I've probably interviewed more than 1000 people in the tech industry over the course of 25 years. Some of those interviews were conducted while I was a CTO, a c

I've probably interviewed more than 1000 people in the tech industry over the course of 25 years. Some of those interviews were conducted while I was a CTO, a cofounder, or high level exec within a company. Here are some things that might be comforting for you to hear. They're from my perspective only, so bear that in mind: I've never seen a "don't hire this person" list, or anything remotely equivalent. The only way I'd know about a candidate's reputation is if I either knew that candidate personally, or through a friend already, or if you told me you had one. I've never once asked someone about mental health, just like I haven't asked about age, gender, religion, if they have kids, if they're married, who they want to love, where they grew up, etc. Knowing about someone's mental health isn't relevant to the interview process - at least not for the roles I hire. Even if I knew, I wouldn't disqualify someone due to mental health challenges. Everyone experiences those challenges, either directly or indirectly. It's part of being a human being living in a community of other human beings. It's also illegal in a lot of states/countries to disqualify a candidate because of previous, current, or predicted mental health struggles. Reading your answers to other comments, here's what I'd recommend: You don't need to qualify or describe why you have any gaps in employment. If someone asks, it's because they're wanting to determine if you have gaps because you weren't, in their minds, hirable. It's faulty logic, but it's likely why they ask. If asked you can simply say: "I took a break." If prodded for more details as to why, you can stop the prodding with "I wanted to focus on my health." Any interviewer should know that's a dead end. They cannot dig deeper. They have to move on. If they don't and decide to pry still you can simply say "look, I'm aware that you feel it's important, but it's not, and it might also be illegal to ask. Can we move on?" If that doesn't give them the hint, you don't want to work there.