| You're still young at 22 and it's [i.e. having difficulty making /real/ friends] not nearly as unusual or bad as your posting suggests you think and feel. Looking at facebook and seeing people with hundreds of so-called friends will give the wrong impression. Of those hundreds, nearly all will have no interest in the ups or downs of life. A "like" to some bullshit picture of your dinner or of drunken vomiting on your SUV hood is not friendship, but for lots of people, they think it is. I've been acquainted with hundreds of people, even being close and going out to bat for them. But, with literally 2 or 3 exceptions, not one person has ever stuck around and shown what I'd call true friendship. As soon as things got tough and I could have done with some support, they were gone - stopped answering phone calls or emails, type of gone. Talk about being kicked when down. But, looking around, I saw that this was not me being singled out for shitty treatment. It was actually pretty common and even normal. And it makes it really difficult for people going through tough times; I've known people who were plunged into despair and depression at being abandoned and even shunned by people they trusted. Despite it not being trendy (or, nowadays, politically correct), find out if there is a local church (or whatever equivalent matches your background) that seems sensible (shop around and avoid fringe extremes!) and has some social events. You may not find people who will become lifelong friends (almost certainly not) and you may even disagree with their views on many things, but if you shop around, you should find somewhere you at least feel welcomed and supported in a way that you appear to need just now. I don't think you need fixed. A little bit more life experience and perspective that you're not so different after all will help. |