thanks for speaking up. you certainly are speaking the truth. i am the facilitator of a nami group. i volunteered to "run" the group because i wanted to have a support group in my area. so this woman came to the group that i liked very much. she was bipolar like me and another woman in the group. we had fun swapping bipolar stories. she commented how comfortable she felt because we had so much in common. she came back week after week. then one week i was upset with DID issues so i talked about that. i am new to DID and really frustrated about it. she was incredulous. she commented, dont you run this group? and it was like i was not allowed to be "so ill" and lead the meeting. bipolar was fine, but DID? she never came back again.

i think what it is is about education. some dx's are more common therefore more people are educated about them therefore they are less frightening. the less educated people are about an illness, the scarier it is for them.