Dating has never been an easy concept for me with my mental health; I go mute around people that I don’t know and have full trust with. That really makes meeting new people really difficult. But I have managed it in the past by getting to know someone just from talking for an extensive period of time online. Of course this isn’t always the easiest but oh well.. I have long ago accepted that despite having relationships, that with my disabilities there was a strong chance that I would never manage a long term relationship that could result in a lifelong situation. With my schizophrenia, its hard for me to plan anything too far in the future; I don’t know when something will happen that will trigger my hallucinations to spike and I have to take several steps backwards.

That’s not even touching on my physical health. With Fibro, I never know when I’m going to end up back to bed for a week or so; again its hard to plan. Even now that I am back to dating and its working well, I’ve had to call last minute changes for dates because I’ve been too tired and in too much pain that I wasn’t capable to do the drive that we had originally organised. But thankfully I have found a wonderful man that is happy to adapt to last minute changes and come to me when I’m not able to drive.

When you don’t accept elements about yourself, its close to impossible to ever see how someone is going accept them. I can be unpredictable, I can be hard work, and I can need extra supervision and assistance. These are a lot to take on for someone my age, its a lot of responsibility and I cant be that girl that will drop everything to go on a date; I might be too ill most of the time, and if I’m not then my mental health restricts what I can do.

But finally, this is starting to look up for me. I got back into the dating game and have found a man, that at least for now, is happy to deal with my troubles. That’s all I could ask, is for them to give me a chance.

Do you find your health causes issues for you when it comes to dating?