I'm 23 years old student struggling with social isolation and depression and feeling lonely almost everyday. Any suggestion on how to avoid this loneliness?
Plan who you can talk to and what about (like what do they like or shared interests), and than just do it. No matter if it's family or an old friend. Just call them/invite them. If you don't know what to talk about just spend some time reading news. Plan each day, make little steps towards the goal and you'll be good.
Plenty of online communities to join and talk about things you like. Invite friends when you play video games so you can play with the same people and develop friendships.
I signed for the weekly accountability group. There is also a casual drop in sessions that anyone can join. That's helped me deal with my loneliness or whenever i needed to share.
Start improving your social connections through your family and closed friends. There are social apps like Discord or Social media if it is fine for you. Also Online games could help. Above all, work on being your best friend and on improving yourself in every passion
perhaps if you could visit a therapist. it's ok to be lonely. i once made a horrible choice of friends cause i was embarrassed to be alone. slowly i became submissive, an empty shell. if you can get in touch with your old friends, that'd be great. therapy helped me with depression to some extent.
Its really tough not having people. Even if you have a close family, this can actually be worse. I often feel ashamed to be around my family because of what a failure I am, particularly in the social sense.
Hm... if you did the things I do to cope with loneliness, people would probably think you're crazy. I'm not sure, I'd probably try to put yourself in more social situations. I hate social situations but they get better and more fun over time. Kind of like how learning to swim is scary at first, then it becomes fun.
Meditate, meditate, meditate. You've been sitting on a chest full of gold coins all this time but you don't realize it
You can reach out to me if you want. I think I'm a good listener and I also like deep, philosophical conversations. So as to the suggestions, I can only tell you what works in my case. When I feel lonely, I try to focus on my hobbies, recently it's been reading books. As we all know, books help you escape the world. In my opinion, they're better than TV shows. Sometimes I put on my favorite music so I can relax even more.
I was feeling very lonely at 23 and made some terrible decisions. Here are some things I would tell my 23 year old self to NOT do: 1) Don't hang out with people for the sake of it. It's better to be alone than force yourself in a group. 2) Don't go to social events where you will feel miserable (did that, regretted that) 3) Don't feel guilty for being alone. It's okay to feel left out, but don't force yourself out of loneliness and don't be with people who make you want to be alone
One thing to remember is you're never a burden to someone when reaching out or trying to connect. Within the hobbies you have or wish to have, use all of your resources to connect with other people who share these hobbies or interests. But also do not undermine the power of looking inside yourself. In the meantime, take this opportunity to become your own best friend, and any outside relationship to come after that will be that much more enriched.