What if our outer self is not a mask, but another layer of truth? If that's true, then the outer self is what protects the inner self. But sometimes it will crack, and the inner self will be revealed. Many different things can bring on a change like that: an event, stress, self-reflection, etc. And afterwards, it can be hard to accept that people have many different layers.
What does one experience when that happens? Maybe there's joy, liberation, compassion, anguish, guilt, fear. It hurts when the public sees the self we didn't want to reveal. It hurts to be that vulnerable. But it hurts even more to discover something about yourself that you didn't want to know.