I love this 'rant' and can identify with every part of it, except for the friends part.....I have more than I know what to do with, and sometimes I feel terribly guilty because I tend to neglect them when I'm depressed, and they have to practically peel me off of them when I'm manic.

And because I'm one of those kind who basically defies the world to marginalize me, I will talk about bipolar openly. I don't walk up to someone like I'm at an AA meeting and go "Hi, I'm M____ and I'm bipolar", but I'm not afraid to discuss it at all. Most people are gracious, and even curious about what it's like to have this illness, and they ask all sorts of questions. I figure that the more they learn about it, the less likely they are to stigmatize the next mentally ill person they meet.