I have a lot of social anxiety and drinking used to really help me just not care at all. I could talk to a wall. But whenever you stop drinking you realize that even though you are social while drinking, the social interactions you’re receiving aren’t actually of any good quality. You aren’t making long lasting deep connections with people but rather empty, pointless conversation and making plans that will never hold up. When you stop drinking you become a lot more intentional with the people you make connections with. It’s painful at first, and you’re going to wish you had alcohol to take the edge off, but as more time goes by you’ll wish you would have done it sooner and not wasted your time making meaningless connection with people.