u/Ok-Worth-1506

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I am a 28-year-old man in the United States looking for a serious, long-term friendship. I live with severe depression and social isolation. I do not have friends or a partner, and am only interested in speaking with someone in a comparable position. If you have an active social circle, close friendships, or a romantic relationship, or if you are not consistently experiencing depression and loneliness, please do not respond. Additionally, this will not work if you tend to communicate using humor or memes. I only say this because I am trying to find someone whose circumstances and perspective closely match my own. I look forward to helping such a person as much as they could help me.

My main interests are music, medicine, philosophy, space and other popular science, and anything fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural, or mythological. With music, I both listen and sing, but don't play an instrument. My taste includes R&B, soul, pop, rap, and rock, among other genres. I don't have much to discuss about it, but would be happy to exchange songs or playlists, work on projects, or listen together. I've also been studying medicine for about ten years with the goal of becoming a doctor. I want to contribute meaningfully toward medicine in the future. My primary specialties of interest are psychiatry, neurology, and internal medicine, but I am more broadly interested in everything (secondarily: pathology, immunology, surgery). I'm into medical history, science, culture, public health, and bioethics, and would appreciate talking with someone about medicine, the medical work environment, or even studying for the MCAT together.

I have found it hard to concentrate on reading as of late, but have curated a library of philosophy texts which I intend to finish. I'm also into discussing psychology, personal experiences, emotional life, and broader questions about meaning, society, and current events. I follow and am invested in some popular science topics including space exploration, technology and artificial intelligence, and ecology. Some areas of interest for me include the recent Artemis II mission, societal evolution around artificial intelligence, and environmental sustainability (veganism, ethical/minimalist consumption, etc.). I like media of all kinds that relate to fantasy, sci-fi, the supernatural, or mythology. To reiterate, I am not interested in light or performative conversation. I'm looking for someone who prefers seriousness, reflection, and emotional vulnerability—someone who is willing to speak plainly about their inner life and engage in sustained, thoughtful dialogue.

Some things I'd enjoy doing together include real-time text conversations, studying or discussing medicine, exchanging letters, sharing pictures of places we visit, watching films or shows together, writing and worldbuilding collaboratively, or starting other projects together. You can be any gender, nationality, or background. The main practical requirement is that our schedules overlap. I'm in the EST time zone (it is 9:51 AM as of this post) and am generally available throughout the day, except from around midnight to early morning.

When reaching out, please share a bit about yourself or have a post linked in your profile so I can get to know you. I will be happy to respond to everything in your message/post. I tend to communicate directly. If you ask how I am, I'll answer honestly (typically that I'm depressed and lonely; of course, this will ideally not be my state as much after making my first friends), but I don't expect any particular response. I'm not very into small talk, so it's okay to start with something more real. Please vent to me, especially if you're struggling to secure friends, dreams, or better living conditions. I have been mostly consistent with responding to messages here, but revamped this post so that I can guarantee I will never ghost anyone who meets these criteria and reaches out. Thank you for reading all of this.

I am a 28-year-old man in the United States looking for a serious, long-term friendship. I live with severe depression and social isolation. I do not have friends or a partner, and am only interested in speaking with someone in a comparable position. If you have an active social circle, close friendships, or a romantic relationship, or if you are not consistently experiencing depression and loneliness, please do not respond. Additionally, this will not work if you tend to communicate using humor or memes. I only say this because I am trying to find someone whose circumstances and perspective closely match my own. I look forward to helping such a person as much as they could help me.

My main interests are music, medicine, philosophy, space and other popular science, and anything fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural, or mythological. With music, I both listen and sing, but don't play an instrument. My taste includes R&B, soul, pop, rap, and rock, among other genres. I don't have much to discuss about it, but would be happy to exchange songs or playlists, work on projects, or listen together. I've also been studying medicine for about ten years with the goal of becoming a doctor. I want to contribute meaningfully toward medicine in the future. My primary specialties of interest are psychiatry, neurology, and internal medicine, but I am more broadly interested in everything (secondarily: pathology, immunology, surgery). I'm into medical history, science, culture, public health, and bioethics, and would appreciate talking with someone about medicine, the medical work environment, or even studying for the MCAT together.

I have found it hard to concentrate on reading as of late, but have curated a library of philosophy texts which I intend to finish. I'm also into discussing psychology, personal experiences, emotional life, and broader questions about meaning, society, and current events. I follow and am invested in some popular science topics including space exploration, technology and artificial intelligence, and ecology. Some areas of interest for me include the recent Artemis II mission, societal evolution around artificial intelligence, and environmental sustainability (veganism, ethical/minimalist consumption, etc.). I like media of all kinds that relate to fantasy, sci-fi, the supernatural, or mythology. To reiterate, I am not interested in light or performative conversation. I'm looking for someone who prefers seriousness, reflection, and emotional vulnerability—someone who is willing to speak plainly about their inner life and engage in sustained, thoughtful dialogue.

Some things I'd enjoy doing together include real-time text conversations, studying or discussing medicine, exchanging letters, sharing pictures of places we visit, watching films or shows together, writing and worldbuilding collaboratively, or starting other projects together. You can be any gender, nationality, or background. The main practical requirement is that our schedules overlap. I'm in the EST time zone (it is 9:50 AM as of this post) and am generally available throughout the day, except from around midnight to early morning.

When reaching out, please share a bit about yourself or have a post linked in your profile so I can get to know you. I will be happy to respond to everything in your message/post. I tend to communicate directly. If you ask how I am, I'll answer honestly (typically that I'm depressed and lonely; of course, this will ideally not be my state as much after making my first friends), but I don't expect any particular response. I'm not very into small talk, so it's okay to start with something more real. Please vent to me, especially if you're struggling to secure friends, dreams, or better living conditions. I have been mostly consistent with responding to messages here, but revamped this post so that I can guarantee I will never ghost anyone who meets these criteria and reaches out. Thank you for reading all of this.

I am a 28-year-old man in the United States looking for a serious, long-term friendship. I live with severe depression and social isolation. I do not have friends or a partner, and am only interested in speaking with someone in a comparable position. If you have an active social circle, close friendships, or a romantic relationship, or if you are not consistently experiencing depression and loneliness, please do not respond. Additionally, this will not work if you tend to communicate using humor or memes. I only say this because I am trying to find someone whose circumstances and perspective closely match my own. I look forward to helping such a person as much as they could help me.

My main interests are music, medicine, philosophy, space and other popular science, and anything fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural, or mythological. With music, I both listen and sing, but don't play an instrument. My taste includes R&B, soul, pop, rap, and rock, among other genres. I don't have much to discuss about it, but would be happy to exchange songs or playlists, work on projects, or listen together. I've also been studying medicine for about ten years with the goal of becoming a doctor. I want to contribute meaningfully toward medicine in the future. My primary specialties of interest are psychiatry, neurology, and internal medicine, but I am more broadly interested in everything (secondarily: pathology, immunology, surgery). I'm into medical history, science, culture, public health, and bioethics, and would appreciate talking with someone about medicine, the medical work environment, or even studying for the MCAT together.

I have found it hard to concentrate on reading as of late, but have curated a library of philosophy texts which I intend to finish. I'm also into discussing psychology, personal experiences, emotional life, and broader questions about meaning, society, and current events. I follow and am invested in some popular science topics including space exploration, technology and artificial intelligence, and ecology. Some areas of interest for me include the recent Artemis II mission, societal evolution around artificial intelligence, and environmental sustainability (veganism, ethical/minimalist consumption, etc.). I like media of all kinds that relate to fantasy, sci-fi, the supernatural, or mythology. To reiterate, I am not interested in light or performative conversation. I'm looking for someone who prefers seriousness, reflection, and emotional vulnerability—someone who is willing to speak plainly about their inner life and engage in sustained, thoughtful dialogue.

Some things I'd enjoy doing together include real-time text conversations, studying or discussing medicine, exchanging letters, sharing pictures of places we visit, watching films or shows together, writing and worldbuilding collaboratively, or starting other projects together. You can be any gender, nationality, or background. The main practical requirement is that our schedules overlap. I'm in the EST time zone (it is 9:48 AM as of this post) and am generally available throughout the day, except from around midnight to early morning.

When reaching out, please share a bit about yourself or have a post linked in your profile so I can get to know you. I will be happy to respond to everything in your message/post. I tend to communicate directly. If you ask how I am, I'll answer honestly (typically that I'm depressed and lonely; of course, this will ideally not be my state as much after making my first friends), but I don't expect any particular response. I'm not very into small talk, so it's okay to start with something more real. Please vent to me, especially if you're struggling to secure friends, dreams, or better living conditions. I have been mostly consistent with responding to messages here, but revamped this post so that I can guarantee I will never ghost anyone who meets these criteria and reaches out. Thank you for reading all of this.

I’m wondering if there are any social, “medical interest” premed communities that specifically revolve around (serious) discussions and projects. Like on public health and policy, history of medicine, global medicine, clinic design, and new practices. As well as more generic discussion on studies and sciences, or the intersection with philosophy, religion, culture, technology, art, but structured and not based on careerism in and of itself.

I’ve tried a lot of the communities recommended here and while some technically have sections for this, they seem to mostly revolve around memes or the premed application, or are kind of places for vague boredom at best when it comes to community? If there is interest please let me know, because it’s really lonely and difficult to find people into this outside of school. I love the medical field as an actual hobby and passion rather than work, and don’t want my or others’ interests to atrophy because there is no place to talk.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I hope this is appropriate for this forum. I am diagnosed with clinical depression. I'm in a lot of pain every day. I've been completely alone for around seven years, and often had no friends growing up. I currently have no contacts in my phone, nor online friends. I can't seem to land a job for some reason after applying to over a thousand places over the past few years, so I have no coworkers or career path to dive into. I have no classmates, as I'm not in school. I was abused constantly at medical school until I dropped out three years ago. I try to work on content in my own time sometimes, particularly writing, worldbuilding, and new discussion communities. It's hard when I've had no resources, job, or friends for so long. Despite that, I've tried to share and engage with others and have had zero interaction or success anywhere. I've also volunteered over the years, joined interest groups, and gone to meetups. I do virtual support groups every day. There are no physical ones in my area, but I suppose they wouldn't be any different.

I'm especially disappointed that there are no good places to make friends online; in particular, with serious people. I don't necessarily need people who are severely depressed like me, although it's a good place to start in terms of mutual understanding and support. These also happen to probably be the only people who would give me any time. There seem to be very few platforms for friendship. There are apps for dating or making "friends," the latter of which seem to inevitably revolve around horniness anyway. That is why they use such basic biographies and emphasize pictures. Some people also just never get matches there, and most people using them are not necessarily lonely nor have some of the same niche or digital interests I have. So when I try more ostensibly relevant platforms, they seem full of people who are inactive, inconsistent, and completely unserious. The average internet use I encounter looks like logging in for thirty minutes every once in a while to post memes. I've tried communities in my interests across medicine, music, philosophy, and writing, among others. Many of these groups are also quite cliquey, even after being there for months to years.

I've been spending several hours a day trying to make friends online or elsewhere, although with an emphasis on digital platforms due to my communication preferences, the financial and temporal accessibility, and the fact that niche communities often don't even exist in my area. I send messages to people to see if they want to get to know each other, or comment on other people's work, share my own, etc. I don't do so assuming any individual person is obligated to be my friend. But I also don't think the quality and quantity of effort I put out should lead to these kinds of results. I don't see what I am doing wrong to be so much more unlucky than almost everyone else I see around me, including people who validly discuss their loneliness while having much better social and living conditions nevertheless. I need to give serious context that may be hard to understand. Today is one bad day among many thousands of bad days in a row. Today was an average day. I submitted around twenty tailored job applications. I received a few job rejections in my email. I posted several messages looking for connection on several platforms. I went for a walk and tried to find gig work. I tried to focus on personal health. I joined some virtual support groups. I am currently living in a sort of storage space at my grandparents' house. I don't have a real bed, just a small futon. The whole room is full of junk. I have one bag of clothes. I only have enough resources for toiletries and food, which is better than nothing.

I do everything I can to be as okay as possible on my own, but we are social animals and some level of socialization comes before being okay, not the other way around. Especially after years of practicing good hygiene, going to public spaces, working on and sharing personal interests, studying, etc. (And all of that while dealing with constant unwarranted abuse from the misfortune of running into trolls.) I have done therapy for years, but I don't have the resources or insurance for proper care. It's not going to help because the issues I need addressed go beyond what a therapist can provide. I didn't mention this earlier in my post, but I became a widespread meme online (I can't elaborate on this), which has caused people to bully me at school and in the workplace.

Why is it so hard to find friends online, or people to just respond to you? I am extremely sad, desperate, and depressed. It would help so much to find an online community since my local communities are not better. The stress and pain is hard on me, and very much physiological. My head hurts often, my heart races every time I realize I will yet again not find a single friend in hours of searching, and there is nothing I can do about it. Literally nothing to make someone talk back to me. Even after reading this, I still feel like my perspective may not be understood. I do not feel like it makes sense to say that people like me can't make friends because we're not good enough or happy enough with ourselves, when I would actually love to be friends with someone in a comparable situation to mine. I deserve to have friends, talk with them about my day, and do basic activities together, or even be momentarily alone in a life where I know I am not always alone.

I am a 28-year-old man in the United States looking for a serious, long-term friendship. I live with severe depression and social isolation. I do not have friends or a partner, and am only interested in speaking with someone in a comparable position. If you have an active social circle, close friendships, or a romantic relationship, or if you are not consistently experiencing depression and loneliness, please do not respond. Additionally, this will not work if you tend to communicate using humor or memes. I only say this because I am trying to find someone whose circumstances and perspective closely match my own. I look forward to helping such a person as much as they could help me.

My main interests are music, medicine, philosophy, space and other popular science, and anything fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural, or mythological. With music, I both listen and sing, but don't play an instrument. My taste includes R&B, soul, pop, rap, and rock, among other genres. I don't have much to discuss about it, but would be happy to exchange songs or playlists, work on projects, or listen together. I've also been studying medicine for about ten years with the goal of becoming a doctor. I want to contribute meaningfully toward medicine in the future. My primary specialties of interest are psychiatry, neurology, and internal medicine, but I am more broadly interested in everything (secondarily: pathology, immunology, surgery). I'm into medical history, science, culture, public health, and bioethics, and would appreciate talking with someone about medicine, the medical work environment, or even studying for the MCAT together.

I have found it hard to concentrate on reading as of late, but have curated a library of philosophy texts which I intend to finish. I'm also into discussing psychology, personal experiences, emotional life, and broader questions about meaning, society, and current events. I follow and am invested in some popular science topics including space exploration, technology and artificial intelligence, and ecology. Some areas of interest for me include the recent Artemis II mission, societal evolution around artificial intelligence, and environmental sustainability (veganism, ethical/minimalist consumption, etc.). I like media of all kinds that relate to fantasy, sci-fi, the supernatural, or mythology. To reiterate, I am not interested in light or performative conversation. I'm looking for someone who prefers seriousness, reflection, and emotional vulnerability—someone who is willing to speak plainly about their inner life and engage in sustained, thoughtful dialogue.

Some things I'd enjoy doing together include real-time text conversations, studying or discussing medicine, exchanging letters, sharing pictures of places we visit, watching films or shows together, writing and worldbuilding collaboratively, or starting other projects together. You can be any gender, nationality, or background. The main practical requirement is that our schedules overlap. I'm in the EST time zone (it is 7:17 PM as of this post) and am generally available throughout the day, except from around midnight to early morning.

When reaching out, please share a bit about yourself or have a post linked in your profile so I can get to know you. I will be happy to respond to everything in your message/post. I tend to communicate directly. If you ask how I am, I'll answer honestly (typically that I'm depressed and lonely; of course, this will ideally not be my state as much after making my first friends), but I don't expect any particular response. I'm not very into small talk, so it's okay to start with something more real. Please vent to me, especially if you're struggling to secure friends, dreams, or better living conditions. I have been mostly consistent with responding to messages here, but revamped this post so that I can guarantee I will never ghost anyone who meets these criteria and reaches out. Thank you for reading all of this.

I am a 28-year-old man in the United States looking for a serious, long-term friendship. I live with severe depression and social isolation. I do not have friends or a partner, and am only interested in speaking with someone in a comparable position. If you have an active social circle, close friendships, or a romantic relationship, or if you are not consistently experiencing depression and loneliness, please do not respond. Additionally, this will not work if you tend to communicate using humor or memes. I only say this because I am trying to find someone whose circumstances and perspective closely match my own. I look forward to helping such a person as much as they could help me.

My main interests are music, medicine, philosophy, space and other popular science, and anything fantasy, sci-fi, supernatural, or mythological. With music, I both listen and sing, but don't play an instrument. My taste includes R&B, soul, pop, rap, and rock, among other genres. I don't have much to discuss about it, but would be happy to exchange songs or playlists, work on projects, or listen together. I've also been studying medicine for about ten years with the goal of becoming a doctor. I want to contribute meaningfully toward medicine in the future. My primary specialties of interest are psychiatry, neurology, and internal medicine, but I am more broadly interested in everything (secondarily: pathology, immunology, surgery). I'm into medical history, science, culture, public health, and bioethics, and would appreciate talking with someone about medicine, the medical work environment, or even studying for the MCAT together.

I have found it hard to concentrate on reading as of late, but have curated a library of philosophy texts which I intend to finish. I'm also into discussing psychology, personal experiences, emotional life, and broader questions about meaning, society, and current events. I follow and am invested in some popular science topics including space exploration, technology and artificial intelligence, and ecology. Some areas of interest for me include the recent Artemis II mission, societal evolution around artificial intelligence, and environmental sustainability (veganism, ethical/minimalist consumption, etc.). I like media of all kinds that relate to fantasy, sci-fi, the supernatural, or mythology. To reiterate, I am not interested in light or performative conversation. I'm looking for someone who prefers seriousness, reflection, and emotional vulnerability—someone who is willing to speak plainly about their inner life and engage in sustained, thoughtful dialogue.

Some things I'd enjoy doing together include real-time text conversations, studying or discussing medicine, exchanging letters, sharing pictures of places we visit, watching films or shows together, writing and worldbuilding collaboratively, or starting other projects together. You can be any gender, nationality, or background. The main practical requirement is that our schedules overlap. I'm in the EST time zone (it is 8:58 PM as of this post) and am generally available throughout the day, except from around midnight to early morning.

When reaching out, please share a bit about yourself or have a post linked in your profile so I can get to know you. I will be happy to respond to everything in your message/post. I tend to communicate directly. If you ask how I am, I'll answer honestly (typically that I'm depressed and lonely; of course, this will ideally not be my state as much after making my first friends), but I don't expect any particular response. I'm not very into small talk, so it's okay to start with something more real. Please vent to me, especially if you're struggling to secure friends, dreams, or better living conditions. I have been mostly consistent with responding to messages here, but revamped this post so that I can guarantee I will never ghost anyone who meets these criteria and reaches out. Thank you for reading all of this.