[em-bee]

those are good points, especially the one about feigning interest. but i don't quite get this:

hang out with people i don't want to be around

why should i hang out with people if i already know that i don't want to be around them?

maybe you mean that you don't want to be around people that you don't know. that's an important distinction. if being around unknown people is uncomfortable then yes, i should try to deal with that, my approach is to find some reason to be there other than the people themselves. a hobby or some other common interest which allows me to focus on that interest and ignore the people until i am more comfortable with the people themselves.

[j3s]

My bad, that was a typo. It was meant to read

> don't hang out with people i don't want to be around