Embarassing illnesses

I really love the "time to talk" campaign, but I still find it really tough to do.  I find it very hard to admit to people I have depression.  It's a sign of weakness, and I don't do weakness in public.   But interesting things have been happening recently.  A couple of my friends mentioned that they were finding things tough, I told them about the depression.  Two things happened that I wasn't expecting, firstly I'd always suspected that they secretly knew what was going on, but just didn't want to say anything.  Turns out they were genuinely surprised, they just thought I was coping with everything.  Secondly me admitting my weaknesses seemed to be a catalyst for everyone else admitting they weren't coping.  They became better friends as a result.  I probably wasn't ready to share with them when I was at rock bottom, but sharing when I was on the way back up turned out to be a good thing.

But I'm not going to go mad on this sharing thing, I did a management course at work, and the one adjective everyone kept using about me was confident.  That wasn't expected, looks like the mask is still working when I need it.