IS IT BETTER TO SHARE THAN TO KEEP?

One of my patients said the above as he was reflecting on how much he has benefited from attending alcoholics anonymous meetings. He felt that he had recieved a lot from others attending the meetings and had also gained a lot by sharing his story with others. I then said that I believed that it was not possible to worry about the past if you are sharing your life with others. My patient said that this seemed right to him and yet I wasn't sure about it. So, why would sharing our lives with others make worrying about the past impossible?

Maybe it is because if you are sharing with others you are listening to them without your own reactions and this allows you to feel connected to them and you are more likely to share with them as they listen to you. It could also be that listening is like sharing as you are sharing the othe person's life experience as you listen. So, maybe if we feel connected to others it is harder for us to worry about the past. If that it so, does it mean that we worry about the past because we feel isolated from each other and the worrying is our effort to feel connected to others? Yet worrying does not seem to actually connect us to others.

What do you think?