So most of my closest people already knew because they were involved at my intake into inpatient. My parents told all of my family because they weren't thinking about stigma so much as the fact that I was sick...they saw it as any other illness.

After a year beyond inpatient I had a party with four kinds of fruitcake at work...my coworkers are the ones who helped me get help. We happened to have some new interns so I had to explain why I had brought the fruitcake into work...oh and the rumors are true fruitcake is disgusting but worth it for the irony. I just casually told them the outline of my story you know this is my dx, I was sick a year ago people helped me and now I'm a year into recovery.

It's actually much harder telling people who matter though. My best friend I met after my initial dx and didn't tell her until after about 9 months. It was just an opportune moment in conversation and I mentioned that I sometimes heard voices and that I had a pdoc etc. I can't remember the specifics but she told me her mom was schizophrenic and her dad was bipolar and that made me trust her more although also to feel sorry for her(she got taken away from them by the state). Anyway she knew what I was talking about and how difficult it is to deal with and accepted me anyway. So I tend to keep things casual an have only had good responses from people who I care about. I imagine its much harder for people who have had poor reactions.