[melanie6291989]

I was diagnosed with bipolar when I was 19 and I'm 24 now. I'm on several medications and have been stable for about a year now. The biggest issue I'm dealing with now is the negative stigma attached to being bipolar. I'm afraid to tell people and even my own family says not to tell people...I was hoping to get some advice on how to deal with the negative stigma attached to being bipolar. Thanks!

[otroo]

I am 40 and I gave up caring what people think. It's not like I am at a social situation and go hi I'm Scott and I am bipolar. We are still normal people with some quirks lol. My good friends know I am bipolar and they don't care one bit. If you feel the need to tell people that you are bipolar go for it but you might need to educate some people as to what bipolar is so they don't go off the old school thought that you are crazy. Good luck.

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[BipolaRNurse]

You don't have to shout your diagnosis from the rooftops, but neither should you be ashamed of it. Just living your life, doing your thing, and not using your illness as an excuse for everything that goes wrong shows the world what a successful bipolar person looks like. You're not crazy, you're not a potential psycho killer, you are YOU...only with something a little extra that makes life interesting.

[BlackSheep79]

I finally told a few co-workers and I knew that it would get around and frankly didn't care anymore. There will always be idiots out there that will be judgmental because they don't have the common decency to pick up a book or look on the internet to learn about it before they open there big mouths. I did it because I always miss time at work and people are wondering what's going on. I was sick and tired of going to work for 10 hours and putting on the fake smile. I also did it because I was tired of the comments made about mental illness and would say "guess what I suffer from BP and OCD" and the room would get quite. It all depends on you and what you want to do because there will be negatives and positives to how ever you do it, it's what you can handle. One positive is that I have been able to educate others and people have came to me for advice or to talk because they have loved ones with the same illnesses. Take some serious consideration about this decision because it took me 20 years to tell people what was going on.