I have been apprehensive about sharing some aspects of my life with even the closest of my friends. 

Perhaps it was driven by a sense of anxiety as to how that would impact their perception of me. Perhaps I was anxious about the reaction I'd have.

Whatever it was, it was certainly a lot easier to just keep things to myself and pretend like they didn't exist.

However, when I did share it, the reaction was overwhelmingly one of warmth. 

Not universally. Of course, there was coldness in some reaction. But, it was largely one of warmth.

If the tables were reversed, I'm not particularly sure where my own reaction would lie on the cold-warmth section. (Though I'd like to think there has been some evidence in the past that it's more on the warmth side.)

Where we lie on the spectrum is purely our choice.

Choose warmth, as the default reaction most people expect is coldness.