i am so lonely! i have friends, but i barely see them anymore. you grow up, get busy. but i'm currently in my third year of college, heading to my senior, and have made ONE friend. i'm a person that thrives off the energy of a community, of a big group of friends. to be as alone as i have been for the past three years it's severely effecting my mental health, and i am already clincally depressed.

Not practicing social skills have also diminished my ability to even hold eye contact; i hadn't realized how much effort i was putting into every single conversation i had been having my entire life until i simply....stopped talking. anyways, what i really want is a sense of community, or belonging. i have been the side character in everyone's life and especially mine. i want my prescence to be felt and missed. i want people to call and check up on me, to invite me out not out of obligation but bc they'll feel it when i'm not there. and because i'm ME not because i crack jokes.

but i guess i'm mostly just touch deprived. who knows! lol

>touch deprived
Sometimes it's better not to know what you're missing, eh? ^^

you can try to join FB groups of certain communities of your liking starting little to little untill you get confident and do more stuff, you can met people at least thats why i think

yeah, I suppose I've been there too at some point (even tho for diferent reasons I suppose), what helped me the most was to think a lot about what I believe and about the world around me, I know it can sound counter productive and it won't directly give you more friends but it can make you a more interesting and assertive person, what can, in exchange, attract friends with who you can interact without feeling like a task.

After this, you can also put yourself out there more easily, maybe go to parties, talk to strangers, try to talk about topics that interest you. Don't beat yourself up! we live in a time where it seems like it's more hard to make friends than ever, that's why we can see so many lonely and touch deprived people. It's a big issue. Specially since you mentioned you are clinicaly depressed, making and keeping friendships can be tough. So just know that it's more of a what can we about it situation rather than how to solve the problem situation.

Now, as someone with naturaly bad social skills, the best way I had found to practice is to go to stores, like those where the seller actually has to talk to you and strike conversation, then don't buy nothing. Since the situation is quite awkward by itself, soon enough you start being able to make reasonably interesting conversation and also deescalate slightly unconfortable situations.

Just know that you are a complex person full of capacity of understanding the world around you in your own way, even the most ordinary person can be fascinating if you look closely, and that eventually, you will find people who are bright or mad enough to see it in you, to find you fascinating and complex and valuable as a friend, who will feel your persence and miss you when you're not there.