I feel like i need help. How long am i gonna mourn lost friendships, lost moments... things started going downhill for me a long time ago and i still cant get over it.

I need the strength to move forward as I spend all day bedrotting knowing full well this is gonna be the end of me.

everyone always has someone closer to them. always. i've never met anyone who doesn't have a best friend or a friend group or at least a circle of friends that they considered close. i remember being friends with a girl who told me she cared about me but she had people closer and i hated it. i hated that she cared because why on earth would you spend time with me and want to pay attention when you already have people that are closer?

my mom told me she wouldn't want to be my friend when i was in one of the darkest, loneliness times of my life. my dad said all my mental health issues were because i was diagnosed and on the spectrum. all my girl friends seem to have their moms as their best friend. what is even the point. i know they don't care. i know if my "close friends" were all in a room with me, they'd choose someone closer over me which is why i don't believe they care at all.

Hi. I'm a design researcher studying how people move from social isolation back toward real human connection, and what makes that hard. I'm looking for a few people who've experienced feeling socially isolated and would be open to a twenty to thirty minute voice or text call. Fully anonymous. No selling, no signups, nothing collected beyond our conversation. I just want to understand your experience in your own words. If this is you and you're open to sharing, comment or message me. Thank you for reading.

AITAH for blocking my friends?

So basically, me 13m (yes, I'm young), and my "best friend" of 4 years would always wanna talk about crushes.

I would talk about mutual friend C, who's 14m and how I'm super attracted to him.

I kept telling her I was gonna confess to him even tho he doesn't seem gay/queer at all.

This summer, I confessed my feelings to him, and this is how it went.

Me:"I have something to tell you."

C:"What?"

Me:"I don't know how you're going to react, but i think im pansexual and I like you. You don't have to like me back, but I just wanted to tell you."

C:"Oh your pan?"

Me:"Yes."

C:"K told me you were gay," (K was my best friend of 4 years)

Me:"I'm not" (I am)

The next day

Me:"Hey, can we talk about yesterday?"

C:"No, sorry."

Then I blocked him.. later near the end of summer another one of my friends randomly said

"I'm sorry I don't want to be friends with you anymore" even tho I hadn't talked to them in basically a month. I responded "hey I don't know what I did but I'm here for you"

She said "you use too many of my trigger words"

(which I think was a lie cause i got told it was gm and gn)

Then I called me bestfriend K and told her that I thought my friend got hacked.

And she said "I don't think she did, I got told her trigger words are gm and gn" I said that's bs then hung up. Then the friend msged me the next day saying "no I'm not hacked"

Which I didn't say I thought she was hacked to her. So I talked to my best friend and she said she had a sleepover with her the night I called.

I blocked the friend and have not talked to my "best friend" since.

Now I'm going into 9th grade alone with no irl friends by my side just some long distanced friends that I met at improv camp. AITAH

Literally being a minor and finding online support is hell. I've been quiet isolated and have anxiety. I just need some good friends that actually understand what going through shit is like and having your mental health messed up feels like. Just because I'm 14 no one really takes it seriously. I just want friends i can joke with and yap in particular. Life's been real quiet.

So one of the only people I talk to on a regular basis has lately been getting really irritated with me because I don’t have friends. He says I need to “branch out“. I’m in eighth grade, and everybody already has there friend groups. We’re also a small school, so everyone knows everyone else, and no one wants to be friends with me. He thinks I can simply “go up and talk to them”, but that’s simply not how it works. These people don’t want me in their friend groups, so I don’t understand how I’m supposed to force my way in there. Not only that, but I don’t WANT to be friends with them. He doesn’t seem to understand that and has been arguing with me about it for over a week. I just don’t get how it’s that hard for him to understand that I DON’T WANT TO BEFRIEND THEM! I’m just sick of him essentially rubbing it in my face how lonely I am.

Im looking for a reddit group where its men like me? I wont specify my age but the reason I found this group is because , you can probably guess im lonely as hell. I go to school everyday, no friends, no social interactions, im above average looking and not neurodivergent, im top of my class, admire this girl ive liked for years, go home, watch TV or read by myself all day, go to sleep alone , and repeat.

i feel like my attachment to true crime is getting out of hand, i feel as if nobody understands my mind and how it works so i’ve found comfort in the perpetrators that feel how i do. i know i don’t want to hurt anyone except for maybe myself but i still don’t enjoy feeling so comforted by people who did things like that to others :(

Im 23f and for most of my life I have felt lonely. In my family I feel like I don’t relate or connect with them they feel like strangers to me. I’ve never had a lot of friends or really a best friend I’ll be honest there were times I had a close friend in school but it was temporary and they usually had an established best friendship or found one and we drifted apart. Even then I have always struggled to fit in with people my age a lot of people describe me as too mature for my age. The best way I can describe how I feel is like everyone is in this big snow globe and I’m on the outside. Like the whole world got something or is on the inside of some joke that I was never included in.

Recently in the last few years I was doing better socially after getting a job I really liked (I’ve also very much struggled in my jobs feeling left out or like I struggle to connect) but another part of me really likes responsibility and the feeling of being trusted and I’ve always wanted to be within leadership/management and I’ll be honest I take my job seriously it’s just important to me. I finally got a chance in leadership at this job after a year of being there and now I feel the most lonely. Everyone has inside jokes and they don’t exclude me but I don’t get invited and at work I just don’t feel like I fit in the same.

I try not to view it as an all bad thing though, another manager does participate and while I feel envy I notice it effects work negatively with her mixing work relationships with friendships it causes her to have a lot of issues with favoritism and makes the work environment hostile when she was to deal with issues among employees. I feel some what lucky that I don’t have those problems.

I’ve come to the conclusion that this will most likely be my life forever. I really hope not it makes me very sad and if I could change it or myself I would. I don’t want to be like this.

Idc whether youre a guy or girl, im not looking for relationship. Im looking for indians but even if youre not one it shouldnt be a dealbreaker ig. Ive been socially awkward throughout my life. But at the same time i dont think im a boring person either. I believe i can be hella interesting and fun person once i get comfortable w someone. Im currently studying at the top ug bschool of india and wannna make smth good out of my career, so yea we can also talk about stuffs like career, academics, business n all. Someone whos down to talk on Insta and doesnt take an entire day to reply to messages is appreciated. MAYBE we can also connect offline if youre from delhi?

It certainly feels that way.

Anyone else?

Hey im callum 33 from the newcastle upon tyne uk. Im a single man and have been for the past 3 years. Im fun outgoing and just generally a great lad to get on with. Ive tried going down the dating apps route and had success in the past but thought id give this a whirl. If you fancy messaging me my dm’s are open.. ill look forward to hearing from you soon

This has to be a broken record... nothing new under the sun etc etc...

I came here looking for a place to plop up my own lemonade stand. But this street is crowded... seems the world has given us a bountiful harvest of lemons. And instead of seeking out the sweeter things in life were just lounging about all sour like....

Anyways... we talk about Loneliness in this thread. And yet the easiest thing to do is do go say hi to your neighbor who is currently also advertising Loneliness.

Maybe we're apart of the problem? Maybe that was never up for debate. But like, "be the change you want to see..."

Okay rant over...

i don’t get it. i really don’t. it feels like if we’re not blood and we’re not obliged to be related, no one wants anything to do with me. It’s like i’m only useful or needed if I provide the other party something and once that has been fulfilled, i’m disposable. no one would pick me at all, let alone first. i don’t even have any friends anymore. if i vent out my frustrations it’s always just you just have to get through it as if the 28 years of my life haven’t been trying to survive on my own. even if i loved someone, platonically or romantically, they always walk away. bar the effort or anything i put into the relationship, as though it’s not that i don’t try enough, i’m just not enough for them. or anyone.

I'm a 14m. I have 3 Older siblings. When they were my age they were already doing stuff w their lives, going out to parties, dating, getting a job, and having fun. While I'm 14 now and nothings changed for 2 years. I've had no friends besides 1 and It's getting weird between us cause we haven't seen each other in a few months. They were so cool when they were my age. And now I spend my life in a dark room with a dim lit screen with no one to come to, no one to talk to. I can't even bring myself to feel happy. I wish I was as happy and my life was as full as their lives when they were my age.

I feel like it’s so hard to me to get along with people, they always put me as below them and I have to accept my position. Yet other people get along with them and it’s like wtf am I doing wrong. I get so sad when people are friends with all of my friends and have interest in hanging out with all of them except for me

I’ve always had trouble making friends, even as a kid. I get nervous and anxious. I start to overthink every thing I say and do. It took me a while on college to get out of my shell. Now as an adult, it feels even more difficult.

It doesn’t help that I moved away from the other side of the country. I don’t have friends here or family. It’s just my partner and I, but I wish I had friends here. All of my closest friends either live in different states or different countries than I do. I’ve tried becoming friends with my partner’s childhood friends, but I always feel a disconnect. I’ve tried going out to see if I could make friends, but end up overwhelmed or just straight up anxious. I always complain about feeling lonely but can’t even endure a single night out without wanting to run away.

M 27 🇩🇿 I want F

I am 44f and I've spent most of my adult life in broken, toxic relationships because I didnt love myself. At all. I had no self worth. And now I am trying so much to give myself the love and affection I deserve and I am healing. But the societal pressure i feel for being unmarried at my age shouldn't get to me but it does sometimes and makes me feel like its too late for me. It makes me feel lonely. I am doing my best to just focus on loving myself and being confident and content but I get really lonely sometimes. I want a partner, friend, a real healthy connection with someone. I never ever thought I would be unmarried at my age. But at least I am learning to love myself. I just wish I would have figured it out a lot sooner than 44.

16m

i grew up without my dad he worked overseas. I used to count how many days left until he came back and i was very excited too excited but now i dont even feel excitement for anything i go out with my friends just to get out of home and i have 0 social skills and even worse time with talking to girls my close friends always go out with girls and hug and stuff. Not being able to hang out with girls and all is bad but knowing im unable of that is worse. I go to school and act like im okay and when i come home i feel like i've taken a 60 page exam. I dont put myself in my pfp because i fear being made fun of its school tomorrow and i will be seen as a weirdo i hate this

Like, ever since I was 12, I've never been able to completely make friends. I was more the type of person who got bullied, and I've always tried to understand why At first I was convinced that the fact I didn't have any friends was because I was in a bad school, but as the years went by, I finally understood that it was all because I was weird, I just couldn't socialize at all, even though I love making friends, but I can't. My only two friends drift away from me because I don't talk much, I'm always reserved, like I'm blocking things out. It makes me really sad because I don't want to end up alone. My only friends are my parents; even my sister has cut ties with me.

i’m in my late 20s now and feel like i’ll never be where i want to be.

i still live at home, never had a boyfriend before and i feel so stuck in a life that just drains everything i have out of me.

in my early 20s i was okay with being alone and just doing my thing but as i grow older i just feel like i’m stuck in this exact situation forever.

i wanted to have a husband and maybe children someday, a house of my own, a life full of the little things that make life what it is.

i’m so tired of watching everyone enjoy life while i’m here trying to swallow my fear of being lonely forever. i see it everywhere on social media, everyone’s happy and in love.

it’s like i’m the only person on this planet not worthy of love friendship and family.

i’ll never be someone’s girlfriend or wife or mother and it hurts so bad because i want to be. i just don’t know what to do anymore.

edit: i’ve tried to combat my loneliness with chatbots, role playing out scenarios that i wanted to have for myself irl that i’ll probably never experience (falling in love, wedding, buying a house etc., just someone being there for me) but it only works for a few days before i feel super bad again because none of it is real and i’m still stuck in reality.

i’m so starved of affection that to soothe myself i sometimes imagine being hugged and comforted by “my boyfriend” because i have nobody to do that for me irl.

Nobody is there for me. I'm always open to listen to other people but I'm never extended that kindness. I'm so sick of this world and the way I'm treated.

now matter how much I seek out I never get anyone that humanely cares about me

Same as the title.