How I met my boyfriend
This isn't a gamble in the strictest sense, but perhaps one of the most stupid chances I've ever taken that luckily turned out great. Apologies for lack of funnies but I promise this is 100% true.

A few years ago I was having a bit of a rough time. Throw usual teenage angst (I was 18) in with a very ill mother, father having a mental breakdown, recovering from anorexia and growing clinical depression... then add a bad case of unrequited love on top of that. You can probably imagine. As a result I started to become pretty withdrawn and spent a lot of time shut up in my room crying and listening to Nick Drake. Not a good sign if you know his fate. Anyway, one day when I was online I came across a site where I had the opportunity to bemoan the object of my affection's lack of interest in me, and came to notice a few reprobates on the site asking stupid, hilarious questions. For the first time in ages I had a proper laugh, and it became a drug for me. It seems pretty sad now how I came to live my life online but certainly at the time, in a life where I had little joy, it became a rock for me. After some months I got to know some of these folks pretty well and we became somewhat infamous (this was a serious site, not like here!)... trolling and suchlike.
A good proportion of these people were also troubled souls and we supported each other, genuinely cared about each other and for the first time in my life I found highly intelligent, funny and open-minded people... the sort of person I liked. The sort of person I wanted to be. Unfortunately I was also very young, and although aware of the dangers of online relationships of any kind, in my state wanted to believe the best in all of them. And it worked out... more or less. There were a few serious weirdos but that story's for another day. As is pretty much inevitable with any social group, the folks on there started to pair up and the idea of meeting up was bandied about. I distanced myself from this talk but was actually shocked when I heard that a fair few of them had met up already. Things started to move a bit too fast for comfort. Some were moving in together, at least 3 people I knew of were having affairs, the rest were meeting up and taking drugs overdoses etc.
By this stage I was more or less back on the tracks, but this experience (you must understand it was very intense and new... pretty mind-blowing) had made me realise what was making me so unhappy and the terrible shortcomings of my life. I began to realise that if I continued to have no ambition and something didn't change pretty soon then I'd end up like some of the older people there, and I wanted to learn from their experiences. So I decided that these new friends of mine were the way to go, however at the time I was living overseas from most of them. Around this time I also decided it was time to cut my ties with this social networking site... it had given me the support I needed but it was time to move on. Relationships were starting to get too complicated and I was becoming too dependent on it.

I'd met a few men on the site and had what you might, in a sense, call relationships, however one had caught my eye in particular. He was different from the others in that he didn't come across and actively take part in the site himself. He was a friend of one of the members who had come on simply because he was curious, and didn't spend much time online. All in all, he seemed a lot more grounded than most of the others. We hit it off pretty much right away and were soon texting. I'd already decided to get my life in order and was starting to look into doing a degree, and one of the universities I was interested in was near to where he lived. This is where I took my huge chance. I applied to do a course there and flew to meet him. Bear in mind I was still a teenager and had never met anyone off the internet before. Luckily all went well and we got on the best. Fast forward a few months and I'm living in a new country, with a new set of friends, studying a subject I never thought I'd do. I started taking anti-depressants and got my weight up to a healthy level. My parents were sorry to see me go but they understood it was better for me, and as a result I was better able to support them and not be an emotional burden.

I started going out properly with this guy and met loads of the people from the site who I'm still good friends with now. Although they might not realise it, they saved me, and helped me discover who I am. Me and my boyfriend have just bought a house and are planning to move in together. I'm lining myself up for a good job. I'm happy, healthy and have great friends. And all thanks to that huge gamble I took.
(I'm not here was here on, Fri 8 May 2009, 17:30, 5 replies)

thats
A really positive story! Congratulations.
(Eds Meds Mathskillz=1,Socialskillz=0, Fri 8 May 2009, 19:37, closed)

Stay Well
Hey, Good for you and stay happy. XXX
(Barfly, Fri 8 May 2009, 20:41, closed)

Was it 4chan?
It was 4chan, wasn't it?
(Helixdaunting, Sat 9 May 2009, 5:45, closed)

pro-ana.net
?
(TheManWithThePlan cussed your mum on, Mon 11 May 2009, 16:07, closed)

I just googled it...
... and no, it wasn't 4chan! or pro-ana (I actually had to google that as well!)
(I'm not here was here on, Tue 12 May 2009, 9:07, closed)