Don't conflate shame and discomfort. Shame is a social function and the advice is to acknowledge a common problem that is not individually isolated. Your own he

Don't conflate shame and discomfort. Shame is a social function and the advice is to acknowledge a common problem that is not individually isolated. Your own health, not just secondary responsibility should be the primary driving factor. You need encouragement to overcome an addiction. In effect, you should solve the issue as soon as possible so you wont have a reason to feel ashamed, but since its a long process you shouldn't be surprised if someone takes the chance for an insult, which ideally should only reinforce the idea and give you a chance to share your insights instead of hiding the issue. Edit: "shame" comes from Proto-Germanic skamō, from Proto-Indo-European ḱem- (“cover, shroud”). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shame#Etymology_1 https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shame#Etymology_1