Like others I told only close family and friends at first...but then I had more of an awakening and don't really cares who knows - I mean, it's why I'm on SSDI at an earlier age. And it is who I am, so this has been freeing even with some consequences.

BUT either way, it's often uncomfortable for all and yes, I'm regretting it at times, even losing a friend of 10 years almost immediately. When I worked and had 5 hospitalizations in 7 years, people were so nice - but AWFUL CURIOUS since the stays were long. So I just said it was stress (true) or tweaking my diabetes, which they seemed to accept. Find out and do whatever works for you. It may take testing the waters. It's just hard to predict how everyone are going to react.

As for the journey, I had some problems reckonciling past and present knowledge. I remind myself that a hallmark symptom of BP, however, is poor judgement and not having good self-awareness. So how can I blame myself for not catching my "bipolarness" along the way?