I mean I don’t understand how we can get upset that neurotypicals don’t understand us and supposedly don’t have the capacity to love us but criticize them when they attempt to understand. A relationship is a serious thing, especially if you’re low-functioning like me, and what I think everyone reblogging this fails to understand is that “how to love” isn’t literally “how to see this person as a human being.” These books often give pointers on how to help your partner during an episode, how to make a relationship last through constant inpatient, how to reconcile the fact that it might not get better, and when to potentially seek therapy for oneself. I think we need to stop pretending that our mental illnesses don’t affect others, and while we are of course the priority, if you can’t sympathize with your own partner or family member for struggling with it also, then maybe you’re simply not mature enough for a relationship. 

THANK YOU. One thing I see a lot is this concept that being mentally ill only impacts oneself, which is really not the case at all. Everyone you interact with will be effected by your mental illness in some way; if you don’t think the people closest to you, your family and friends and loved ones, deserve some support or don’t understand that they are allowed to get help along the way, you probably shouldn’t be interacting with them.