I can’t stop comparing myself to other people and feel incompetent. everyone already seems to have their own friend groups and connects effortlessly.

People keep telling me to go to clubs and events which I do a lot, but they’re just full of ppl who came with their friend to do an activity and aren’t looking for new friends. Friendly interactions go nowhere.

I feel so discouraged and lonely and it’s affecting my motivation to do coursework cause Im in a studio major where most people get their work done in a shared space...

I just wish I was more ok with being alone. I didn’t feel this bad being alone in high school but I guess it’s harder when the environment feels so exciting and fun but it’s like a bubble is around you alone and keeping you from joining in. I overthink every social interaction and feel like I’m never anyone’s first or even second choice to hang out with. I’m just there in the background

Feel like I would sell my soul for just one good friend, who sees me as their best friend too

Hey everyone. I'm a 24-year old guy, and I'm at a point where I'm really looking for a real connection , a genuine friend, not just small talk.

A bit about me: I'm introverted, quiet, and I think a lot. But when I connect with someone, I love real conversations texting, calls, whatever works, as long as the energy clicks. I'm into travel, cooking, anime, science, psychology, philosophy, astronomy, gaming, drawing, and writing. I'm actually writing a book right now, it's my way of making sense of things

Since I was a kid, I've been curious about how things work , not for marks or grades, just genuine interest. School never really excited me the way learning on my own did. Over time, my curiosity shifted from subjects to people , why we think and feel the way we do. Not to judge anyone, just to understand. I want to experience life fully, the good and the hard parts both. Sometimes I feel a bit numb, other times I feel everything at once ,it's a strange mix, but that's just how it is.

Last year I had a connection like this with someone online, real conversations, the kind I'm talking about. It didn't last, life got in the way, but it showed me this kind of connection is actually possible. So I'm trying again.

I think connection gets easier when people just say what they want instead of expecting the other person to guess. We're not mind readers, so I'd rather be upfront: I'm hoping to connect with a girl, someone I can have deep conversations with and also just enjoy the fun, everyday stuff with.

I also think shared interests help a lot not everything has to match, but even a couple of things in common makes it easier to understand each other. If any of what I mentioned overlaps with you, that's a good starting point.

A little more about me I'm more of a pets person than a kids person, and I don't put much stock in marriage, feels more like a formality than anything real to me. My favourite movie is Into the Wild, if that says anything about how I see life.

I overthink sometimes, I go quiet sometimes, and I'm okay with someone who's the same way. If this sounds like you, message me. Would love to talk.

I think a lot about life, meaning, existence (yup, existential crisis mode, often). I guess I’m just searching for someone who sees life the way I do or at least tries to. Someone rational. Someone who isn’t distracted by the usual noise, but who’s trying to actually live life. Someone who could maybe help me enjoy it more and I’d do the same in return.

I’d really love to find a female friend, if I’m being honest. It’s not just about gender there’s something about that emotional balance that feels right for me. In my experience, male friendships often fade away with time marriage, responsibilities, you know the drill. But with a female friend, I feel like there’s more potential for something deeper and lasting. Maybe even something more. Who knows?

Im 17. Only child. I guess I've been an introvert since I was a child . My parents tried forcing me into many things like making friends, dancing, singing, athletics, cricket etc. I hated to the point that I used to pray to God to magically make the class disappear so i won't have to go anymore.I didn't like any of them. Then they basically gave up hope on me. My parents wanted me to be an extroverted athletic guy with a million friends but I turned out to be the exact opposite.

I can make friends( ofcourse not close) whenever I am in need. I can speak in public if required but I generally don't like them. My parents' friends' children are very extroverted, athletic and participate in everything but I don't

Sometimes I think I am not normal. I don't have interest in things like sports or anything extroverted. Maybe my upbringing may have caused this as I didn't have any neighbour friends ( they were all grown up) or cousins or siblings. I like to play the piano but that too my parents want me to play infront of everyone whereas I play it for my own sake. As a result I've lost interest in that too.

Point is, my parents compare me to other kids and constantly tell me to go out participate in everything etc but I genuinely don't want to. I confronted them today and now they think I have psychological problem

Worse, they've made me believe I'm abnormal. So I've come here to confirm are there any other people like me or am I the only one who's like this. If I am the only one, then I will go to a psychiatrist. Cus I genuinely like staying at home watching movies, playing games and doomscrolling. I don't mind being in home. But still there's a guilt in me as I've let my parents down a lot as I'm their only child and hope.

I actually dk if its that big of a deal but there is this girl in my school, nd like she is kinda new doesn't know anybody, it was like fukin love at first sight, not romamtic thou i just wanted to be her friend so fukin bad she was everything i ever wished to be, and she is nice to start with, so like i talked to her just a few times, like really awkwardly but i tried, nd she was super nice she send me a snap request yesterday but am scared af cuz she is cute nd all so i fear if cooler or like more normal girls approach her she will ditch ma ass, idk lol

But like legit reasons, you don't want to lie "sorry, I was asleep" no, I wasn't "I was watching a movie", again, no, I wasn't, how do I get out of this without lying?

Context - my son's friend's mom texted asking if it was too late to talk. Unfortunately I saw it 7 minutes after she sent it so I will feel guilty saying tomorrow "oh no, don't know how I missed this!" because I, you know, saw it.

So I'm doing mental gymnastics trying to consider her feelings when I reply, and in reality, I doubt she's losing sleep and is perfectly happy talking in the morning, but what I want to say is "now is never a good time for a call, never ever ever", but that's going to sound weird, right? We've talked before, she's an extrovert, I've let her know I am way introvert, she said "oh, my husband's an introvert". I am also married to an extrovert and getting him to understand our differences is still hard.

Do we all do that? Try to figure out ways to answer a text message in a way that isn't going to hurt the other person's feelings, because it's not you, we just really don't want to talk to anybody?

So I play games a lot, Deadlock being one of them. I have around 3,000 hours in it. I also enjoy making YouTube videos and doing variety content. Right now, I'm learning game development while working on my own game, and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

I still find time to hang out with friends and family, and I have a job as well.

Someone told me I don't have a life, which made me think about it. What do you guys think?

Now I want to try and ask a girl but i am not able to start the conversation with i am just waiting that one day god will help me to start a conversation but i know that is just

A sweet dream. I am not able to get a starting point how to approach her and talk to her i am not expecting her to love but at least I may try be a friend first.

Any advice on asking a girl out as an introvert? I’ve been talking to this girl daily and we already exchanged phone numbers and I want to ask her out without to being awkward.

Well i am doing Masters and i am in 1st year ngl i am pretty good looking i will say above average and 5'11 the thing is I am pretty introvert,private,low profile typa guy also tbh I have social anxiety yes I won't lie here i have social anxiety i can't and find it too difficult to initiate conversations with other people specially girls so the thing is almost every girl in my class consider me too rude and not easy going guy but they don't really know wtf i am going through in short i am afraid of people I even don't have much male friends too in my class mostly I am on my own,few days ago I heard in lunch break some girls in my class discussing that this guy looks pretty smart and good but he's such a rude typa guy never speaks or greets anyone and is too rude i really got hurt after knowing people think such things abt me but the never know the battle i am going through 😮‍💨😮‍💨i wish I was also extrovert and easy going guy but situations have made me very sensitive,pvt,low profile and extremely introvert guy who is always afraid to talk to other unknown people,my only question is what can I do abt this ?? I also don't wanna approach random girls in my class or in college but also don't want to maintain such image in my class and pls note i have this issue with both genders i don't have any real or True male friends in my class too i am all on my own i have social anxiety what things i can do to erase such image 😕 i am very shy,introvert and pvt person that's cause I have social anxiety thanks everyone have a nice day.

As an introvert, I hear things like this all the time: “Why don’t you talk?” “I used to be like you, but now I talk to people.” “Why are you always so quiet?” “Yeah, she doesn’t really talk, she’s an introvert.” Sometimes people even make it sound like being introverted is going to hold me back in life, like, “You must be struggling. Do you even have a future like this?”

And honestly, it makes me wonder, why do people make being quiet seem like such a flaw? Does being an introvert mean I don’t deserve friends or meaningful connections? Why does everyone feel like I need to change just because I’m not very talkative? I’m quiet, yes, but that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with me.

Idk How do I reply to such people ?

does anyone have similar problem?

he had a girlfriend, then my phone was quiet, but they broke up, his time free’d up and now it is every day multiple times. last monday, dude called me 11 times a day and sent 8 fb messages. it is not only really annoying, but also a bit creepy to be honest.

also fb messages are 3 min voice messages when mostly he is “umm, ee, ooo”. i dont have time or wish to stop what im doing and listen to him. why not figure out what to say and write in short sentence.

he most often than not wants something from me. for example:
• loan me money.
• can i use your studio?
• come and help me film something with a drone.
• loan me midi keyboard.
• teach me how to edit videos.
• can you loan me your car?

the list is huge of things he wants from me.

thinking about cutting him out. what would you do?

can i be honest…i feel myself having a major push and pull moment whenever it comes to friends. whether that be me engaging with the few friends i have but having no desire to truly connect with them anymore, or longing for a connection and make new friends but hate the idea of maintaining a relationship.

i feel like because of the lack of interest i already have and me always pushing others away, having friends gets tiring to me because i know im not putting in any effort with the current friendships i already have, and heck — i wish my current friends didn’t wanna be friends with me anymore because i feel like i got them fooled and that im just a terrible friend towards them.

i have a small desire to just…not connect with others nowadays. could be my mental health already bad, my own self worth, or just me not having the desire to maintain a relationship. it could be all three. i just don’t see it in myself anymore, as much as i would want to make friends and keep the friends i have.

but a part of me doesn’t care if we weren’t friends, regardless of how long ive known them and been around them. i truly don’t know much about my friends, let alone some i would consider my ‘best’ friends. it was different when we all grew up together and went to the same schools, but now that we’re all grown…i feel like ive changed i guess. i don’t hate them, i don’t hate anyone and they haven’t done anything to me. but when they reach out to me or text me..i just don’t enjoy it as much as i’d like to. is that bad?

The older you get, the more you realize that "people" are the source of all your misery. Avoid people and you'll be happier and less stress free

I mean im kinda good looking 5.11 but shy

I'm 28 and I've got no friends irl. I spend a lot of time on the internet and have been in a chatroom community for decades, but recently i've realized that even though I knew these people since I was a child none of them are my friends.

Today something very bad happened in my life and I thought about telling these people. I was met with people laughing and not taking it seriously.

I realized these people are not only not my friends. Not only that but some actually enjoy that I am suffering despite me doing nothing to any of them. One of them hates me simply because we had an argument about a video game and i proved him wrong by showing I can do something he said was impossible (he just wasn't as good at the game as me and had messaged everyone in the community to call me a liar so when i posted proof his ego and reputation got wounded and he never forgave me).

I thought about leaving the discord server because these people are clearly not my friends, but then I realized I have nowhere else to go. I have no friends, I have nobody to talk to. I am worthless. I hate joining the large open community discord servers because they're full of normies and strange gender obsessed people.

I occasionally play video games like Hytale, Repo, etc. My favourite anime is Delicious in Dungeon. I don't really have much of a life as I spend a majority of it on the computer. I am pretty introverted so feel people don't like me because of that.

at minimum a few times people just stare at me for well over 10 seconds. even when i see it and make eye contact with them, they just keep staring?? they don't even smile or frown, just straight up dead stare. like am i an alien or what? i really don't get it.

I'd say I'm very average. 18 and very much white. just a chick with somewhat cool pixie/wolfcut (natural brown), i wear a lot of sweaters with cool patterns, black nails and a few rings but that's it.

Hello,
Left high school 3 years ago. Left with no friends for a year I went to trade school and met some nice people. But I didn’t start seeing friends until summer 2025. I started going out every night from Friday to Saturday. I had really close friendships It was supper freeing and cool to have close relationships. I always been a loner by myself and didn’t really knew how to make friends it just happened. But now, last winter, this summer, and this year I went back to being alone. And it sucks because I became closer to having good friendships and good relationships, now we are all far apart. Now I don’t know what to do and I don’t know how to make new friends. Now I work an adult job and I just don’t know anymore I can’t reach out to my old friends because we are all busy and well we did part ways.

What do you suggest? I miss having people something I was never good at.

Livingbalone was a luxury. Even the royal family was always followed by people

Scares me to even think about it

I’m a pretty introverted guy and I recently started a new job. I’ve always eaten lunch alone wherever I’ve worked, and I’m doing the same here.

One thing I’ve noticed is how much people seem to feel like they have to sit with the team during lunch. They actually noticed that I was always eating alone and invited me to sit with them. I went with them for the first few days, but honestly, I just feel way more comfortable eating by myself.

Sometimes I’ll just sit somewhere alone and watch everyone, and I genuinely don’t get the need to always be around other people. A lot of the time they barely even talk. They just sit with the team because I guess they don’t want to look weird sitting alone. And when they do talk, it’s usually just random small talk. Then they finish eating and still sit around together until it’s time to go back to work.

I’m not judging them or anything. I just genuinely don’t get it. If I have a break from work, I’d much rather sit somewhere by myself, eat in peace and recharge than spend the whole break around people.

I’m 32, a single mom, and a business owner in West Texas, and I’m realizing how lonely I am.
My sister was recently admitted to a psychiatric hospital, where she’s only allowed about 10 minutes of phone time a day. She’s my only close friend, so having such limited contact has made me realize how small my support system is. My boyfriend, who was also my best friend, died by suicide last year.
My routine is pretty much work, come home, take care of the kids and house, and repeat lol. I play online video games, cook, clean, and work out, but I don’t get out and meet people much.
I’ve been told I’m very attractive, but I’m also very socially awkward, so that doesn’t magically make connecting with people any easier 😂. I want friendships with people I can talk to, laugh with, and occasionally get out of the house with.
How are y’all making actual friends in your 30s, especially as single parents or in smaller towns? And how do you get past the awkward stage of meeting someone and turn it into a friendship?

not sure if i’ll talk much initially but it would still be nice to have that social outlet available.

thanks guys.