"There seems to be a strong stigma about loneliness. Many people will admit to being depressed before they'll talk about being lonely. They fear being judged as unlikeable, a loser, or weird so they don't discuss their sense of aloneness, alienation, or exclusion."
More: Accepting Loneliness | Psychology Today

Many prepositional combinations using "to" are followed by gerunds
admit to Ving
More: TO V or not to V


admit to - Idioms - by the Free Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.


The verb admit is a gerund taker. But I think that admit to here is an idiom which means that it should be followed by the preposition to + –ing. Are admit to + -ing and admit + v. –ing interchangeable? I do mean if I want to use the latter instead of the former, does that affect the meaning?
Examples:
1. Many people will admit being …
2. Many people will admit to being …