[hughrr]

Please ignore all the other weird advice here about medication and therapy. HN has an unhealthy obsession with fixing symptoms not problems.

All things in life come with practice and experience. That includes socialising with people and making social connections. You’re going to screw up and all sorts on and off. What is important is to introspect and understand why after the fact and use that to improve your future social encounters. I’ve done it enough times and will continue to do it until I’m dead. No one is perfect and that’s what makes everyone so interesting.

The biggest barrier to actually doing it is your confidence and a list of what if’s a mile long from previous messes you think you caused. All of those things are surmountable problems if you face them. And also the memory of these problems for other people is quite short so don’t sweat what people think of you too much.

I can suggest a good place to actually get out there and make some connections is Meetup.com. I am always going out with random groups of people who I’ve never met, are all just as socially awkward and these mostly end up with quality social time at the end of the day. Sometimes we go our separate ways immediately but I’ve made a few long term connections out of that as well. All in all a massive improvement in my life.