here in america we have privacy laws, that means no one .....has .....to tell anyone that they have mental disorders. how this relates to me and my friends... i do not tell them I have any mental illnesses. its none of their business. it doesnt matter if I have known them a short time or a life time or just meeting them... I think of my personal information like this as being the equivalent of I would not discuss my sexual preferences with my friends why would I discuss my mental illnesses with my friends. friendship doesnt depend upon whether someone is mentally ill or not, it depends on what each other likes to do together, common grounds, liking or caring about that person, its not about whether my friends have depression or anxiety or bipolar or schizophrenia and so on and so forth. what matters is with this friend we enjoy talking about our favorite movies, going to movies.... with that friend we enjoy going shopping together and talking about our children, having play dates with our children....

also in my location the police and other enforcement type agencies teach in schools and community agencies not to share that kind of information or any other information that may lead one open to hate crimes, cyber crimes and other crimes. theres nothing wrong with sharing that information just that friendships come and go and you dont know how the other person is going to use that kind of personal information if they get angry with you. you would be surprised at how childish and vindictive adults can be when friendships fall apart (just read facebook and you see lots of garbage/ drama of friendships gone wrong after short and long term where one or the other uses what they know about that persons personal information against them job wise, friendship wise, cyber wise and.... well you get the picture.)

here in america physical and mental health issues fall under ones privacy\ personal information. its even illegal for ones employer to ask whether those working for them or looking for a job have any kind of physical or mental health problems.