Changing personality, people's reactions

This was hard to summarize in the topic title, but anyway I would like some input here.

For some reason I had this period between around 2003-2007 when I felt depressed (I guess part of that was because my parents had divorced in 2001).
I really have no idea what happened to me during those years, but I was basically really insecure and sensitive and I could hardly spend time with people without feeling miserable and “left out” (which mostly was my own fault since I always isolated myself), and I often looked very bitter.
Thank God I got over it sometime in 2009, and I have recovered completely by now.
However…

The problem is, I live in a super-small village (2000 people and pretty far from any city) where most people are more or less familiar with each other and where it’s really easy to get a “label”, and I sometimes get the impression that certain people have problems accepting that I am very relaxed and confident nowadays.
Certain people can look pretty intimidated around me and act almost as if they are afraid of me or something, but I have no idea why - I am generally considered a very nice and friendly person, perhaps not very talkative at all times but I have no problems relaxing around people anymore.
Several people have supported me and welcomed that I’m happy and confident nowadays (I have also got some new friends as well), but other people almost seem to wanna push me back into an insecure role just because that’s what they have gotten used to, usually by simply acting exactly as if I were still insecure (doesn’t seem to matter which mood I am in myself, they still seem to be on their guard and refuse to relax - the say hello to me when they meet me and everything, but they often look kind of shy and a little tense).
This is certainly nothing that affects my life quality in any notable way, but I still think it’s a little regrettable.
Should I just ignore it or should I try to convince them that I indeed have changed, and give them time to realize it?

I mean I can understand if some people still assume that I’m insecure (I was like that for five years, after all), but still…

I think it’s all in your head. If you have changed i’m sure that people around you understand it.
I used to live in a smaller village (500 guys) and i noticed that everybody in that village knows every “heard” or small “rumour”. So my advice is to get out your head of this and just let it go !