You laugh when expected. You nod when you disagree. You play the part everyone knows, while inside, you feel like a stranger to yourself.
This is the quiet exhaustion of pretending to be someone you are not, and more people live this way than will ever admit.
Pretending is often a survival skill. We learn as children that some parts of us are welcomed and others are not. We adjust, perform, and hide to gain love, safety, or acceptance.
Over time, the mask becomes automatic, until one day we cannot tell where it ends and where we begin.
Living behind a mask drains energy. Every interaction becomes work. You measure words, hide emotions, and suppress truths.
This creates an emotional gap between your inner world and your outer life, leaving you feeling lonely even in company.
The mask stays on because the fear of taking it off feels greater than the pain of wearing it. You fear rejection, conflict, or being misunderstood. You tell yourself it is safer to be liked for the mask than to be rejected for the truth.
But deep down, the silence suffocates.
You feel exhausted after social interactions. You replay conversations, worrying about whether you said the “right” thing. You rarely show your true emotions, and when you do, you quickly regret it.
These are signs that your outer life and inner self are not aligned.
Authenticity feels like standing naked in a crowded room. It exposes the parts of you that you have protected for so long.
Yet the cost of hiding forever is greater than the risk of being seen.
When no one knows the real you, intimacy becomes impossible. People may love the version of you they see, but deep down you know they do not love your truth. That knowledge breeds loneliness, no matter how many people surround you.
You deserve relationships where you can exhale fully. Where your truth is not just tolerated but welcomed. Where your story can exist without edits or performance.
Being real is not selfish. It is survival.
If you are not ready to remove the mask with others, that is okay. Taking it off takes courage, and courage builds slowly.
What matters is giving yourself at least one place where you do not have to pretend.
Pryve is that place. A space where you can admit, “I am tired of pretending,” without fear of judgment.
By practicing honesty here, you begin to reclaim the parts of yourself you have hidden. Slowly, the mask loosens.
Pretending may protect you in the short term, but over time it robs you of life. You deserve to be known, not just seen. Until you are ready to show your truth to the world,
Pryve will hold it safely for you.
Pryve is the one place you finally can.
Start with just one conversation
