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Dear Level
Your Partner Has a Suicidal Past. Here’s How You Can Help.
Mental health can take a toll on any relationship — here are ways you can show up for your lover
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
Just a few days after I matched with a new guy — let’s call him Shane — on a dating site, our conversations started getting deep. Shane and I had the same interests, including writing and podcasting. We were each divorced with young children. I liked him right away.
I was my full self, even in those early days: brash, talkative, silly, and intense. He showed up in full, too: vulnerable, laid-back, intelligent, and equally intense.
It was that early, intoxicating phase of things when I was still dashing to my phone to see his latest message and spending long moments crafting each reply before responding. We were each rehearsing, both of us on our best behavior. But I was going to have to throw a monkey wrench in it all.
From that moment on, I vowed to come clean immediately to anyone I planned to date. If they didn’t understand or weren’t willing to try…
