Where does the impulse to "sweep it under the rug" come from? Is this a helpful impulse?

We’ve got a lot of issues to deal with, and yet, so many people seem to prefer to hide the problems rather than try to work openly to understand them. Of course, part of this is shame. So many people don’t want to admit to having problems at all. I guess they believe others will look down on them for these problems. Or that it is inviting criticism. Society can be so judgmental.

So many forbidden topics—suicide, mental illness in general, other kinds of illness, family relationships, money, and on and on. Does it make sense to hide away from these problems or to deal with them in private? Would we do better if we openly admitted what was happening, and try to destigmatize the problems?

So many societies do stigmatize problems. In Asian cultures, as a broad generalization, hardly anyone admits to mental illness. It is far too shameful. Does shame work? Is there a good reason to hide these things? Or would being more open about them help us understand and cope with them better?