I’m 22(f) and have been living with severe social anxiety and depression since I was 11. I haven’t had a close friend since i was 12, never been to a party or had fun weekends with friends. I’ve missed pretty much everything that molds you into a functional human being lol. I’ve gone through periods of it getting a little better and seeing myself become a little more social, but at this point i feel like it’s impossible for me to have an even moderately successful social life. I love people and all i want to do is to connect with them in a meaningful way, but every time i get a casual acquaintance in my life, I end up pushing them away. I went through all of high school without making any close friends or having any relatable experiences or memories with other people. I didn’t go away for college and ended up at my home town’s extremely small community college. I really tried to put myself out there, but it seemed like everyone who was there just wanted to leave and head off to something better. I live at home in a small town with very few opportunities to meet people, and now it feels like my life is becoming much more concrete. I’m seeing a counselor, but it takes so long to heal from everything that I’m worried that I’m just missing more and more. I don’t want to be stuck like this forever, but how do you make friends or have a healthy social life when you have none of the building blocks that other people have? I’m embarrassed by my lack of life experience. I feel like I’m at an age where everyone has been there and done that, while I haven’t even started.

2 comments
  1. Your post/comment has been automatically removed because your Reddit account was created too recently to post or comment in this sub. You may [message the mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/socialskills&subject=Please activate my post/comment&message=My submission got stuck. Please activate it for me) to manually approve until you have the required account age/karma.

    *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/socialskills) if you have any questions or concerns.*

  2. First of all it doesn’t matter about those prior experiences. You’re at an age where people have to start a whole new live anyway, so now’s the time to begin!

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like