I absolutely agree with everyone here so far. It is a given that some (often many) judge those with mental illness, and as Fern wrote, judge people in many ways for many things (both cruelly/ignorantly or naturally). It's sad, but a given in this world. Any idealistic notion that all people are nice, or all accepting, is quickly lost in early childhood, I believe. That's not to say that we should just be depressed about that, though. Acceptance is necessary, but rising above it, is too.

I've surely had bipolar disorder symptoms since the early age of 14 or 15. My bipolar behavior (mostly hypomania/mania) certainly brought on judgement from others. It definitely hurt! How I dealt with that growing older was to figuratively "build a callus" or create a "Teflon coating". It certainly worked to some degrees. I would have myself convinced, most of the time, that it did. But, that pain still seeps through. I sometimes didn't realize that until I exploded from it.

Some of my bipolar behavior was worthy of scrutiny. Too often I told myself "Who cares what they think!" or that I was justified in doing this or that. Manic/hypomanic grandiosity certainly doesn't help because I'd often convince myself that others mistreated me because of jealousy, or that THEY were flawed. Elation and impulsivity combined with that often prevented me from even wanting to change bipolar behavior. I had to hit a bottom to finally see the reality of it all.

When I hit my "bottom", I had a severe depression. The severest of my life. It took a while to heal. It took a bit of time to even find myself afterwards. There was a lot of me that was always the same. And some that was new...and actually much better. Of course I know my flaws, as I know others' flaws. I forgive some and strive to help rectify others.

I'd like to say that all of us have so many admirable features. The whole journey of recovery, discovery, constant work and rework, falling down again and again, and getting back up, again and again, makes us all AMAZING! I hope that knowing that we a so strong, in so many ways, helps build self-esteem. When you have self-esteem, unfair judgement means less and less.