She (27F) lives about 7 hours away from me (24F). I met her on Instagram two months ago by chance, and we started talking and things progressed from there.

We've only met IRL once (she visited for a weekend), but we both agreed that the visit went great and we want to see each other again. Now with the whole pandemic spiking, it might be a while until I see her again.

She knows about my BPD, and she has mental illnesses of her own (anxiety/depression/PTSD), so she's been very understanding of my splitting and mood swings (which unfortunately happen more often than not because my mental health isn't great at the moment).

I know I'm definitely not IN love with her or anything, I absolutely don't know her well enough to say that. But I do know what I'm feeling for her is a lot stronger than just like (even though I'm sure some of that is the infatuation and idealization of her being my FP).

So I do think there's a difference between 'I love you' and 'I'm in love with you.' I want to tell her I love her, but I don't want her to get freaked out. Yet everytime I try to shove the idea out of my mind, it comes creeping back up again. 

Has anyone had experience with saying I love you to someone reaaaaallly early on, and how did it work out?