Basically what the title says, two questions:
- Do you feel lonely or socially isolated?
- If you are, what are you trying to change that?
According to the WHO it’s an epidemic,
I’ve been emigrating to different countries about every 15 years and had to rebuild a network of friends from scratch every time. The younger I was the easier it was obviously. But that is a lot of work and you need to invest time and energy which I sometimes don’t have so much, especially now with a small child which needs a lot of attention.
We meet up as a family with other families about once a month and it’s really great, but while my wife keeps in contact with the other mothers in between online, somehow we dads don’t even have a group chat where we would do that and perhaps propose to meet up, it’s always the women who propose it.
It’s kind of weird that its like that and I should change it.
While the WHO doesn’t call it outright an epidemic, it seems they think it’s such a big problem that they created a specific commission to foster social connection: https://www.who.int/news/item/15-11-2023-who-launches-commission-to-foster-social-connection
I’m extremely lonely but there’s nothing really to be done. I keep thinking I’m friends with people and then they pull away suddenly. Two of them even started acting like they didn’t remember making plans with me even though the plans were their ideas.
Most people my age turn out to be homophobic and transphobic too, and only like me because they thought I was one of the “cool ones” (read: self-loathing). Or because they mistook me for a straight woman and think they can score.
I don’t really understand people who can form genuine connections. My self esteem is in the toilet and even I won’t put up with that stuff.