I posted this on an autism sub since I’m on the spectrum but figured this might be a better place to ask, as I feel it’s not really an autism issue.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an introvert, nor anti-social. Hell I worked in a call center for a year, and I like talking to people.
I have a few people I can call “acquaintances”, people I’ve met in my business (antiques) who I call and talk to a couple times a week, but despite knowing some of them for 10 years, we never really hung out.
I’ve had people tell me if I want to hang out with people, I have to ask them, but I kinda feel like that should also work in reverse?
Heck, I worked at Kmart for 3 years about 10 years ago and knew pretty much everyone there on a first name basis, would talk to them the entire time in the break room, but no one really asked me to hang out.
It somewhat makes me feel like “if I needed friends, I would have them”. I don’t really believe friendships should be forced, just like love and dating, but I’ve seen so many people over the years just naturally become friends without even trying, but I feel like this natural ability was just kinda skipped over when I was born.
I don’t really feel like I have terrible social skills, I mean people wouldn’t talk to me unless they wanted to, and I can make people laugh and navigate emotions well, but I feel like there is some kind of invisible barrier between someone who you know really well and a friend, and I can’t seem to cross it