I have slowly, over probably the past couple of years, been more and more open about the fact that I am legitimately certifiable in various ways. I worked as an administrator on a peer to peer mental health site and began putting it on my resume consistently, I would correct people and explain to them why and how I knew about mental health issues. Then about six or eight months ago I just decided it was so exhausting to keep dividing up my life into all these partitions.

And it wasn't even because I had some sort of shame I was carrying around. I don't use my mental health issues as any kind of excuse for anything I do, or use them to protect me from owning personal responsibility,so I am not ashamed. They don't make me a bad person.

I realized when I hid these things about me, it was really only so everyone else wasn't made uncomfortable.

So I just made massive post and note on Facebook which included all my friends, acquaintances, friends' parents, parents' friends, and just spelled it out: I'm crazy, this is how it is, this is what my life is like, if you have a problem with it, that's your problem.

Generally I got very supportive feedback.

And the less you apologize for things that need no apology, the easier it becomes. You won't always get a positive response. Sometimes people are mean or ignorant. But that gets easier to work with. And I'm not saying that shouting it from the rooftops is always a great strategy for everyone, but as Theodor Seuss Geisel (supposedly) once said:

"Those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."