Dating and Mental Illness

Yes, mental illness... I said the bad word.  I can see people literally running away as I type. 

And you know what I say - GET OVER IT!  And now, lets get on with it.

So, dating with mental illness.  I'm not talking about some crazy disease, and I use the word disease loosely - when I think of disease, I think of something you are slowly dying from - mental illness, is something you are living with.  God, I sound like a freaking after school feel good special.  What I'm really talking about here is the every day, mental illnesses - you know, the ones we lump over the big umbrella of depression and anxiety issues.  Got it?  OK, good - lets move on.

I will disclose, I was diagnosed with both depression and anxiety issues in college.  It doesn't bother me to "talk" about it.  I'm open with it.  It took me awhile to accept it - it's got such a crappy stigma (more on that later), but once I did - I got my talk therapy (thanks Pine Rest - yes, I went to an OUT patient clinic that REALLY sounded like a mental institution!), and my meds.  I was with a drug pushing psychiatrists at first - he had me on 9 pills a day - I shook uncontrollably like I really had some major issues.  I actually sat in a college classroom once and had the professor ask me in the middle of class if I was ok.  Yes, I was shaking that badly...  But now, I'm down to one med a day, and I'm fine - no one would know I had issues if I didn't tell them, but I'm not ashamed...

If only...

So, dating... I'm not really one to keep secrets (as if you couldn't tell) and I like to be full disclosure when it comes to telling guys who I am and what I stand for... (Although, when I'm dating I'm surely not going to spread his shit and my stories of his and my crap to the world - I just don't like to keep my own secrets!).... Anyway, so... I don't like to keep my "issues" silent.  I've tried to just tell them off the bat.  Many guys have literally RUN away.  Any girl with head issues apparently is crazy (and not in the good way), wait a little while and then they think you are crazy for not telling them.  So what do you do?  Yeah, screwed either way...    And what do you do when the guy stays the night and sees you take those pills?  How do you explain that? 

So what is a girl to do?  And I'm not the only one - there are millions of men and women out there that have mental illnesses - we all have to think about it.  And hey people with the issues with us... I think you are the ones with the problem.  Get over it.  We are just fine.  At least we've accepted we have an issue and we are getting help for it - What about all your issues?  What don't you get help for that?