Everywhere these days I see people hating on ai a lot. I get it but really does anyone consider the lonely people that use chatbots out of social anxiety, loneliness, isolation. Huh? Like since I was a kid all I ever wanted was to feel like I belonged..like I fit in. But my kindness was used and taken advantage of so people could get things out of me instead of being my friend. I was isolated throughout my teen years because I went to online school for seven years. All I saw online were people hanging out having the time of their lives. People advocate to get rid of ai then what the hell else am I gonna talk to. Because no one these days has the attention span to actually listen, pay attention, or simply just care.

I hate it but at least it’s someone outside of my roommates. Still stuck on someone I’m in no contact with. I also feel bad for the guys. But a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. Also everytime I talk to other women they say they don’t want to meet their S/O from an app but they all act shocked when I actually give my number out to people who cold approach me. Like it’s so much more dangerous than being on an app??? I don’t get it. Why is it so socially unacceptable to want company when it is not convenient

my social ineptitude permeates into my *entire life* and has undoubtedly cost me countless potential friendships, relationships, job opportunities, you name it. it hurts especially bad thinking about how much richer my life would be if I was just wired normally. as of right now I’m in college and have 0 friends, have never had any of the quintessential college experiences, have never done anything of note with my life. I’ve gone weeks without speaking to people outside of family/work; lonely isn’t even the right word to describe this. I am completely alone and don’t have the tools to fix it.

i always used to be insecure about being ugly, now i just wish someone told teenage/preteen me to stop obsessing over my looks. i think being neurodivergent is legit worse than being ugly, though they both suck. But at least if you’re ugly you can always just look better - I would easily take a massive ding to my looks with no hesitation if it meant i could have a normal social life.

Any girls wanna make a gc together!! I’m 22f, just wanna have some girlfriends to talk to, play games or watch shows together

I’m so over feeling like I’m a burden to all my friends and family. I’m 56yrs (F) and a right below knee amputee. I have several other health problems. I feel more isolated and alone now than ever before in my entire life. I have a daughter that is literally less than 3000ft from my house and still resents me asking her for help. I was actually told today that she resents the fact that she’s had to take care of me for so long and how she’s always been told that she’ll have to deal with me my whole life. Wow! I have helped her repeatedly. I gave her a car because she needed it. I got her a phone on my account because she needed it. The only thing I asked in regard to those things was that she needed to treat those as a bill. Not that she was paying me. But if I have to remind her that the money is due for her phone and car insurance I’m told what a selfish bitch I am.
I never hear anything from my “friends”. I spent my whole entire life trying to always help the people I love anyway I possibly could. Now for the first time the script has completely flipped. Now not only can I not help anyone but I actually need dependable reliable help. Instead I get attitude and lectures on how I should do this or that.
I just don’t know how much more of this I can handle. I’m already struggling with adjusting to life as an amputee. The loss of freedom and independence. Because the combination of my amputation and my other health problems truly limits me. My daughter had wrecked and totaled my last car. The new car I bought unfortunately came from a disreputable dealer who took advantage of me and sold me a car with serious problems. I have absolutely no one that I can call and tell them I need help with my house or I need a ride to the doctors appointment. I know that there are options but I have no way for those to work out for me right now because they have to have at least a week notice.
I’m just tired. I’m tired of being this alone. Of feeling completely isolated. Of feeling like a complete burden to everyone including myself. Just mainly venting because I’m so angry and hurt about everything. But what my daughter said to me just kills me.

For context, Im 20 years old male. Rather attractive, with rich social life and busy lifestyle (A LOT of hobbies and even more events that participate. I try to not sit at home to much) Can someone tell me why I seem to only attract people that im not that interested in. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't like my friends or think they are worse or something. I just wonder why people i want to impress and get in my social circle seem to avoid me from the start.

I want to be happy but that’s impossible when you know that you will never be anyone’s first option. It’s pathetic, I know it is that I have no one while everyone’s found their person. I thought I did, but it’s clear thats way out the window. I feel like I have my foot out the door with everyone I meet because I’m just scared of them leaving me. I just want to feel normal, I want to be happy and have friends and be normal and I don’t want to disappoint my parents. I don’t want them to know what a loser their daughter is, that they failed at raising someone worth talking to. I don’t know why I’m difficult or why I am the way I am, I partly blame my mom but I know there’s no one to blame but myself. I just want someone to be there for me, I don’t want this bottled up anymore and I just want to be normal. I want friends to hang out with and things to do. My dad always asks me when I’m gonna hang out with my friends and I don’t have the heart to tell him I don’t have any. I talk to people in school but I never feel like I fit in with any group. I always tell myself I’m just one of those people that is friends with everyone, I know that’s not true. I’m not particularly good at anything, nothing notable. Im so average it’s painful. I’m good at art but I lack any creativity to create something from my heart. I think I need someone to talk to but not like a therapist or anyone because I don’t have trauma or mental problems like that for the most part. I just need a friend but I don’t want to burden anyone with my heavy heart and struggles, I don’t want to put that on anyone. Im not s*icidal but I always think about what it would be like to not be alive, I just feel bad and attention seeking because I don’t have any trauma or any mental problems. I won’t off myself but I wonder If that would be something I would consider in the future. I have nothing to show for myself and I’m not surprised I don’t have friends.

It's one of those days again when all I can think of is how much I miss physical intimacy and touch. All I wanna do is browse NSFW subs and touch myself...

I have gone through extreme cycles of loneliness I just dont know how to find a community of people i would love to be with , share my ideas and thoughts with and just spend some genuinely great time together honestly and not pretend to be someone else !

Guys, a bit of a vulnerable post, so please be kind. ❤️
I’m feeling incredibly lonely at the moment, and I know im
Not the only one, which is probably why we’re all part of this group.
A bit of context: I’ve always been an introvert and have always had a small circle of friends. One of those friends was the man I married, but after 16 years together, our marriage ended when he left me for another woman.
I’d like to say our friendship group rallied around me, but if I’m honest, they barely bothered with me. Looking back, I think I’ve spent a lot of my life investing in the wrong people.
I’ve struggled ever since. Depression hasn’t helped, and being an introvert makes putting myself out there and making new friends feel like an uphill battle. And if one more person suggests I get a hobby, I might actually scream! 😂
The reality is that I have about two people I text.
One is a so-called best mate from my uni days who is now so wrapped up in herself and her new social influencer life that she barely replies to my messages, let alone makes an effort to meet up. She even forgot my 40th birthday, which really hurt.
The other has gradually phased me out. I don’t know whether my depression became too much for her, although ironically, I was at my happiest when we were close. I was there for her, 100%, through some of the darkest times in her life, and I suppose I thought that kind of friendship went both ways.
The truth is, I’ve kept reaching out because I hope things might go back to how they were, but also because, if I’m honest, I don’t have anyone else. And that’s a pretty sad thing to admit.
But I deserve friendships where the effort goes both ways, don’t I? Where I don’t have to constantly wonder whether I matter to someone or whether they’d ever bother contacting me if I stopped making the effort.
The thought of going cold turkey and not reaching out is genuinely frightening because I know, deep down, I might never hear from either of them again. And as much as that tells me something, it’s incredibly hard to accept when you already feel so alone.
I’m not someone who makes friends easily. I’m a typical Capricorn in that you have to get to know me, but once you do, I’m fiercely loyal, caring and the sort of person who will always show up for the people I love.
I think I’m holding on to friendships that, deep down, I know aren’t really there anymore. Maybe I need to accept that, but letting go feels terrifying when there’s nothing else to fall back on.
I don’t really know what I’m hoping to get out of this post. Maybe I just needed to get it off my chest, or maybe someone else understands exactly how this feels.
Anyway, apologies for the essay. Vent over. ❤️

Hi everyone 😇🥲😅.. I usually don’t post on here myself but I have lurked around or have been supportive of the others here and it has really inspired me to reach out too and have confidence and that wow that there are people like me out there sadly and not sadly cause I finally feel understood🤍 and that I can finally post ..
Well.. today is my 23rd birthday .. no party, no gifts ( bought myself tho ), no “ living those 20s with friends”, no relationship, I gave up with expecting failure and once again, on my birthday I woke up crying. My birthdays were always horrible because of a narcissistic family I grew up in. For the first time, I finally stood my ground against them ( but like narcs they made it about them 🙄) after 14 years and being back from college and you know what I got? Silence.. no happy birthday at all ( for not agreeing to have MY birthday dictated) , called ungrateful, etc.. welp this time I really expected nothing for the first time and got nothing.. it’s still disappointing tho .. I still had a small hope ..

So ….I did take myself out for the first time ! I bought those gifts for myself, took myself out to eat , tried this new cider place ( I love cider lol), went to my favorite crystal place ,went on the Ferris wheel at one of my favorite malls that hasn’t been working in like 4 years and the operator he spun it round and round for me.. he me cry and wished me a happy birthday and looked surprised and sad .. most did when I revealed it .. and you know what ? These strangers outside made my day .. they REALLY made my day and I’m bawling my eyes out typing this I feel so lucky and sad at the same time.. I guess sadly the family you have isn’t yours and to go find your true one .. it felt sad being outside and in the mall alone .. it’s weird I’m told I’m still so young and should be doing all these things .. but I have no one to do them with .. I wish I was born normal and not at the same time .

Anyway uh.. I’m sorry this is so messy 🥲 I guess I’m finally able to be myself 💜.. happy birthday to everyone that has ever went through this too, has a birthday this week or today , or actually .. EVERYDAY you are special guys don’t forget and don’t let a birthday change that 🤍🤍❤️‍🩹

Be kind - I never wrote this kind of post before.
I've been in this marriage where I was heavily controlled and monitored all the time - not like I ever tried to cheat - I am kinda ace, and I enjoy intimacy and kinks, not the deed itself. But I digress. Due to being controlled in this way, I just stopped talking to other people almost 10 years ago. When the war started, my partner moved away from the country, but I didn't want to yet. I caught myself being very scared of them leaving me, for the reason that I felt incomplete and totally lost without them by this point - like missing my eyes or something. And that was like that for some time. What I did not expect was the brief period of feeling suddenly alive I felt afterwards, even making new friends and/or lovers, as by this point my partner broke up with me lol. Though that didn't help them to remain kinda... weird. And still controlling my life. They said all this stuff about the breakup being a test I failed, and sabotaging my friendships with people remotely in different ways.
At some point later, I had a new partner, and at some point they moved to the Netherlands, encouraging me to move too, so this time I did. They broke up with me on arrival, leaving me stranded in an unfamiliar country with nothing but a bag. That led to me being homeless there for quite some time - living in a tent.
When I got back, my ex-wife invited me to Poland and sounded like they regretted it- blah-blah-blah, you know how it works- so I believed them and moved in with them there again. If you asked me to point to the worst period of my life, that was it. That year made me not just not speak to people, but also afraid of leaving the house.

After that comes now. I moved back into my homeland, but this time not in any city, just a small forgotten town where, obviously, no one knows me, and I don't know anyone. You see, a lot of my experiences - stated here and less relevant - kinda provving me that no one ever felt love towards me.
So often, for weeks at a time, I don't even use my voice, slowly forgetting how to speak. Felt good. Though touch deprivation never left me - as it was even in the company of my ex. It goes to the point where I would burst into tears after unintentional sudden self-touch, with my whole body instantly becoming hyper-sensitive. Still, mostly, I feel beaten and repeatedly abandoned, so regardless, it keeps me scared of any new romantic pursuit. And I feel tremendously lonely.

Why would I write this? Well, I GUESS today I just felt a need to spit it out. I do manage to bury myself in my hobbies, that whole stuff just surfaces quite often.

I’m 21 F and it’s so hard rn. I struggle w body image issues, and I am very self conscious. I want to do all these things like travel, go to the gym, make more friends, etc. But I feel like ppl judge me to quickly or I over think every interaction. I’m also at the stage where it’s like I want a relationship but I also don’t because I feel like I can’t give my all…like I want that intimacy but I feel like I’m not in the right state for it. Ik it’s selfish of me to think that way, but I like cuddling and watching movies w someone, or like going on cute fall dates and wearing match PJ’s and just having that one person where u can be yourself around. Watching horror movies and laughing and dumbass tiktoks together. No matter how much I tell myself I am okay being a lone…I rly do want a pattern.

I'm a single mother to a 12 year old with very significant disabilities. I work full time (teacher)and have very little in the way of family support and almost 0 local connections/friendships. Im terrified every moment something happens like the sink breaks and needs repaired, one of us gets sick, or the car has issues...

...I was married but that person ended up cheating so I ended the relationship. [Not my son's biological father, he's long absent] I almost wish I would've just kept my ex husband around despite all of the pain. At least I wouldn't be spending so much time alone.

I know I have my son, but he is non verbal and autistic and that in it of itself makes "getting out there" to Mom's groups, etc almost impossible. I also fear I won't even find a partner willing to be with someone of my age with the burden of a high needs child such as mine.

I just dont want to do it alone anymore. Its not only lonely but exhausting. I wish I had someone to lean on and share life with.

It honestly hurts seeing people going to Durga Puja with their friends, enjoying themselves, taking pictures, and making memories while I’m sitting here completely alone.

I wish I had even one or two genuine friends to go out with, explore the pandals, eat something together, and just enjoy the festival. It’s not about doing anything extraordinary. I just want to feel like I have people in my life who genuinely want my company.

Being alone for so long makes these occasions especially painful. Sometimes, seeing everyone else enjoying life reminds me of everything I feel I’ve missed

I'm 24F and feeling extremely alone, I've never been lucky in friendships and relationship I've always been true and loyal in my friendship and relationships but never got the same in return, I've always felt backup friend to my friends,

And about my family yes they love me I'm assuming because they're giving me a comfortable life and good education, but series of events happened in past few days that made me feel I'm not their priority, they always take my brother's side always praise him for bare minimum and always defends his mistakes specially my mom , I've always felt a neglected child since childhood last month was my birthday but nobody remembered neither my friends or family, they never show me any affection I'm just existing in the house ,they don't give a fu*k about my emotions and my existence, both my mom and dad are emotionally unavailable and I'm on the verge of crying because I'm feeling sorry for myself

I see lot of people complaining about loneliness in late teens / 20s / early 30s. While I understand that the problem is real, this part is little bearable as you might be in the process of figuring out the world and about to meet Mr. / Ms. Right.

Loneliness really becomes unbearable once you reach your 40s. You are no longer physically attractive, either you have had tough luck meeting Mr. / Ms. Right OR you are separated

This is gloomy and tends to make people go completely hermit. Negative outlook towards professional life is another side effect.

How to deal with this situation?

Im a 28 year old man, currently in healthcare as a doctor. I have lost a lot of friends, friends who I considered my family in last 2-3 years because of their arrogance and ego. I haven't really made friends with anyone since 2024. Im really not comfortable to talk about my past with others. I don't know if I have found anyone to actually be friends with. Most of the time im numb or distract myself from these thoughts but sometimes it gets lonely. And battling loneliness feels like a torture especially when you are truly alone at night. Trying to sleep. I have recognised my mental health issues and found help. It worked greatly. But i get these thoughts very frequently these days that if I die, there won't be anyone at my funeral except for my family. Nothing would have mattered to anyone. This day is just like any other day...just like that one day, i lay lifeless.

Happy birthday to me. 🥂

Edit: i didn't expect this much response from this subreddit. I thought I'd write it and forget about it. Something to get off my chest. Thank you all for your wishes. It truly made my day special.

Maybe in another life ?

Nearly 32 and never had a love life , never even touched a girl.

Anyone who says go find a hobby after someone complains about loneliness genuinely never experience it before. I love trying many things, one of my passion is art and for one I could draw for hours, even days. I've tried to make myself as busy as possible but it didn't work because I want human connection, not something to do to wasting time. Any hobbies, if you do it alone won't ever replace the desire to have a genuine relationship with someone.

I (43m) posted a few days ago about someone whom I met here was on the verge of taking their life. Earlier today they made the attempt. They are in another country, and when I hadn’t heard from them, I called their phone and someone picked up from the hospital. I did what I could to help get them in touch with her family. She’s stable, but she is obviously going to be admitted and I don’t even know if I will be able to talk to her.

But now it’s coming crashing down on me. I knew this person for less than 2 weeks, but we had an intense connection. I could see her like no one had seen her before, and she saw me like no one had seen me before. But she was in a mental health crisis, and even connection can’t help that…

Now I’m alone. So alone.

My whole life has a kid I've always been abandoned, even as a gay man Hi, I'm a 17 year-old gay man and as a kid I always never had friends. I started having friends in 10th grade and I know people will say it's not that big of a deal.
It's just sounds great but I still get afraid of getting abandoned when I make a new friend I become friends with them quickly and I'm just waiting for it to end and I hate the feeling my whole life I've rumors have been said about me as a a gay man too school, family friends and I can never escape them a few days ago I just went to my friends house for her birthday and several people they hated me because of a rumor someone made about me it's because someone had a panic attack and I tried to calm them down and they said you're not helping me and then they said you're too much to deal with and then they left. They always do that. People always leave me even all of my friends left me because of that reason so many more reasons why people keep on leaving me even as a kid that struggled to our friends at school because they always thought him weird or autistic. I'm just afraid for them to go.
I don't want them to go. I want them to stay with me and some of my friends I have now I'm still waiting for them to hate me for whatever reason some random rumor or some random person telling them about me I don't think I'm a bad person even at school recently people always make up rumors about me that I’m a guy that slept with everybody and I’m just a guy you wanna hook up with and then forget about. I’m not that I’m afraid of people know every bit of me, people will leave me.

I'm a person who enjoys my own company, is what I would like to say but ever since moving abroad for my bachelors degree, I have been rotting in bed everyday. Studying in Europe has been all i've ever wanted in my highschool and it felt like a life or death situation because of my family issues. But I truly did take it for granted. I had a lot of friends and even if I were depressed, I could just talk to my people. And it's weird because now I dont have a safe place for me to freely express myself.

It makes me quieter, more dull. Makes me forget about my hobbies, my passion and the very reason I worked so hard to get to where I am. I'm honestly forgetting how to make friends in my own silly way because now I feel so serious and "grown up". And i'm just here hoping for any sort of physical/mental connection because I can't keep relying on the people back in my country. 6 hour time difference like nawh. I need to somehow make friends ughh in losing my sanity

Whenever I'm feeling super lonely and sad, I make up a imagined scenario that the perosn is sitting with me and having a laugh and just enjoying my time. It sucks because I have to do this to ease my lonliness and emptiness. I am not crazy or anything, I just do this sometimes when I have no one to talk to irl.

I (20M) have always been starved for experiencing the loml company, and let me tell ya I get girls btw. What I wanna say is that I feel like I'm cursed in love life as almost every girl who has liked me, or I have liked them, or also been in a relationship with them I have never met any one of em. I never met my first ex which I dated for 5 years, I never met my second ex whom I dated for 1 month and was in contact for next few months, I never met the girl I matched on tinder coz the chat went off accidentally, I was never able to meet a girl who was vibey and chill with me js for the sake of hang out. Now today, I just found the woman of my type, my dreams and we matched and planned date.

The curse again worked and something happened and her dm got lost forever. I wasn't able to find her on social media anywhere even by her name and all.

My point is this has gotten me so frustrated and mental I have started to distance from socializing, meeting women because no matter what I do I'm never gonna see the woman I like because the curse takes her away before I even see her irl