Sometimes falling for your friends is a forgone conclusion. You share the same interests, the same social circles and often the same beliefs and ideas as to how your lives should be lived. Yet dating someone who you’ve grown close to on a platonic level has many dangers associated with it. If you’re on the verge of travelling down this path, you should be aware of what awaits you.

There are many benefits to starting a romance with someone you already know. You have already passed the typically awkward phase of discovery that you would experience with someone who you’ve just met. Those painful pauses in conversation are gone and replaced with a comfortable silence. Any fear of what they’re like in social situations is tempered by your shared experiences and understanding of how they conduct themselves on a day-to-day basis. Your numerous conversations have allowed you privileged insight into how they think and what they do. Those crazy little quirks in their personality are obvious to you and you can now accept them with full knowledge as to what they mean. Your shared interests give you something to base your relationship on, be it a taste in movies, music or lifestyle. You have also had plenty of time to see them at their best and their worst so you have a mature understanding of your level of attraction. With all these things in the plus column, you have to begin to wonder why you never thought of dating them before.

“Explore the dangers that are involved and see how they would feel and act if the worst happened.”

Yet dating someone you know has drawbacks -- and they can be severe. The first is that if things go bad, you might lose the friendship that was there in the first place. For some, this can be too much to gamble for a mild interest. If you travel in the same social circle, anything that happens in your relationship might now be shared with the group. Relationships involve a different side of you that might not have been exposed to your friends so you need to consider how you would feel having that part of your life on display. In a worst-case scenario, if you break up on bad terms, how will this affect your social life in the group? Would it cause division, with certain people taking sides? Could you loose more than this one friendship – and would that risk be worth it? Romance can be hard to come by, but good friendships are often equally difficult to build. Make sure you consider all the aspects before hooking up with someone close to you.

Thoughts about dating your friends can develop from a number of reasons. If you live in a small community, be it a small town or a niche segment of a larger population, you might not feel that you have options open to you. Sometimes the idea of the relationship comes from the other party. If this is the case, the cards are already on the table and you need to proceed with extreme caution. Whatever the case, if you’re unsure about how to proceed, it’s important to go slow. Take your time and make sure your friend has an understanding of all the considerations that are involved. Communication is the cornerstone of any relationship and it will be of the utmost importance if you’re considering a relationship like this where there’s a lot more at stake than a bad break-up.

Dating your friend is a big decision and it’s not one to be taken lightly. Talk with them about how you feel. Explore the dangers that are involved and see how they would feel and act if the worst happened. This won’t necessarily protect you if the axe happens to fall, but it should give you a better understanding of what it is you might face. If you do decide to push forward, give it everything you can to make it work. They were a friend first, remember, and friendship is something to be protected.