If you have time, would you mind copying your post and posting it in the fibro / CFS forum ?
http://www.medhelp.org/forums/show/44?personal_page_id=216197
A lot of members in the forum have been discussing disability issues. We would love to have you in the community !
everyone on this forum has a disability of some sort , as for diclosing it here I hope you will recieve nothing but support, the real world is cruel , people can be iggnorant, and not understand,so as for disclosing personal stuff I wait till I feel the person out.
IMHO its part of the whole 'right to know' versus 'right to privacy' debate. You have a right to privacy by virtue of the stigma attached to the disorder
If I were to go around this small town and anounce "bipolar, ADD, dyslexia." People would raise their eyebrows, look at each other and nod. "I thought so". Maybe you've heard me say this but I asked my therapist once why people sympathetically ask you if you're depressed but whisper accusations begind your back that you are bipolar. I personally know a woman in town who is almost a street peson and who is also bipolar. If I were to tell people that I am too I would be stigmatized further than I already am and delegated to her fate (which may yet be mine). I have only told my adult children, my mother and siblings, my boyfriend, and 2 of my very closest friends. I think when or what we tell depends on our condition. I had no compunctions about telling anyone I was ADD.