In September of 2017, I started dating the most amazing boy ever.

We got along so perfectly and he was nothing but good to me. I could tell him anything and he would never judge me. I was very open with him about my mental health issues and although he could not relate, he tried his hardest to empathize with me and help me as I needed.

We never had any fights or problems, but around Thanksgiving, my depression was getting so bad that I knew I needed to change something. I could not figure out what was going wrong, but I thought that maybe ending my perfectly healthy relationship would help. I ended up breaking up with him around that time and although he was sad, he said he was willing to do anything to help me feel better.

I had Thanksgiving and Christmas break to myself and learned that what was going wrong was that I had constant intrusive thoughts that were convincing me that everyone hates me, or that I am doing my entire life wrongly.

I finally started antidepressants to help get rid of my intrusive thoughts. I talked to my psychiatrist about it and he told me that, after a few weeks of taking the pills, the intrusive thoughts would go away.

After a few weeks, near the end of January, the intrusive thoughts dwindled down and I made sure they were gone before I asked my boyfriend if he was willing to date me again, and he had no hesitation in saying yes.

Things are going fantastically now. I still have my bad days sometimes, but not as frequently, and I am able to remind myself that the thoughts are false and they will go away. I am so lucky that my boyfriend was so supportive of me and was willing to give me the time I needed to better myself.

The moral of the story is to really make sure that you take time for yourself if you need it, and if your significant other does not support you, they don’t care enough. I’m so lucky to be in such a healthy relationship in which my boyfriend cares about me more than he cares about us.