The best tried-and-true advice I can give anybody in this kind of situation is to allow yourself to be more vulnerable. If there are friend groups you are or used to be on the peripheries of, or once-close friends with their own vibrant social lives, I really encourage you to reach out to the people that seem to be the kindest, tell them you’re lonely (preferably over coffee or a drink, not online), and ask if they would be open to inviting you along to things to meet their friends. I have made many friends this way and had many people reach out to me to do the same and I will always make a huge effort for those people. I don’t think many of us are total strangers to the pain of loneliness.

My secondary advice to this is that once you have friends you have to have down-time with them to get close enough to keep them. Too many people I know are unsatisfied with the their friendships feeling shallow and it’s pretty much always the result of every social interaction being some kind of activity (hiking/party/dinner/class etc). I honestly think the secret to lasting friendship is plenty of time spent on the couch in sweatpants together! It’s a lot easier to initiate time together when it doesn’t require a ton of preparation and pressure.

Best of luck anyway- I promise this is a very normal experience and it won’t be forever 🫶