You feel if you expose your scars to the light you make yourself vulnerable to whatever backlash you imagine may result. You feel so fractured you just know the smallest thing will shatter you or, at best, weaken you even further–but it is the opposite. Your scars and your fears are monsters wrapped around your soul, which thrive on darkness, corrupting you from the core. Exposing them to the light is how you defeat them. Getting them out vaporizes them, and free of their grip, your soul finally has a chance to heal. And you will heal and become strong again.
It's like, when you harbor something—whether envy, or resentment, or terrible feelings born of terrible circumstances—it is inside of you, a part of you. That is what harboring means, letting a foreign object be a part of your collective whole. We do ourselves so much harm by holding onto the black bile inside of us. Harbor only good things that make you better.
It does need to be jettisoned, but you do need to pick a safe place to unload it though. These forums may or may not be that place.