I made the mistake of confiding in a very close friend recently shortly after I was diagnosed. I thought she would understand because her sister is an undiagnosed but classic BP I and I thought she would not be threatened by it because I am BP II, fairly mild (at least in the symptoms I'm not able to internalize and hide), and would not be likely to treat her like her sister does. Also I've known her for more than 10 years and been close for most of that.

At first she tried to convince me I didn't have it. Then when she "got it" she started monitoring me, checking in with me several times a day. Would not believe when I said I was ok and would tell her if I needed help. I was just lonely in the diagnosis and wanted to talk to someone in person who (I thought) would understand.

Now she's distancing herself. I feel like I should have known better than to trust another non-bipolar person with this information. Everyone on here is great. But I do long to look someone in the eye who really gets it (other than my pdoc) and have a conversation about the mutual challenges we're facing. It's not fair that it's this stigmatized and isolating.