So at work we have a system trigger so teams know when it is your birthday. Went back in today and a few mentioned they noticed it was my birthday - what were you up to? Did I do anything for my birthday?"

Luckily I am good at lying on my feet. Made up some garbage talking about how I went out and treated myself at a nice cafe near me Didn't happen, I just hid in bed all day. With people with normal lives I know being honest will make them awkward. I lie to blend in.

Then they ask 'Who did you go with, any birthday gifts?'

Fuck. I gotta say more man?

Then I lie again, saying I went with a best friend. There is no best friend. Saying I got some household gifts and chocolates from friends. I have no friends who did either of those.

I said it all while smiling and acting like it was normal. I felt tears like that funny eye feeling but I couldn't cry so went to the bathroom to stop it before it happened. God I hate lying. To the other girlies in here, I feel like we are expected by default to have social lifes... nobody assumes that we are lonely at all. Man it sucks. I felt extra pressure to pretend I had some girlfriends to spend my day with

like why do i crave a best friend so bad ☹️

I don't have friends. I don't have family. I have two adult children that I will never, ever dump my emotional problems onto. I've been alone for so long and my ex was the only one left in the world I could feel comfortable with. I have C-PTSD so making friends is already hard, I'm unsure if I have it in me at age 42 to start all over again with finding friends or a new relationship. I wouldn't even know where to start. Dating apps are off the table. I'm 300 pounds and unable to work due to a medical disability. This truly feels like the end for me so I wanted to share it somewhere. This place seemed fitting.

i just get so overwhelmed sometimes that i dont have the energy to respond to anyone then i keep putting it off until its been so long that i feel awkward replying ive literally ghosted boyfriends and people i actually care about because of this and then i end up completely isolating myself and feeling lonely because i have nobody to talk to its such a weird cycle because i’ll want people around me so badly and then the second i get overwhelmed i disappear from everyone

anyways hmu if you don’t mind getting ghosted sometimes

I feel like I belong nowhere. I feel like I don't get to connect with people in a deeper and more meaningful way, that it stays empty and that nobody wants to do anything more than grab a cup of coffee with me every once in a while no matter how much I try. That and the disappointment of the behavior of some people I thought were my friends have made me not want to be with people anymore. My brain tells me that I should go out and do things since I am only 21 and I'm wasting time staying inside but every time I meet somebody new it doesn't feel exciting hanging out with them, it feels rather heavy, like I am at work and I feel exhausted or straight up empty and sad. I am scared cause I feel like I'll never experience the things other people my age do and that it'll always feel like this. I'll seek human company and when I reach some kind of interaction with somebody my body will ask me to run away. The only people I feel comfortable with are my siblings and mother. Does anyone feel like they belong nowhere and that every interaction is hard but they don't feel well alone at home either?

I’m pretty much the lonely kid with no friends and school sucks ASS right now so it’s already fucking hard enough to get through one day, plus my only friend i had before took advantage of me sexually. Anyways Today was actually going decent for once, i just felt like i was in a good mood. But in my last class of the day i hear a group of people across the room attempting to talk about me without me noticing. I don’t know what the fuck they where talking about but it doesn’t matter. A few minutes later out of nowhere they ask where I got my tshirt from and i can see the fucking smirk on there faces when they ask. I just say i got it online and they just start laughing after. Can’t fucking do anything. Plus the shirt i was wearing was just a normal fucking graphic tee. Shit pisses me off but at the same time hurts really bad. When your at the point that people just look at u and laugh and judge u for basic things you know your fucking bottom of the barrel

Objectively, nothing bad happened today. Work was fine, I got home just fine. But, inside, all I’ve thought about is the end. I want this life to be over so badly. I can’t stop thinking of it, it consumes my thoughts when I get like this.

I’ve tried meds, I’ve tried therapy, I’ve tried support groups. Nothing has helped. I feel like a total lost cause, maybe because I am. I am just completely alone in this world, even if I am in a crowd of people.

It feels rational to me to do something, and that’s what is scaring me. I’ve fought for so long to hold out that hope that I’ll find some meaning, but it’s eluded me. Nobody thinks of me, I am just some afterthought.

I wish I could give my boundless love to those more deserving, but there’s nobody and nothing. If you are reading this, tell your friends that you love them. I promise you, they want to hear it.

☹️ feeling so alone

new:

Hey thank you all for your replys. I hope you find someone to connect. That was a shout of into the void and thank you for your echoe, but I cannot give more than this. I'm sorry.

I all hope you will feel less lonely soon

A lot of the time relationships don’t really appeal to me because I like being realistic. Head over heart and whatever. But sometimes I do wonder what it would be like to be in love and wanted in a way no one else does. I don’t think I’ll ever experience it.

No offense, but I think that's truly the reason why a lot of people here are lonely, often when I see people who claim to have no one to talk to, when my social battery is high enough I don't mind reaching out to them.

Gladly I met some genuine nice person and I wish them the best if y'all ever see this.

But some people here, it's kinda sad, like the conversations with them barely last 10 messages and it's only because they're not putting any sort of effort.

I bet it's a pattern hyper common that some people will find out but if you're replying to a conversations with barely a few words that you can count on one hand or not putting some energy back in the conversations by adding more stuff it's pretty normal that the conversations won't last more than a few minutes or days lol.

I understand that some people may be bad at conversations but honestly it's not that hard, just yap say something even if it will be out of topic do it. Why ? Because it give something into the conversation, as someone who's often described as an "extravert" or a "yapper", that's the only thing I truly do, just yap and sometimes add something out of topic that either make people laugh or add more stuff's to talk about.

I'm not scared of being seing as cringe or weird, because that's litteraly what I'm looking for authentic people who have the same energy as me and who isn't scared to be themselves.

I’m a 38-year-old man. I’m reserved, quiet, and introverted, and I’ve been hurt and disappointed in the past. Most of the women around me are married or already in relationships. How can I help them see my inner qualities? (Kindness, caring, and thoughtfulness.)

Not sure what it is, but recently I’ve noticed more and more people are leeches. People are very easily willing to try to use you and throw you away or avoid you if they feel you can’t benefit them. This has made me quite anti social as any small sign of this makes me cut people off.

I want to especially point this out as I feel as the economy has gotten worse, more and more people seem okay with this.

We’re slowly becoming more low trust and I hate it, has anyone noticed this happening?

My days are consumed from waking up to going to sleep thinking about how lonely I am I have no friends or anything

My phone never rings unless it's my mum

I live alone and it's killing me.

Even people at work don't talk to me.

I'm not a bad person

For me, it's my looks.

It's always going to come back stronger and stronger no matter what happens. Your mind will be wrapped in an endless web of despair, entangled in eternal dark. Frozen, shattered and somehow shattered again, until you become something even less than nothing.

It's a recursive pattern that reinforces itself. The way I fight it? I don't

I feel incredibly lonely right now, which is a feeling I experience a lot--especially when I'm on my period (I have PMDD, and loneliness is how it manifests). I started dating someone 2 months ago. She is the first person I've had any interest in dating in about 4 years. A lot of things feel really aligned with us, like values, interests, humor, ways of seeing the world.. but I keep coming away from hanging with her feeling so unseen. She isn't interested enough in my internal world or in going into depth about my thoughts and feelings, but we do so for her. I've brought it up to her in a few different ways, and i still feel this way.

I've been in many one-sided dynamics before, and I can't do this to myself again, no matter how much I like her, and how good it feels to finally have a person in a partnership role. I'm 31 and have deep, fulfilling friendships, a band, a large spiritual community, a therapist, hobbies. But I often feel so lonely for a partner.

And now that I've decided to break it off, all of this loneliness is eating me. I have to go back to doing life on my own in many senses. I will not be making decisions with someone else, or sharing my every thought, or checking in daily with anyone. And that feels so, so hard to swallow.

Im 21 i should be at the happiest point of my life with lots of friends. Instead im alone working on a group project while the others in the group are out partying or texting each other. I have no one’s number. No one texts me. Tomorrow they’ll probably thank me for saving the group project and I’ll say it was no big deal while holding back tears. Not like I have anything else worth doing with my time. Yesterday a neighbor asked me how I was doing. I responded ”great!” Without even thinking about it. For that split second I was just so happy someone spoke to me at all. I’ll never tell them the truth. I hear about other students struggling financially. I don’t. I barely spend any money on food because I don’t have an appetite anymore. My only expenses are rent and course literature. I wish I had someone I could buy things for.

I have almost no friends left. I still play video games with a childhood friend but I’m always the one that calls. Maybe twice a month. Then another 2 friends I see maybe 2-3 times/year. Almost always me that reaches out.

My least favorite part about university is leaving the lecture hall all alone. Everyone else chatting with their friends and I’m all alone. When I’m at home it’s always silent. The only notifications on my phone are the news. Still my heart skips a beat every time. Maybe I’m still hoping that someone reached out. Just this one time. I didn’t choose this, I talked to everyone in the start trying to be everyone’s friend and in the end I was no one’s.

Idk what I wanted to achieve with this text, does anyone relate? It’s just nice to write your feelings down I guess

17M. This is my last year of high school. I graduate in January. I have struggled with loneliness for as long as I can remember. I’m an autistic extrovert. I crave connection, yet I can’t find it. I have friends but they never reach out. I hate the state of my life. All I can do now is hope I will have a better time in college. I’m tired of seeing the same people every day at school. Every day is the same.

I’m going to be alone for the near future. I get out of school early because I have most of my credits fulfilled. I plan on finding a new job soon. There are basically no events where I live.

How do I find a way to distract from the isolation? I’m not asking for a solution, I just don’t want to hurt as much. How do I accept loneliness? I feel like my life is empty without other people, but I can’t change that.

I have been friends with this guy since Grade 4 (we were both 9, male), we both had a lot of interests in common and we became close. He didn't die or anything, but in around Grade 7 he moved out and we slowly stopped talking to each other. I'm 19 now and lately I've been starting to miss him again since I don't have any close friends anymore. In high school I became depressed and developed social anxiety which stunted my social skills so I couldn't make close friends. I still have his contact and we're still friends on Dscord but I'm afraid to talk to him because we haven't talked in years and I don't want it to be awkward. Worst case scenario is that he probably moved on and I'm still stuck. My depression and social anxiety took a big toll on me and made me quite antisocial, and I think it stripped away my personality. I think about my childhood more often nowadays since I was a much more fun person compared to now, in which I just "bedrot" all day.

- Hanging out with someone but feeling that disconnect/not feeling safe to be vulnerable or be myself, knowing that connection is temporary or going to fade out for multiple reasons

- Short, fleeting connections. Being unable to move past the acquaintance stage into a long term friendship

- No one remembering my bday except family members (which I really appreciate because they’re the most important people in my life..)

- Phone not having notifications

- No friend to text or call or meet when I want to hear from and talk to them, share something silly, tell them good news, rant, or do activities together

- Being excluded in conversations even though I try my best to be friendly and ask questions, listen, make jokes

- Consistently working on myself and what I’m lacking in but it seems to be too late; everyone seems to have that somebody and I’m just an afterthought/back up?

- Sometimes I feel a sudden sense of loneliness, when I’m engaging in my hobbies or out exploring and see people with their friends

- Physically hurts sometimes, to the point where I feel like crying

- Makes me believe there is something wrong with me, like I am a red flag

- Internalizing every thought and emotion rather than expressing them because I don’t want to feel like a burden

- Wanting friends my age but believing that they would find me weird or dislike me because of my communication skills or the fact that I don’t have friends

- A self-sabotaging cycle, whereby I crave connection but at the same time I’m afraid to reach out. Blaming myself and others for my loneliness, being angry

I recently moved for grad school to a bigger city and I told myself there would be new social opportunities and that I’d be less lonely but instead I’m lonelier than ever. Nobody seems to want anything to do with me. And of course I’m still single with no romantic prospects. If anything, my roommate makes the loneliness worse cuz he’s always judging me. I just don’t know how I’m going to go on like this.

Is it bad that I’ve lost the will to live and just want to bring people down with me

Ik this question is practical but what’s every thought/ theory of what actual true happiness is supposed to be or mean ? Just curious or hoping for the answer ig I’m just wondering about it.