obviously, this is an important factor if you want to pursue a friendship with someone; you need to know they are committed too, to avoid wasting time and energy on a relationship that will go nowhere.

One example of self-disclosure from my everyday life occurred only a few months ago. I discovered that one of my close friends had lied about a lot of the information she had disclosed to me. Amongst other things she had lied about how her mother had died, why her boyfriend broke up with her and even where she had moved to Canberra from. While I felt sorry for her that she felt the need to lie to me, I couldn’t help but feel betrayed. I felt like she had made me disclose information about myself while never actually disclosing any real information in return. Needless to say, the friendship didn’t last very long.