Advice to young cross dressers

[CONSUELO]

Having read so many posts about the difficulties many members of this site have with revealing their cross dressing to SO's and family and how disastrous it can be when the truth comes out, I have been thinking of what sort of advice would have helped me when I was still young. I am not a trained counsellor, so I don't feel comfortable just giving out advice but this is some of what I wish I knew when I was still a teenager.
1. You will want to cross dress all through your life. It may wax and wane but it will never go away completely, however there will be times when you think it has gone completely, don't be fooled by this feeling.
2. The desire to cross dress will evolve through your life. Right now you may think it only involves dressing in lingerie and not wanting to dress completely and go out looking as much as possible like a woman. That will change as you age and it will change at unexpected times and in unexpected ways.
3. Don't even think of getting married or entering a stable relationship without telling the other person of your desires. Being in love with someone may make you think that love will overcome the desire to cross dress. It won't! It might seem like the end of the world when the person decides that he/she cannot deal with a partner who is a cross dresser but this is nothing to what you will both have to go through if your cross dressing is revealed when you are both well into the relationship or married.
4. Read everything you can find on cross dressing and all related fetishes. Knowledge is power and the more you know the better you can deal with life as a cross dresser.
5. Find a support group or a counsellor who is properly trained. You don't have to be alone on this journey.
6. Finally celebrate yourself. You are not a freak or a bad person. Being a cross dresser is only a part of you. You don't have to hide yourself away or feel as if you are a second class citizen. You are not.

You may think that you are the exception and you can be a cross dresser and hide it successfully from SO's and family, but you are wrong.

This is a pretty short list and I have almost certainly left out something important. So fellow cross dressers and members, what would you add?