Posted above before seeing this. Perhaps this was the answer to my last question, then. That friends are more valuable than me expressing my internal thoughts.

I'll have to reflect on that. I'm still inclined to disagree, but moreso because we might not be agreeing on definitions. For example, I might look at "telling the truth" and see how were I to be compelled to tell every fat person they were fat or every person I found ugly that they were ugly, that this would be quite undesirable and increase my overall social dissatisfaction.

But I'm looking for suggestions about telling the truth about myself. More on that in a sec.

Similarly, how are you defining "friend"? People to spend time with and who share common interests? I think that's fair, but what if I added in the clause that a friend should "accept me for who I am"? I'm not saying that you need to accept this definition, but you can see how the advice might change were such a clause included.

In other words, to withhold the truth about myself from others in order to preserve friends seems to reduce to acting like someone else because were my true self to be revealed, I would have no friends.

But, quite possibly, the very definition of a friend is one who knows who you are and sticks around. So... it's kind of a catch 22. Keep "people-to-spend-time-with" by not "telling the truth"... or "tell the truth" and keep a lesser number of "people who accept who I am"?

In the end, I would absolutely agree that I need friends... but we might be disagreeing about what "type" of such "friend entities" will be most rewarding.