[scott_siskind]

Out of curiosity, do you have a partner/girlfriend/wife?

Because much like you, I haven't really kept good friends along in life. I've had periods in my life when I had a "good" friend, that I could talk a lot of stuff with, share my problems, and generally do activities in common, but I moved around, I haven't really kept in touch.

Problem is, without a social circle, it's much more difficult to find a partner, and I'm at an age now where that's the main thing I think I'm missing.

But I understand the issue very well from a theoretical standpoint. At its core, it's about a disordered attachment style, a sort of fear of attachment, or a failure of the brain to regulate the affect resulting from interactions. A result of early developmental trauma. I'm also familiar with some techniques that are supposed to fix the problem (I was building a neurofeedback system based on ADS1299 at one point), but life got in the way. Which is ironic, since I think this is the most important aspect of any life, social functioning.

[bheadmaster]

> Out of curiosity, do you have a partner/girlfriend/wife?

No, not at the moment.

I've been through several long-term relationships, and I think I'm too emotionally fucked up to actually be in one for real. There's a whole array of issues, and I don't even know how to sum them up. In a nutshell, I don't really like being myself.

[prirun]

Find a good therapist / counselor, which may take more than one attempt. The first counselor I had, for maybe 3 sessions, was terrible. The 4th session was with his boss, she asked me how it was going, I said I didn't really click with the guy, and she took over my case. She was great.

It's well worth it to learn how to accept and like yourself. After all, the one person you can count on having the rest of your life, is you! Good luck!

[temende]

What do you recommend as a good alternative for people who can't afford therapy?

[prirun]

There are places that have fees based on income, or their used to be when I was in counseling. The place I went had that, I think mostly for drug and alcohol abuse, but maybe just for everyday counseling too. I wasn't using it so don't know much about it, but it is/was a thing.