I work in a small-ish (around 60 employees) workplace in a small Bible belt town. My husband has suffered from severe mental illness for the past 3-4 years which was finally (correctly imo) diagnosed as schizoaffective and bipolar. He was given new meds which have helped but also made him dizzy. He fell and hurt his back and has had to miss a fair amount of work. 

I know that missing work a lot (and he has a lot over the past couple of years) isn't good but he honestly tries his best to come as much as he can. He has informed everyone of his mental illness (even if it wasn't their business, he felt it was best to be honest and direct, hopefully an example that mental illness isn't something to feel shame about) and has more than ample medical documentation which has been given to our boss. In my opinion, his status regarding attendance and his health is the business of nobody but him, our boss, and his doctor. 

I suffer from mental health issues too, always have, but have trouble getting help for it (lack of access, the few offices taking patients only have very funky hours where I'd have to  miss work and I'm the only person steadily working now so that's a no-go, etc). I admitted to a work friend who I've been close to for a number of years that sometimes during my work break I'll go on the suicide hotline chat and talk some things through. In addition, someone decided to snoop around my husband's things while he wasn't here and found a joke/meme that said something about "Why am I still alive? There's no money and I'm not even having fun" or something like that. That person proceeded to tell EVERYONE, even the young teenagers we work with, that he had suicide notes in his desk and all this bullshit. When my husband returned to work, he was furious and I had to spend days trying to calm him down. He wrote a very professional but firm reprimand of the person who ran their mouth (cc'd the boss) to say if they have issues with anything they see among his belongings that they should talk to him or the boss, nobody else. I'm still dealing with the emotional labor of this, as his condition makes him fixate on things, particularly 'wrongdoings' and stuff, and he yelled at me for over an hour yesterday over a netflix selection, for example. That kind of shit. So yeah, this shit directly makes my life and health worse.

I told this to my close friend and she knew about the whole thing and justified it by saying it's clear he needs help, etc. Well fuck yeah, the sky is blue and we live on Earth. He's under the care of a psychologist (or whichever one can write scripts for meds, I always mix them up). I told her that I do understand that it would cause concern, it was not that person's place to say a word to anyone besides our boss and/or me as his spouse. NOT to spread it around the building and tell everyone, including young people who have enough problems of their own, who have no place hearing things like that. I told my 'friend' this and that under no circumstance was it appropriate to A--snoop through his things or B--tell the entire building when 1-2 people would be more than appropriate. She then brings up that she was about to go to our boss about me telling her that I use crisis/suicide hotlines and chats on occasion in lieu of the actual treatment I really need but bypass in order to better support my husband. 

I feel very betrayed. We'd both talked about struggling with depression and infertility, which we both suffer from. While I understand that what I said could cause concern, it makes me feel like I lost my last friend in the building. I can't trust a fucking person in the world except myself. And it's fucking lonely. 

Fuck people. Fuck people who act like they want to help when they just want to spread gossip and start shit. Fuck this whole fucking place. 

And yes, I'm looking for new jobs.