My Support Forums - View Single Post - Professor & a difficult past relationship (help is desperately needed right now)

+Fight+The+Illness+ · Sep 13, 2011, 07:33 PM

Greetings Sweet-Hearted and Gentle-People,

So I'm having a tad bit of an "issue" with a certain man at my university. If you look back at my previous threads, I talk about my social anxiety and my Spanish class and all the complications associated with that situation. Well here's the thing:

We've been getting along quite well since the beginning of the semester (which started in mid-August). You know, I go to his office and we just have casual conversations and things like that. I'm pretty good at computers so whenever he has problems with his, I help him out. And he's been such a kind person to me b/c of my social anxiety. We talk about our families, likes and dislikes, and just normal stuff that friends would talk about.

The thing is, ever since I told him about my social anxiety, that's when we started to get really close. Now, a close relationship between a student and professor is kind of normal to an extent; but a romantic relationship? ...Not so much.

I mean, I've gotten to know him quite well in a relatively short period of time and I feel strongly that he has good intentions. Like I've said, he's been so kind to me and has gone SO far out of his way just to help me and just talk with me. But the big problem is the whole age thing. If I did the math right, we're 14 years apart...so yeah.

But the thing that's really troubling me about this whole situation is my past in the romantic area of things. A few years ago, I had my very first boyfriend. We dated for about a year and we were so close. I knew that he had issues in his life and we helped each other in such big ways with each of our issues b/c our families weren't/aren't exactly supportive.

But in February 2008, my boyfriend committed suicide. I haven't been in a relationship since then. And it scares me that I know that someone is romantically interested in me and I'm just really scared/confused. I don't know what to do.

Please help.