I can relate to your worries. I've never had a romantic relationship and a big concern in that area is how to tell partners. You don't want to do it right away and scare them off before they get a chance to know you, but you don't want to leave it too long and have them feel like you've lied to them the whole time. And I imagine it probably hurts more if they leave after you've invested in them and the relationship than if they leave very early on. There's not really a right answer unfortunately.

However, all of my friends know of my diagnosis and that I'm in hospital. But I refuse to discuss the ins and outs of it, and I'm quite self-sufficient in not needing a lot of support. Mostly we do and talk about everyday things, not MI, though most of them have MI diagnoses too. I have had 'friends' disappear after learning about my difficulties but good riddance to them! I've had these particular friends for a number of years, but what I did and would do again with new people was to put the feelers out first to see what their experience of MI was and what they thought about it. Only if it was neutral or positive would I later disclose. Anyone I felt I couldn't disclose to eventually got dropped along the way as I'm not really interested in hanging out with prejudiced people; any kind of prejudice.

All the best,

*Willow*