When you learn something about yourself...

Does it bother you?

Does the truth change you?

Would it change your friends, too?

Would they be willing to come after you?

Comments

[Sunnydaze]

Would you even want them to?

[Tyek]

The truth will set you free but first it will piss you off.

[Unknown-Brony]

The truth is never nice, but it's healty

[Karach]

I guess it depends on the magnitude of what you learn. A true friend, however, will stay on your side regardless of what you discovered.
Actually, such deep changes may be a great (if painful) way to filter out people who aren't your real friends.

[sum41stoner]

271314
What this dude said

[supernova708]

(this is on an average from my experience)
yes, sometimes, no, depends what it is

[Meowy]

Ah reckon there's nothin' better in the world than the honest truth

[J. Finch]

In my life I've come to find that friends are akin to the waxing and waning of the tides. They come and go, change, shift, switch and tumble. They aren't set in stone, but rather, tend to be fluid, flexible, and capable of both blind, abject cruelty and unparalleled kindness. Moving away from the philosophy, though... that depends. Sometimes we need to be alone to work our way through things, before we go out and see what the rest of the world has to say about it. Ultimately you need to be strong enough to deal with things yourself first, because in the end that's the only person who truly understands what's going on. In my long years I've come to find that most friends are just acquaintances with a bit more investment, and that you only really have a few genuine people you can rely upon.

As to the question of truth? Well, a lot of people think honesty is the best policy, but men and nations are built on lies and deceptions. The truth can hurt, and while there is some level of catharsis to it, it often can and does make things worse as opposed to better. Unfettered truth is like wildfire, brutal, painful and easy to lose control of in the heat of the moment. Without restraint it can destroy even the most solid of structures and leave a wasteland behind it. Restraint, understanding, and a willingness to both know and face the consequences are needed before you let truth out of the box, and even then it might be better to let it out gradually as opposed to all at once, because truth is as much a drug as it is a bandage sometimes, and it's easy to make mistakes when you're riding that high.

When you get right down to it though, speaking from the self and of the self, you change, your friends change, life is change and it's chaos at the best of times. If you don't like something you find out about yourself, change it, and if you do, accept it. It's your choice, because in truth, when it comes to people, there is no truth, not in the ultimate sense. We aren't rocks, and we aren't bound by something so simple as a definite truth, because there isn't one, and even if there was, we're too damn complex to accept it.

What this question seems to be boiling down to is, as I see it, fear. Fear of the self, of the whole and of the many. Fear of your friends' opinions or thoughts about you, fear of the unknown, of the idea of being a different person than who you are, fear of losing the people you've come to know and care about, all of it. Fear is a powerful, almost debilitating factor in these kinds of things, but when you look at it, is it really something to be feared? Is any of it? We seek the approval of our peers, our friends, our families, but all of that is wholly irrelevant if you don't approve of yourself. If you just want to know who would support you, well, if you think about it, you probably could figure out which friends wouldn't abandon you. As for the rest? Hell, do they even need to know? One trusted friend supporting you is worth fifty groupies, and all that.

Anyway, enough 7 am rambling out of me. Good luck with your questions and I hope you find some answers.

Peace.

[DJ DASH3R]

If you change, and you friend is truly your friend, they will stay by your side.

If they do not stick with you through the good and the bad times, They are not worthy of you calling them friend.