A dating website exclusively for people with mental health difficulties …

Danny!

The website No Longer Lonely is:

"a safe secure area for people with mental illness to relate to others and find romance and friendship. There is a comfort knowing that all users on the site have some form of mental illness so that [users] are free from the constraints of stigma and the fear of disclosure."

Do you think it's a good idea to have a separate place where you can meet other people who identify themselves as having mental health difficulties?

And more broadly, would you deliberately try and meet someone who has had similar experiences to you? Or would you try and avoid it?

Former Member

I don't like this. I feel like they're kind of treating people with mental health problems as a completely different species that need to be seperated.

I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid other people with mental health problems but equally I wouldn't go out of my way to try and meet someone with similar difficulties.

I do sometimes think that in certain situations, two people with mental health difficulties in a relationship can actually cause more problems but I don't think anyone should try hard to avoid people who struggle. If it doesn't work out then fine but if you like someone then you should at least try.

Former Member

Having a forum for people with mental health issues who are looking for love sounds like a great idea - a dating website is a totally different thing.
To be perfectly honest, I've been in relationships with other people with moderate mental health issues and it's been a recipe for disaster! Talking to other people about my experiences when looking for love might have been good but I wouldn't have wanted to use it as a dating site!

Danny!

That's two resounding "noes"! It does seem to be different to other specialist dating websites (Christians, Guardian readers, people who like uniforms ...) in that dealing with mental health isn't a preference or a lifestyle.

Miss_Riot wrote: »

Having a forum for people with mental health issues who are looking for love sounds like a great idea - a dating website is a totally different thing.
To be perfectly honest, I've been in relationships with other people with moderate mental health issues and it's been a recipe for disaster! Talking to other people about my experiences when looking for love might have been good but I wouldn't have wanted to use it as a dating site!

Miss_Riot, do you know if there is a forum like that anywhere? What kind of things would you want to discuss there?

Former Member

Not to my knowledge. Trying to work out relationship dynamics, how to talk to prospective partners about stuff, working out how to let partners know what's going on for you when you're having a hard time but to not become reliant on them, stuff like that I guess.

Former Member

Seems like the perfect way to increase stigma and segregate people with mental health difficulties from "mainstream" society. Everyone has mental health, just like everyone has heart health. No one would dream of creating a separate dating website for people with cardio problems. There would be public and media outcry.

**helen**

Danny! wrote: »

That's two resounding "noes"! It does seem to be different to other specialist dating websites (Christians, Guardian readers, people who like uniforms ...) in that dealing with mental health isn't a preference or a lifestyle.



Miss_Riot, do you know if there is a forum like that anywhere? What kind of things would you want to discuss there?

Yes, this one

Former Member

I feel that, in a way, this is discriminating those with a mental illness and possibly portraying the idea that they wouldn't find love on other dating websites. It's not right, but that's just my opinion

Sent from my C1905 using Tapatalk

Former Member

I can't decide what's worse, the idea that people with mental health problems are "lonely" (i.e. sitting at home sobbing into their microwave meal for one) or that mental illness is a mutual interest, much like a love of knitting, Riverdance or BDSM.