I also had this issue, and my solution to this was simply to meet new people who do like and have time for socializing. Sucks talking less to my old friends, but you can't force something to happen that doesn't want to happen.

It has worked really well for me so far, fwiw

Yup. One of my best friends I got to hang out with recent, but it had been ~6 months since last time we hung out just because work schedules. Was getting to the point I was worried that friend was just avoiding me (RSD?) which meant I was becoming more hesitant to reach out. Capitalism bad.

I don't know if I even have friends. There are a few people i'm friendly with but I haven't tested it. I feel like a burden and don't really ask to hang out or anything.

Your friends might just suck.

I've found very many people don't want to be my friend for various reasons, even if I want to be theirs.

The real trick is in a) realizing that and b) accepting it.

People will never come out and say, "I don't want to be friends with you" or "I'll hang out with when none of my other friends are available and my internet is out", so you have to read between the lines.

My most difficult friend breakup was with another guy going through a lot of the same existential things I was going through, and he was a deeply analytical, philosophical guy, and we had great conversations. We also watched an episode of ST:NG one night, which made me deliriously happy. We were planning on watching each other for a psychedlic trip. I thought I´d finally made a real friend.

But I was a low priority for him. What he really wanted was a girlfriend, and I was just there to be his wingman, drive him home from his drunken attempts to get laid, and help him pass the time. As soon as he got a girlfriend, he became unavailable. When he broke up again, he was there, but not really. I thought I'd help him get through it, but he was desperately creating a new dating profile while we were out together. Then on an another night, during a long drive, he ignored me completely and listened to podcasts.

He made some cruel joke at my expense via text and I told him to get back to me when he could be serious about his friendships. He wrote back something like, "Bro, it's not that serious" and then called me back a few hours later when my phone was on silent. That was it, that's exactly what salvaging this year-long relationship was worth to him: a text and an unanswered call and he just shrugged his shoulders and moved on.

Don´t waste your time with people like that. Give people a few chances, communicate if you think it'll help, then move on. Friends are supposed to support you, not constantly reject you. What you have now are _anti_friends, people that bring into your life all the opposite qualities that friends should.

All the cool people are here

Only one problem: I'm here too.

Greetings fellow chair-desk-person. Or perhaps lap-bed-pillow-person. Or even lap-floor-person

We've been interacting with bots anyways since we were young and taking them apart.

Not true, I'm in your walls.

It's been cool to learn that there are so many people with my exact mindset ...and closest one is 2000 kilometers away.

I just moved in April, still haven't found a job, still don't have friends 🤣

What I'm gathering from this is DND games are ideal places to obtain friends.

DND is my only in flesh human interaction outside of work.

A bit tangential, but just want to respond to your as someone who teaches singing and has to do a lot of talking in my profession - teaching (generally) involves a lot more talking than people tend to realize, and suddenly doing that after a long period will tire out anyone's vocal cords! I know my voice is typically shot the first week of teaching after summer break if I'm not very mindful about how I use my voice. This isn't like muscular atrophy though, the voice bounces back quick and adjusts to the increased use as long as you stay hydrated and don't push it too far past the fatigue and risk injury.

Same. I believe I've suffered from autistic burnout for roughly the last year. I was pushing myself to be social, for my wife and other reasons. That led to me finally getting diagnosed.

Almost all of the autism resources I have found say something along the lines of "Autistic people actually love to be social with other people! It's just difficult because kfnthr double-empathy problem. Try making friends with autistic people". The psychologist, therapist, books, articles, everything. It all felt... Weird.

Then I talked to my older sister who was diagnosed almost a decade ago. She realized a while ago that socialization is just bad for her, so she stopped doing it and has been much happier and healthier ever since.

Being laconic is under-rated.

It's an asd thing?