I've had the big H for a few years now and for a long time it was my nasty little secret. It prevented me from having meaningful relationships for many years. At best I would get sickeningly drunk or high and have a casual one nighter (you'd think I would have learned something about the dangers of those flings) but I could never bring myself to tell the truth to anyone. And so I could never really find love.

Then a couple of years ago I was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. Which explained alot of the hard partying, casual sex and other bizarre behaviour.

Last year I met a great woman and came clean about both of these issues in my life. She decided she wanted to be with me despite them.

I thought I'd found the happiness and love that I was missing for so long.

But it was a long distance relationship and through time we discovered that we wanted different things. I am only thankful that I didn't pass the virus on to her.

And now here I am, again looking for the right girl to share my life with. I have a great job, great friends (although most don't know I have herpes) who are always trying to set me up with women they know. And I have a great future ahead of me now that my bi-polar stuff is under control.

The only thing that's missing is a beautiful girl who loves me. But the idea of telling someone my dark secret scares me. So I figured maybe I'd find someone with the same dark secret so that I never had to worry about passing this virus on to someone who doesn't have it.

I'm sure my story is pretty common... isn't it?