Do any of you deal with depression? For me I struggle with it and I seem to isolate myself a lot. I even isolate from going to church and seeing my friends, but then I get my feelings hurt when no one seems to notice I'm gone. Does anyone else have this problem?
I've been going through this exact same problem, especially since I've moved into my own place. Maybe it was because before I lived on my own, I never cared how often I saw people/hung out with them because my family was always around, so I never really felt alone. I had always considered myself to be introverted, and I preferred spending time by myself. Now that I don't have my family around though, I find that I am much more lonely than I have ever been. I realized now that I've been reaching out to my friends, but I hadn't put any effort into maintaining the friendships and it's been harder to make plans and keep them.
Not only that but everyone has jobs now, they're married, have kids, or have moved away. There have been quite a few times in the past couple of months that I have cried to my fiancee about not having friends like I used to. Slowly, I've come to realize that the reason I'm having so many problems, is because I was used to being forced to see the same people every day. (a.k.a. High School) In that type of situation, it's so easy to maintain friendships with little effort because all of us are stuck in the same place for eight hours a day. Now that it's over though, all of those people have been thrown into a bigger pond with billions of people, choices of where to go and what to do, and instead of being a school of 900, (like my school) I was one lowly person in the billions.
The truth is, in the real world everyone is doing their own thing, and you have to make a big effort to be a part of their lives, unlike before where friends would come to you. Now you have to find them. People really don't care if you're lonely, shy, or introverted. They will pass you by for someone else who isn't because there are so many other choices. They don't care if you're talented, have a great personality, compassion, or a ton to offer. What they care about it convenience, because just like you, they're starting their lives and don't have time to make effort. Or maybe they want to, but don't know how and feel the way that you do.
Then, there is Facebook... But I won't even touch that subject. Although, I do believe everyone using Facebook will eventually completely demolish our social skills and the need to meet people in person, but eh.
Anyhow, I hope this helped you in some way.