I wanted to continue in the vein of the second-to-last blog entry. I had gotten carried away with a side project and took a detour with the last blog.

The fact is that when you find the place where you belong disclosure is not relevant.

Years ago I bought in a housewares store a set of eight dessert plates with witty messages in the form of fortune cookies.

One of the fortune cookie messages on the dessert plate reads:

“You think it’s a secret but it’s not.”

That’s how it goes with disclosure in the workplace. A former therapist told me once: “Are you kidding yourself? They know.” He was talking about coworkers.

A guy who is a literary mentor and a life mentor to me has died. He is Gil Fagiani. In the Left of the Dial blog I offered a tribute to him. He wrote a book review for the back cover of my memoir.

It’s no secret that Gil was in recovery from heroin addiction. He was interviewed about this in the New York Times. He didn’t keep this a secret.

Wanting to honor Gil’s legacy I’ve become emboldened about telling my story to others.

This mentor was a kind and compassionate politically progressive individual.

His life was a testament to speaking out and doing the right thing to help others.

You might think that a person with an addiction wouldn’t be so vocal about talking about his past. Yet the fact that he did just this–tell everyone his story– uplifts and inspires me to no end.

It’s why I’m confident that when you find the place where you belong–where you’re supposed to live and work in the world–disclosure is not relevant.

I still think it’s dice-y to disclose your mental health diagnosis on the job. Yet chances are when you find the career where you belong there’s no need to disclose at all.

This is because you’re accepted for who you are and what you bring to the table as an employee. If your job is an ill fit with your personality it’s going to be that much harder to succeed.

Which is how I jumped into writing about archetypes in the last blog entry. And I’m going to write in the next blog entry about archetypes and sacred contracts in detail.

In here today I simply want to reinforce that if you feel like you don’t belong somewhere you can find the place where you belong.

In Gil’s memory I’ve decided to put the diagnosis on the table.

I choose not to care if other people will harbor stigma against me.

I urge you to take a tip from this mentor of mine: be not ashamed to have a mental health issue.

Chances are wherever you’re employed you’re not going to be the only one with a diagnosis.