I'm not giving advice or trying to disrespect anyone, just giving my own personal experience and beliefs. Every situation is different. I work for a huge corporation and worked 6 years, left to finish school, couldn't find a job and came back as a temp. In between that time I was finally diagnosed. Well I came back as a temp. And would miss a lot of work and was afraid of losing my job so I brought a doctor slip to my boss. I made the decision to tell him. He made it sound as though in his personal life, like a loved one, that he understood what I was going thru. He was very supportive and still is. So anyway I was hired in and went on intermittent FMLA and I am on med leave at least once a year. I have been there for 4 years now. I finally started to tell people and I didn't really care anymore. I was sick of the looks when I would get back from being gone and decided I'm sick of being fake to the world. I knew there would be people that would not understand, and I made the decision that I was ok with that. I felt that I could help others that we're going thru mental illness or if they had loved ones. Just last weekend I took a co-workers/friends daughter out for the day and then talked to her because she has been diagnosed with a mood disorder and has been cutting and messing with pills. This was exactly what I went thru at that age and I was able to connect to her and help her. I have also given her mom advice. How can we break the stigma if we don't talk about it? I have put my job on the line by making this decision. I have a masters degree and my goal is to work my way up thru the company. If it doesn't happen then oh well, at least I have helped others understand the illness that we experience. This is definitely a choice and I want to make that very clear. It's just that I have made a choice that most wouldn't, but I have also had all three of my supervisors support and a lot of support from my co-workers., more than I thought. Just a month ago I was on med-leave and received a card in the mail from my co-workers and it made me cry because I knew that they truly cared about me and what I was going thru. Again, I hope I didn't upset anyone that was not my purpose.