Dating & relationships with health conditions or disabilities?

JustV

Here at The Mix HQ (RIP 'TS Towers'), we've been chatting about how illnesses and disabilities might affect relationships. We ended up coming up with some interesting ideas and would love to get some input from you guys...

Being in a relationship with or dating someone with a health condition or disability can often make for a different experience to the able-bodied equivalents. This might include conditions like diabetes, epilepsy, chronic pain, or the more visibly physical end of the spectrum such as being wheelchair bound.

It may come with more barriers (both emotional and physical) to things like intimacy, openness, or being able to fully relax and be yourself. It would be great to find out a bit about your experiences with these sorts of relationships.

Do you suffer with a health condition or disability, and have experience on the ways it can affect relationships? Or perhaps you have dated someone with one and have some insights from that side of things?

Keen to hear your thoughts; all welcome, even if you don't have that experience. :yes:

JustV

*bump*

Former Member

I have three quite big health conditions/Disability that affect my relationship even though you wouldn't expect them to do.

1) My knees & hips dislocate, usually in ways that you wouldn't expect & this quite often means I'll be laying in bed unable to leave/get up/move and I'll also have crutches I'll need to use when this happens, it means Sam has to carry the shopping, Drive me around if the distance is longer than i can manage.

2) Epilepsy. Seizures are terrifying when i have one, but i can only imagine how it must be to watch someone else not have control of their body, Especially when they're for longer than 5 minutes.She's had to give me medical treatment and liase with the medical team about something i haven't any reccord over.

Its put a huge strain on our relationship...but it also made us closer......

JustV

@Past User - thanks so much for being to honest and open. Both of those sound like an awful lot to deal with solo, let alone when adding a relationship in there as well. Saying that, I get the impression Sam does a good job of providing such a great deal of support.

I'm curious about the last line - would you be willing to share a bit more about exactly where the strain you describe comes from, as well as the ways it's made you closer?