I'm lucky - I haven't met with any stigma from those around me. My boss does worry that I might get too stressed and I guess some people think you're a little delicate. My biggest thing is that I don't know what to think of myself. I get confused. Sometimes it's like having an altered consciousness, but then I'll come back to sanity. No one else, excluding pdoc & T, seem to notice much because I hide my real state when things are bad. Guess that's something - it would be nice if I didn't have to fear that others would back away because I was too intense or just because they didn't know what to do. There isn't a lot of information out there about how to support people with mental illness on a casual basis - people get nervous and don't know how to respond even if they want to. Perhaps a simple, "I'm sorry, I don't know what I can do, but I wish I did" would be a start. Does this help?