For an old, white, straight cis man, my mental health advisor has really taken everything I& #39;ve thrown at him on board. I came out to him a few days ago via email and he was using my new name today in a way that was clearly him trying to get used to it but was also very affirming.

Like, he is 100% note familiar with the terminology around pronouns and non-binary identities, but he& #39;s taken it all in his stride and didn& #39;t treat me any differently and just felt so fucking good.

Cis people take note: this is how you& #39;re supposed to do it.

[CW: suicide, depression]

He also is very good at taking my casual mentions of rock bottom, googling how to kill myself, suicidal ideation calmly. Like, I don& #39;t want to dwell on them, most of the time, because it& #39;s more helpful to discuss the ways I am taking care of myself.

It& #39;s really nice to have someone who takes what I say at face value and who will celebrate my small successes with me. Also a man in a position of power who I feel safe around. It feels like he& #39;s on my side, which isn& #39;t something I feel a lot when talking about my mental illness.

This has been a & #39;my uni mental health advisor is great& #39; thread, which I will end by saying that he never makes me feel bad for arriving late or if we run over a few minutes, and that he has excellent taste in shirts.

More straight white cis men like him in the world, please.