Could barely talk a year ago. I was very depressed and lonely. Have went to stay at psychiatric clinics a couple of times. Only just recently got out again, but this time it was shorter than usua, only a couple of days. I’ve made some progress and now i can actually form a coherent sentence. Still incredibly afraid to talk to people. Still, after all this time I really don’t know the basics of social interaction How do you initiate a conversation with someone? How do you make friends?
I’ve met some cool people when I joined a leftist group in my area on FB and went to the “meetup” at the park. You could probably also try some hobby groups like DnD or board games or whatever you are interested in.
Meeting new people organically is just super hard after you leave a school system and you just kind of have to force yourself in to situations where you can meet someone.
Edit: Also don’t stress to much about the way you are “supposed to” act and what you should or should not say, when you meet someone compatible it will just click, don’t overthink it.
Big agree. Go to a meetup for an activity you enjoy, there it’s easy to start by talking surface-level conversations about the hobby (also, in the case of dnd or some board games, a lot of people there are already less socially competent than average (that includes myself)).
I was reading Unmasking Autism and they said that autistic people have found friendship and support in fandoms because those kinds of spaces are a little more relaxed when it comes to social rules.
Big agree on hobby groups or taking up a class of something where you have to interact with people like dancing or something like that. I forget what the phrase is, but it pretty much says that seeing someone often enough in a chill environment will likely make them feel closer to you.
It also helps that it’s a group dynamic so you could have a great variety of people to click with some of them.