Basic Trope: A character has secrets or personal issues they don't want brought up, and it's best for the character that they're not brought up.
- Straight: Alice has a Dark and Troubled Past that she hasn't emotionally recovered from. She doesn't want it brought up, so none of her friends ask about it out of respect for her.
- Exaggerated: Nothing about Alice is known to her friend, including her entire childhood, home town, and former friends. When they ask her, she responds with "You don't need to know." They then nonchalantly drop the subject and it's never brought up again.
- Downplayed: Alice will mention broad strokes about a Noodle Incident, but otherwise keeps quiet about the finer details as they're "not important."
- Justified: The secret is really that traumatic, or personally affects that character's self-image or how their friends see them. Finding out about that secret could irreversibly damage their reputation or relationship, something that character desperately wants to avoid at all costs.
- Inverted: Alice wants everyone to air out all their baggage so they could all become closer as friend, and personally volunteers to go first.
- Subverted: Alice doesn't want her issues brought up among her friends. Bob says it's not right to force her too open up, but Alice later tells Bob about it in private, trusting him after showing that he has respect for her.
- Double Subverted: ...but it's not the full story, or the details are altered either for her own protection or because she can't bring herself to say them out loud.
- Averted: Bob asks Alice if it's okay to talk about, which Alice agrees and discloses some of the details.
- Invoked: Bob is hung up on Alice's secret, feeling like she doesn't trust him by not telling him, and is constantly badgering her to get her to tell him. The rest of Alice's friends tell him to leave her alone, but he continues to try and find out. Ultimately Bob finds out, and it completely alters how he sees Alice as a person. Infuriated at Bob, Alice breaks off their friendship and the rest of Alice's friends follow suit..
- Enforced: The executives issue a mandate to the authors, where Alice never reveals her Dark and Troubled Past for others so they can help her (and/or bring important information to their situation that can help solve the problem), as a handwave.
- Defied: Alice immediately supplies her entire life story to everybody she meets, including the deep and dark secrets and personal issues she is struggling with. If they say it's Too Much Information, too bad.
- Lampshaded:
- "Not knowing every personal issue about someone is not going to hurt you, you know?"
- "People often find it ridiculous about those who bottle up their problems, believing that they should just 'open up' and that'll solve everything. They make the issue seem very, very simple."
- "You gossipy freaking hen won't leave me alone until you know everything about me, right?"
- Exploited: The Big Bad tries to find out Alice's secret, hoping to exploit it.
- Implied: When someone asks Bob if he wants to know more about Alice, Bob flat out tells them no.
- Played For Drama: When all of Alice's friends find out her secret, her identity is forever changed. Ashamed, Alice breaks off all ties with her friends, unable to face them ever again.
Back to They're Called "Personal Issues" for a Reason.
