Okay, I’m going to admit something, but you have to promise not to call the guys with the funny white jackets to come get me.

Something about this little six-month experiment of examining my dating life has me channeling that fictitious self-help expert from “Saturday Night Live,” Stuart Smalley. I find myself looking in the mirror and feeling the need to assure the uncertain green eyes gazing back at me, “You’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggoneit, people like you!”

Singleness can make you do strange things.

One of the worst was a game my college roommate and I used to play. Around campus, at the movies, out to eat or even at the beach, we’d examine coupled-up girls our age and try to figure out why they were in a relationship while we weren’t.

What's She Have That I Don't Have?

“But she’s bigger than us!” my roommate would wail. “And we have better hair!” I’d add. It would go on like this as we compared clothes, facial features and any other superficial attributes we could size up in a short period of time.

I know, it’s horrible (hey, I didn’t say it was a past-time I was proud of!), but show me a single girl who hasn’t at some time looked at another girl and asked herself, how can she be married while I’m still alone?

In our defense, I really don’t believe this game is mean-spirited at its core. It’s about our own insecurities. Deep down, we all need to feel valuable and relationships are a huge affirmation that we’re worth something. I mean, what could communicate value more than another person standing up in front of their family and friends and saying, “I think you’re so worthy, so special, that I want to spend the rest of my life with you”?

And if we can’t find someone willing to say that, or even someone who’s willing to say that we’re worthy enough of taking up his Saturday nights, it can be easy to begin to wonder, “what’s wrong with me?”

Pick Me, Pick Me!

That’s one of the hardest things about being single: It can make you start to doubt yourself. “Am I not pretty enough or fun enough or smart enough for someone to love?” At times I have flashbacks to my elementary school days where I’m waiting to be picked for kickball, standing there trying not to look too worried that I’ll be last and thus labeled a loser.

I know it’s silly. It’s not like everyone who’s married has that status because they were somehow worthy of a relationship while I wasn’t. In fact, some people jump into relationships to mask their own insecurities, thinking if they “have someone” people might not notice their flaws or the reasons they secretly think they’re unlovable. But knowing it’s silly and really believing it are two different things.