Would you go out with someone with a past?

It depends on what they did. I'm not sure I can handle everything. Sometimes things people have done reveal something about what they're like even if they've taken account of their actions. For example, I have relatives who were alcoholics. I never saw them recover but I have some kind of inkling of what that's like and I probably wouldn't date a guy who was a recovering alcoholic. I wouldn't date someone who had a history of treating women poorly regardless of what they said to me to try and make it sound better. Some areas are no goes. Sometimes it is pathological.

Would you go out with someone who had something resembling a past life?

I live in Britain now, and I could almost say that this is my second wind, my second go at life. I have a pretty heavy duty past; I used to be a(n admittedly middle-class) heroin addict and almost entirely wasted the years of my life between age 17 and 23.

I've done crazy **** like carrying drugs over an international border (a small amount for personal use, over a Schengen border, but admittedly insane in hindsight), I've had very close mates die in a car wreck, I've made friends with some very colourful characters (I was back home at Christmas and one of these friends gave me a bullion coin worth about £1000), had close calls in Vietnam and Macau.

I have a pretty respectable life now, I didn't catch any diseases or do any permanent damage. I'm studying and working in a job that pays well and has considerable responsibility.... but I can't ever tell anyone about the stuff that I've done.

I can't unload any of this to anyone here in Britain, where my new life is. Particularly as it relates to romantic attachment, it's hard to have six years of your life that you can't share with someone you love. The question is if someone you were going out with told you about this kind of stuff, at the appropriate time, would it cause you to dump them?

It's better to share your past, than hide it for fear of not being accepted. Hiding it just causes mistrust.

Past isn't everything, but it is something and as long as a person has options, they will have preference. Tons of guys out there wouldn't date a girl who's had a crazy amount of sex partners. She can defend herself saying past is past, but not really blame them if that is their POV.