Laura, you are courageous for disclosing your mental illness. Possibly because I grew up in a dysfunctional family and encountered mental illness in family members from a very early age, I don't believe I've ever been all that uncomfortable with being telling people I suffer from depression. But bipolar "disorder" gave me an awful fright when I began to seriously consider that I may be "suffering" from it. Whether or not I fall within the bipolar spectrum or not I still don't know, but I believe I'll be prepared if I ever receive the diagnosis.

Part of the reason I believe I'm more comfortable with it now is due to the candidness of writers and authors such as yourself. About ten years ago I began reading a blog written by a young woman who was quite candid about her mental illness. Sometimes I wondered if she ever worried how her writing might affect her writing career, but she wrote beautifully -- much similar to what you're doing -- and though I must admit haven't read her blog in a long time I check in once in awhile and it seems she's succeeded quite well. I have a hunch her honest blogging has even helped her in her career.

If you ever want to check that blog out it's at http://annecentral.blogspot.com.

I've long been honest in my own writing but it wasn't until relatively recently that I began to allow myself to speak more about my own mental illness. I've even changed the name of my blog to Unstable Mind. I've blogged under my own name but sometimes I fear the potential consequences of putting myself (and the problems I face with my  own mental illness) out there. Just yesterday, in fact, I removed my name from the blog and even changed the email address it's associated with. This may seem cowardly but I'm trying to land a job I really want and don't want any Google searches to bring up something that might discourage an employer to hire me.

Then again, if an employer is that ignorant about depression, perhaps it would be best for me not to work for them.

There are some good books -- some of them great -- that have provided me with some consolation on this matter. One of those books was Manic: A Memoir, a relatively recent book written by Terri Cheney, a very successful Hollywood attorney. 
An older book, Darkness Visible A Memoir of Madness, was written by William Styron was a Pulitzer prizewinning author. A book that is considered a classic by many (though if recall correctly, I haven't finished reading yet) is  Kay Redfield Jamison's An Unquiet Mind; Jamison is a UCLA psychologist who has treated and written about bipolar disorder and inflicted with the disorder herself.

I hesitate to use these words "disorder" and "inflicted" and "suffering" because, though most will certainly agree that bipolar certainly seems like a disorder when they're in the depths of despair and may find it insulting for anyone to say they are not suffering, there are, in some cases, some benefits to being uniquely affected by bipolar. No, I'm serious. A recent book I read, authored by one of the earliest and most influential proponents of lithium, Dr. Ronald R. Fieve, filled me with such joy because it seemed to describe my experiences with depression. The book is called Bipolar Breakthrough: The Essential Guide to Going Beyond Moodswings to Harness Your Highs, Escape the Cycles of Recurrent Depression, and Thrive with Bipolar II.