I’ve had several senior neighbours who passed away, after decades of living alone. We’ve always helped each other in one way or another and when they passed, in all cases I thought back about the last time we talked. In all cases the conversations remembered involved kindness. Either from then to us or from us to them and them being grateful. It’s what remains.
Giving kindness is most satisfying. It makes the receiver happy, but it makes you happy as well in a wat that kind of lasts. It’s an interaction that compounds on both sides. I think that’s why church groups, and mentorships, ans teaching, and advisory roles are satisfying. Teaching, giving, coaching all make life far more vibrant emotionally, and far less lonely.
Giving grows the pie, while zero sum games see it as affixed. Trying to compete in the latter will make you lonely. Trying to grow the pie in any kind of local community might make you see things differently.
To get things out of the way: yes it is hard being alone. But it is also hard to be with someone and is very hard to take care of kids and family and such. And it is waaay harder to be with wrong person. There are no easy roads in life and being single is one of the easiest.
Now I’ll focus on practical advise:
- gym every day. No excuses. If you don’t know what to do or lack motivation- get a personal trainer.
- besides gym pick an active “hobby”. Cycling, rollerblading, running, skiing, surfing etc. You need self-supporting way to spend time outdoors. Again: do seek instruction.
- learn to play music. It is very healing and rewarding. Also frustrating and hard. Guess what? Take classes. Joining (community) school is great. Getting into local band is amazing. Most importantly here: you do not need to talk to these people. Same goes for drawing studio.
- professional education. Maybe you always wanted to be CPA?
- deep and challenging activities: sailing, diving, flying, mountaineering etc
- checklist reading, movie watching
- study textbooks
- systematic traveling
- volunteer
- build things with your hands and give them away
- learn to recognize your emotional state and how it changes.
My “qualifications”: I was single for ~10+10 years.
+1 for physical exercise. Curious though why you (or anybody else) would separate running and/or cycling from the gym? Gym gets its own (emphatic!) category and the sports are separate. Not a criticism, genuinely curious.
Being outdoors is a big differentiator for me. I find (uv) light exposure to noticeably improve my self being. Also I can’t stay productively in the gym for 3 hours, but I can easily cycle.
Same. I loathe gyms, actually. Perhaps Ive been absent for too long to have an honest loathing, I've no attraction to them though (I don't begrudge anybody who likes them or uses them though - easy to see their value).
A bicycle, on the other hand... a thing of beauty.
Gym is important to set a body routine and get it used to “flush” emotions out with sweat. Daily exercise when in vulnerable state is non-negotiable imo (but hard). Not everyone can afford to bike every day. Hence why I recommend gym first.
I was single for 10 years after college. Then married for 7 (very very badly). Then single for another 10. I thought I will spend the rest of my days alone. I have two kids now.
I'm two years ahead of you in this journey. I got divorced after just over a decade with my partner. Social engagements to me were always ad-hoc. I suck at planning so I often found myself more alone than I'd like.
Looking back on the last two years and auditing what worked, I would say routine and lingering were the most important thing.
Trying new things is mentally draining and labor intensive, this is a fact of life for many. What worked for me was finding something I enjoyed (exercise classes) and doing it consistently multiple times a week at the same place for months. With repetition, it's very easy to make new friends. Complaining about one exercise one week turns into making comments about the music the next, and all of a sudden you're getting coffee with friends.
At the start it was very difficult, and I was very bad, but now I'm part of a community and have many close friends. Its a hour per day most days of the week. It's also a jumping off point for everything else social. It provides purpose and self-confidence. Which are prerequisites for everything else meaningful in life.
One other thought to drill deeper into regarding lingering.
I'm the type of guy that always moves with purpose. When I'm done doing something, I'm quick to leave. Looking back on my life so far, I think this has often been mistaken as antisocial.
Every event involving humans is default social. Leaving quickly precludes much of life's social whimsy.
I'm much the same. It's hard to notice. Coming up having onsites with three and four and five consulting clients in a "normally busy" day (you want 'high touch?' I started before smartphones!) taught me to associate just that purposeful attitude with the satisfying knowledge that I probably wouldn't end the day running further behind when I started.
It's a good energy to bring to work or to a crisis. Everywhere else? Maybe not so much. I appreciate you mentioning it here; it can serve me also, as a reminder to work on that.
Wonderful advice Geoff, that's the same kind of thing I started doing when my relationship broke down. You find your community, and the rest will come.
you hit the nail here.. repetition is key! that’s what happens at a workplace or school. You show up every day, do your thing, and have small interactions here and there. Over time, those interactions grow, and you get to know each other on a deeper level and become friends.
This can be replicated with similar activities that involve a schedule, like joining classes, volunteering, or whatever else fits that kind of setup.
I think there are a couple questions you need to ask yourself - the first is why is it hard for you to be alone? You're the one person you're stuck living with for your entire life - it shouldn't be hard to be alone with yourself. That's where it began. That's where it will end.
You mentioned you have a therapist - this is something you might wish to explore with them.
The second question is related - what are you looking for in the "not alone"? What do you want? What would bring you peace? Are you looking for a relationship? A friend? Sex? etc? While you have to be comfortable with yourself, part of that comfort is knowing and being confident in what you're looking for. It may be that the world won't or can't provide it, but that's why I put this question second.
The final point I'll make is that there's nothing stopping you. You're an adult... within the constraints of the laws of your society, you CAN do what you want and there's nothing stopping you. It may not go the way you want, but it might, and wouldn't it be fun to try?
I’ve been alone since about 20. I am 26 now and have been renting a room from someone who is in a similar state as myself. We mostly do our own thing but it’s nice to have others around. Something I learned was necessary when living alone was to have connections with people. I am religious and belong to a church the social connection there was critical to my survival as an individual. I had friends who were in multiple stages of life. I would try to spend time with others multiple times a week.
On Thursday’s I would spend time with my friend who’s in his 60s. I might help him fix some shelves or his furnace or whatever in exchange for a meal with him and his wife. We would play a few rounds of pickle ball or go for a bike ride in the evening and then we would sit around and talk.
I had a few other friendships like this. One family where I would spend a lot of time. The children where in their teens and I was friends with them and the parents they treated me as a bit of a son. It was good. I have since moved to a different community and have a very social job now so it’s not as crucial that I make such deliberate efforts to spend time with others.
So my advice is this make deliberate effort to spend time with people. Find people to spend time with involve yourself in their lives. Humans are social we all need some interaction and you can be an asset to others while helping yourself.
Too much time alone will absolutely destroy your mental state. Well it did mine. I have my friends to thank for taking care of me.
I should note many people rely on family for this sort of stuff. I don’t have family close geographically.
Having spent several years unexpectedly alone after a big breakup in my mid twenties, I'd also highly recommend getting involved in a church, even if it's just to serve others in some practical way organized by the church. Most churches have plenty of need in "care" ministries like bringing meals (and conversation) to people who are homebound, or in the hospital. One cool thing our church does is organize volunteers to help with teaching English as a second language to refugees living in our community.
Do enough of these kinds of things and not only will you connect with those you serve, but also with those serving others out of love. These are good people to be connected to, especially since you'll become more like them over time.
Ask yourself "Would I like to be friend with <me>". Then invest in things you do not like. Smile. Go to gym. Be friendly with people, but not creepy. Help people. Be good family member and friend. Get yourself good clothes. Find interesting hobby. Cook. Pay whole bill when you go outside occasionally. Do it for yourself, not for others. When you become best version of self, people will start notice you more and more.
One can take Be Your Own Friend a lot farther than just this. What would you tell your friend going through what you’re experiencing right now? What would you tell your friend not to beat himself up for? To push himself harder abouT?
I've also seen the reverse. Some people who treat me poorly have a terrible voice in their own head where they trashtalk themselves. It's like they see it as fair to do to others as long as they're not hypocritical about it.
Do you talk to yourself the way you talk to me? If so then you need to stop both.
When I was younger I was partly guilty of this and still occasionally catch it. But we are always more sensitive to vices in others that we police in ourselves.
I have seen this perspective a lot and I don't understand it at all. When I meet a stranger, I don't wonder if they exercise enough for me to befriend them. Same for their clothes-shopping habits, past some very basic threshold. Same for whether they pay for me.
A lot of this advice for how to improve yourself so that other people like you comes off so incredibly vain, neurotic, and juvenile.
I firmly disagree with this advice as well; it strikes me as the sort of advice one comes up with when sitting around one's room wondering why one doesn't have any friends. The worst part about it is that it will get you doing all these activities that take up your time but don't really solve the friend problem.
Making friends isn't trivial, but it isn't a complex thing - just ask people you sort of vaguely know to hang out sometimes. Asking people to spend time together is about 10,000,000% more effective than any other strategy.
They reflect the traits that OP values in others; these criteria wouldn't be universal. I think the thought experiment still holds: If I met myself on the street, would I like that person? If not, why not, and how can I fix that?
I don't know if this list motivates anyone, it just makes me feel like I'm not worth being friends with and I will be forever alone, even though I do have friends.
I don't think the point is that you have to be all of those things, or even any of them. Just that imagining what kinds of things people you'd like do is a good way to know what might enrich you also. You shouldn't be discouraged if that seems far off, but all of it can be broken up into as many pieces as you like. If it all feels too much
That implies they think some people (apparently the ones who eat takeout or don't go to gym), are just not "good enough" to have friends. It's an esteem for others issue.
disagree. I've felt the same after reading the same but I believe op tries just to point out that when you're the best version of yourselves, by removing the common denominator of bad versions, you'll be noticed more and that presents an interesting way for people to present a chance themselves to hear/see you. From there you get to go and may be, may be you find yourselves with a good friend. More importantly,Ithe confidence you'll get out of this is immense and you'll feel peace spending time for yourselves instead of feeling bad about having all the time and don't have anyone to spend with.. I cant say this advice helped me 100% but atleast it helped reduce the biased stress you put on yourselves.
I'm all for trying to be the best version of yourself, but I think it's discouraging to tie it with the person's worth as a friend. Replying with "find interesting hobby" to the poster who explicitly wrote he finds it hard to find a hobby in particular reads like condemnation, as if until you don't lock in and check those boxes don't even try to socialize. Imagine you meet an interesting person, learn they don't really have any hobbies, and break off a friendship because of it - I'd find that psychopathic. Why should we foster this attitude towards ourselves?
True. I realise my reply reflected a little of " don't even try to socialize untill you've checked all these boxes and the best version" which is wrong.. I merely pointed out / defended the realism od the comment I replied to.
The definition is not and never should be the "hobbies". It's just something you find interesting which brings the parity to you and the other person. not necessarily a hobby and could be of anything.. Hobby is just a common way suggested to find people and then, only then, you get a change to know whether they are interesting.
It's not that not having hobbies makes you not worth befriending, it's that having hobbies is one thing that makes people more interesting, and makes it easier to make friends.
I'm going to assume you no longer live near family, or are not close to them. I was severely depressed for over a year where I lived alone (across the country from my parents) without pets after a painful breakup. Getting a remote job and moving back closer to my parents/cousins/grandmother helped the most, but other things that help(ed):
* Going to restaurants with bars (like diners or sushi bars) where I could attempt to make small talk with servers
* Regularly going to the gym. Cliche, I know, but at least 3 times a week at the same times and I started becoming friendly with other regulars who had similar schedules. If you get friendly enough with someone, don't be afraid to ask if they wanna get food or beer after.
* Volunteering (cliche as well, but it helps) at the same place once a week. I volunteered for a high school bringing near-spoiled produce from local supermarkets to their horticulture club. There's loads of ways to get involved, but maybe start with your city/county's website to look for volunteer opportunities, ideally ones where you see the same people every time. This lets you build trust and community with folks who are often from different walks of life.
My situation was nowhere similar to yours or OP’s, but back when I was dealing with depression a church group I was volunteering with was one of the main factors in my recovery. I met people that really helped me change for the better and helped give me at least a temporary purpose in life.
There were some days when I didn’t want to do anything, but due to my obligations as a formal member of the group I had to show up. This really helped me since it really forced me to get out and actually do something and not doomscroll YouTube Shorts.
I don’t want to make this specific to any religion or belief system, but in my experience groups centered around a place of worship and focused on service are some of the best ways to create social bonds as an adult. There are also other men’s groups that aren’t religious that fit this: Lions Club, Rotary Club, Veterans Outposts.
Join Discord servers of your favorite games and join social servers, build/play with the same folks. It can be like playing in a local band (also a great way to socialize and find purpose).
1. This will be tough. That doesn't mean you are doing it wrong.
2. Growth is proportional to your willingness to be uncomfortable.
3. Meds can work wonders, AND you can still be depressed. Medicine resolve biological depression. It doesn't resolve situational depression.
4. You will likely go through the stages of grief as you grieve this change. One of those stages is sadness.
Again, that's okay. You will grow so much as you find new ways to socialize and to enjoy solitude. It will be painful, but that is normal. It is part if the process.
Also again, I'm sorry to hear life took an unexpected turn. I know how hard that can be.
> You will likely go through the stages of grief as you grieve this change.
I think this is a very important observation. I've been through a divorce, and a friend made this observation to me, which I hadn't thought of, and it made a big difference.
This is great. Also, as somebody going through this change for the second time, I'll add that things come in waves. Sometimes grief, sometimes loneliness, sometimes regret, etc. It'll swell and seem to last for forever, but then it'll pass almost without noticing. When you're in the worst of it remember it will ease up eventually.
Whenever I feel down I try to redirect those thoughts into some new thing that I can do now. Nothing is ever 100% negative. Find those positives, dig them up and display them.
I get through by getting into every single thing I couldn't do before. Just like when I turned 18, I went to every place I could find to get carded. Even a great relationship is work and compromises are made, and it's hard to find the time to do all the things.
This weekend I dug out my trip collection I wasn't allowed to display. I pulled out old photos and hangers that didn't make sense for our blended family but now it's just what I want. I bought some used golf clubs. I rearranged the whole house to suit me (and to fill in the empty parts).
I'd bet your dog never seen either the snow or the beach, so take a whole trip just to do it. Learn to play drums. Spend hours at a bookstore. During a bad breakup some years ago, I volunteered for a campaign and went knocking on doors. Not only did I not get shot but I made some friends, too.
Revel in this phase. Because this will also pass and you'll find something else eventually (if you want to). I'm trying to be the most single I can be to really appreciate this time and learn from it.
You know, looking back at my life so far I realize.. all of my best stories were from my single days.
Other than that, keep trying to do stuff with your time. Check out your local library for events, go an evening course that's at least mildly interesting or honestly, whatever sparks even the tiniest interest or curiosity. There are also sites like meetup.com
If this is too hard for you right now, or even if it isn't try and find reasons to speak to your neighbors or just strangers.
See someone with cool hair at the store? Tell them! "Excuse me, I just wanted to say I think your hair is really cool", or if you see a neighbor or some random person enjoying the weather, looking at a cool car or whatever, say something about it! "woah, lovely weather", "oh, nice cars here today eh?" or whatever.
It often feels weird and awkward, but sometimes people strike up with a small convo and you'll feel connection for a little bit. I used to hate these interactions but I've learned to like them, they are very low-pressure as there isn't anything to maintain.
Before considering medication for mental health, I have to wheel out the usual old advice: sometimes it can be as simple as diet and exercise. The fundamentals really should not be overlooked when thinking about any medication for long term care.
I found out my anxiety symptoms were actually caused by my A1C being in diabetic territory (8%). High blood glucose has a direct impact on the brain and blood vessels. Random heart palpitations, breathing being off, etc. all lined up. I'm so thankful that my doctor had the experience and courage to tell me like it is and refused to believe it was anything truly serious. I brought it down to 5.5% in a few months and now have new cooking and eating habits for life. Too much alcohol can also lead to vitamin deficiencies (magnesium, potassium, zinc, etc. will need blood tests to confirm).
I kinda let myself go for a few years during the shift to remote work back in 2020. After I got back on track I even gained some muscle without weight loss and no longer have sleep apnea. Sleep quality and hydration are also important things that we forget when we are in a slump.
I concur. I am finally starting to snap out of a multi-year long depression spell myself. Now, I did not alter my diet nor exercise more. I drink the same amount as I did prior.
However, blood work showed I was deficient in Vitamin-D. So, I added some herculean dosage of fish-oil and prescription Vitamin-D to my life. After about 3 months or so, I am really starting to feel much better and I am starting to notice more productivity gains. The weather is warming up in my area too. That always helps.
> Meds can work wonders, AND you can still be depressed. Medicine resolve biological depression. It doesn't resolve situational depression.
It's not quite that simple. You seem to be hinting at the "chemical imbalance" theory of antidepressants, which has been largely debunked. The reality is much more nuanced and complicated.
The "serotonin hypothesis" is largely unfounded. We don't actually know why SSRIs are effective for some people. It's likely more to do with increased neuroplasticity than a shortage of serotonin in the brain.
> The main areas of serotonin research provide no consistent evidence of there being an association between serotonin and depression, and no support for the hypothesis that depression is caused by lowered serotonin activity or concentrations.
Prescribing antidepressants is a shot in the dark. Doctors can't know for sure if you'll respond to them, especially because we don't even really understand how they work.
Sorry that you’re going through this. I got divorced after a 10 year marriage last year. Although it was amicable, going from a house (with a dog) to living alone is pretty tough.
Other people have said the same, but strong +1 to staying active and building a routine around that.
All my friends live far away as well, but fortunately I connect with them virtually every weekend for games.
Maybe one more bit of advice.. doing things on your own feels odd at the start. But there are upsides, e.g if you go to a museum you just go at your own place, you take a vacation wherever _you_ want, etc. Initially you will have the impulse of wanting to share that moment with someone, but that also fades with time.
Plus you’ll meet someone new and build new memories together. You’ll be fine OP, but it’ll be shitty for a while.
First thing is going outside. Staying inside is only going to compound depression and cause days gone by to become a blur. Just doing that is a step in the right direction, bonus points if it involves moving the body.
Second, start writing. Writing can help prevent circular thoughts and force the brain to plan how to change your lifestyle and get you to a life worth living. If you don’t write, it’s very easy to repeat patterns over and over again.
Third, don’t lose hope. Having a positive outlook and a growth mindset is going to help you navigate setback and push through obstacles. It’s easy to resort to a fixed mindset, but the saints are the sinners who keep on trying as they say.
I was in a similar situation. While I'm very much an introvert, the emptiness you mention became very strong.
I changed a few things to improve. I started riding a bike, and I joined some local casual bike riding meet-ups in the weekends. The meet-ups had a lit of new people each time as well as some frequent members, so I could usually choose between just riding along, talk to someone familiar or talk to someone new. After a bit I got some new friends this way which I met outside of the meet-up.
I picked up a couple of weekday activities. For one I went for something that interested me, but also was fairly casual and had natural dead time which allowed for talk. Bowling, darts, frisbee golf, that sort of thing. For the other I went with something that helped others. In my case they had an after-hours activity at a local school helping kids start programming.
I also played a lot of games before and after, mostly single player or just random multiplayer, but I ended up getting into a MMO and finding a guild. This became the primary place I'd hang out and talk about pork chops and broken blinds.
It wasn't a quick fix, but by working at it the emptiness faded.
A big difference was I had an office to come to with colleagues to talk to. We have a couple remote workers as well, and both of them have gotten an office space in a shared office building. This way they still get to eat lunch with someone or hang out by the coffee machine.
Leaning into vs. trying to kill the boredom/loneliness/emptiness is a strategy. Because this is how it is now. You will only ever get so much love from your cat.
I don't know you and all I know is what you've written here, but it seems like this new situation has unmasked your life and aspects of your personality and the truth is uncomfortable. This is who you were before as well, it's just more obvious now that you don't have the relationship you had.
How it is and who you are: these are the premises of the situation. Now given this, where do you go from here? You decide. The premises are just the start, the conclusion is something else and you're driving the car 100% now.
It sounds like you have the right idea, and this worked in my case. Find what sucks and work to make it not suck and don't expect results overnight. Persist, adapt, overcome.
I sincerely hope the best and that things improve for you.
Try a few different CrossFit gyms near you; at least one is likely to have a strong social element. CrossFit is the closest thing there is to secular church, and most of the reason people go to church is for the social aspect.
CrossFit has its downsides (much ink has been spilled elsewhere), but the social element makes up for a lot.
You can easily end up doing 5-7 sessions a week there, with a consistent cohort of people that you develop relationships with.
Edit to add: CrossFit classes also add an element of structure to a daily routine that is not work related. This is really important. You don't have to plan anything for the class, other than show and and do the workout. But showing up at social event consistently has an impact all through your day.
I found myself in a similar place a couple of years ago. My partner passed away, which is different and the same as your situation.
My advice… Run. Don’t worry about being fast. Get the Jeff Galloway run-walk-run book and just do it. You probably aren’t a running person. Cool, do it anyway.
Couple of reasons. One, it will help you with your emotional state. There’s something liberating about just focusing on your steps and your brain is able to organize and pack stuff away. Two, it will make a real difference in your physical condition, which also helps the mind.
Get established and when you’re ready make a goal to do a 5k or something. If you want to, you can go from watching TV to a 5k in 2-3 months. When you do that, usually those events are organized by a running club. Go to some of their events or practice runs, do an meetup or two. When you’re ready, you’ll find a bunch of people not unlike yourself.
You are 38, getting out of a decades long relationship, and you’re introspective enough to post this post. It doesn’t feel like it now , but when it’s time, you are a hot commodity for future partners.
Getting started is easy. Get two pairs of good socks and good running shoes. Then go.
+1 to running. If you run consistently, you'll learn to believe in your body as something that naturally improves if you train it well, and that belief will cross over to your mind and heart.
I'll speak from my own experience and not one of study or professional recommendation.
No matter how much I got out and about each day and night, I'd still feel 'alone' when I was home alone. I ended up developing panic attacks out of nowhere that got pretty rough for a while. In short, I felt like I was going crazy.
The only thing that helped was going back out and finding someone else. The process sucks, especially as you get older, but all my anxiety and panic attacks disappeared.
So I guess that's to say, it's possible some people just don't handle being alone well no matter what they try, as I've found with myself. I guess it makes some sense, humans are social creatures.
When I was 21, I moved out of my parents house and moved from Orlando to Dallas for a girl I met on the internet. We were together for about six months and then she broke up with me. Additionally, like two weeks later I got fired from my job.
I hold no grudges my ex girlfriend for that, I was far from an amazing partner, but I was now living in a new city where I knew basically no one, with no job to get out of my apartment, with no family nearby, and no money to artificially figure out ways to entertain myself. I had never in my entire life before that felt so alone. Days simultaneously felt ridiculously long and yet time seemed to also lose all meaning and it would feel like a week would go by without me even realizing it. When a job interview would come up, it would be the highlight of my week, primarily because it was an excuse to talk to another human.
I had friends from Orlando, of course, good friends even, and I would chat with them on Skype, and I would call my parents over the weekend, but of course they all had to work during the day and so most of the day I was purely alone.
It was dreadful. It felt like all I could do was apply for jobs, play through games on a SNES emulator, and learn new programming languages to try and make myself competitive in the job market.
I eventually found a job, with coworkers that I actually really liked. There was a married couple that I think liked me but also felt kind of sorry for me, so they would invite me over to their house on weekends to play video games and watch Game of Thrones, and I am eternally grateful for them. They were friends when I really needed friends.
I never really figured out how to be alone; I eventually met my girlfriend (now wife) and I haven't really been "alone" in the same way since then.
>I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers
>Everything feels hollow ... feels like being imprisoned
Just a humble observation: you may not have a psychiatrist that great.
You take three different medications just for everything to feel hollow? And that is life?
That sounds quite depressing to my ear.
My advice: find a community IRL, and hear from them IRL. Solitary confinement with internet is definitely not healthy. Go outside, learn something new, meet people and interact with them in real life, "remote" won't cut it. Meds will not make you feel, people will.
Hey, saw this while looking under new and wanted to try and help. I think the answer is to be places. Life needs randomness and interactions and that doesn't happen at home. Try to be in "3rd places" - the gym / work in a shared working space / pick up a couple of hobbies (I say a couple as just one is risky if say it's sports based an you injure yourself - something you can do outdoors, something you can do indoors). Trust that it will take time, but it will happen.
I've tried a number of things over the years. Sailing, climbing, running, board game meet ups, drinking meetups, golf, crossfit, curling, probably some others I'm not thinking of. Just pick something and see if it sounds interesting to you and give it a go. My big advice is to avoid shelling out on gear. Rent or just get some beginner stuff. Most of these things didn't stick, but I'm a runner and a climber and oddly I've had some great platonic connections through crossfit as well.
Hey, so, I live in a city but visit my parents in the suburbs once or twice a year and at it did take some work, but there are certainly third spaces. After trying a few, I found some very comfy cafes to work out of, I prefer it since my parents can be a bit distracting. Also one cafe I really like is in a 'town center' which does also have a gym. So while you may not be in a city, see if there might be any pockets of walkability you can park at and enjoy the day on your feet.
In my opinion if you're searching for a hobby it's best to be a bit more methodical about it. Usually the way to get into hobbies is that a friend or acquaintance pulls you into it (either by talking about the hobby energetically or directly showcasing it) and going at it from the other end isn't really easy per se in my experience.
But yeah, it's more than doable. First things first take a piece of paper (or do it digitally) and divide it into 2 halves, indoor and outdoor, then further divide those 2 halves into solo and group. At this point it doesn't make sense to take financial constraints into account, that's up to it at the end as a determining factor if you want to start a hobby from your "short list".
So after you've done the above take a week to fill the paper with stuff like "Tabletop RPGs" which goes into indoor/group, or "nature photography" which goes into outdoor/solo and I hope you get the jist. I'm sure you know where to file embroidery for example.
You can continue to add hobbies as a hobby too for a little bit, call it hobby watching and searching, it's still a pastime. Now here's another important part, you have to decide your motivation for start a hobby (not a specific hobby but a new hobby). Some people try and do hobbies because they feel they're forced to if they want to appear interesting to their peers, sometimes you just want to fill a hole or fill time so you can't stop and think about that hole. In emotionally adjusted individuals supposedly you can pick a hobby for the fun of it and that's enough. Basically do a bit of soul searching so that you can decide if you gravitate towards a outdoor hobby with a group of people (because the hobby itself doesn't matter that much but you crave connection which is completely fine and that's why some old people go to church).
I could go on but thanks for reading my TED talk and I really hope you find what you are looking for, either a hobby or something else.
EDIT: I completely forgot! You might also try finding a charity in your area or volunteer organization and volunteer your time. Maybe you need a higher calling or a mission to keep you going instead of a hobby. Food for thought. Though do be careful if you take that route because some NGOs tend to attract people who are energy vampires to say the least. Try your local library too if you have one and see if they run some programs you can participate in or help with.
Can you move to a city? This is what most people I know in this situation do. Though I had a great time getting a car and taking myself out for hikes, sauna / spa days, activities and parties in the east bay near SF. Great place for practicing being alone. I had to think about it like dating myself - where would I have taken a date for fun? Try a bunch of things and see what sticks and remember you can appreciate moments by yourself with this mindset and it's like 80% as good.
Ironically I find cities more isolating than the countryside. At least in the countryside you have the beauty of nature. In many modern cities, there is less and less social connection and community. Sometimes I suppose it is finding the right groups... And sometimes you have to take the initiative and create in person groups.
Depends on the suburb and HOA. Mine has groups for books, card games, mahjongg, cycling, ladies lunch, men's lunch, happy hours, pickle ball, etc... Some are in our community center, some are hosted in people's homes. There are also occasional block parties, although they tend to revolve around kids.
Try out a lot of different things and see what sticks. You will hate some things and love others. Computer gaming is fun, but is more of what you are already doing, because you are on a computer alone. Meeting in person is very important.
I've surprised myself by finding that I really enjoy knitting for example. I don't fit the usual profile at all. But I tried it and enjoyed it. It may not be for you, but something else might be. Some people love hanging off rocks on ropes, and some love D&D — neither of these are my things but it gives you an idea of the range of things out there.
Get a bike and ride into a forest. I don't know what it is, but it just makes all the problems go away, make that into a routine and now you have a constant thing which resets your state of mind.
ymmv, especially if you're in urban housing where there's private land as far as the eye can see.
> I would blame depression, but I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers.
Allow me to be blunt: you’re still suffering the symptoms of depression. I’m not a psychiatrist but you likely have what I’d think of as “situational depression” (as opposed to ingrained depression). Once you either fix the cause (loneliness) or adapt to it, the depression will lift.
I think it’s worth saying that you need to learn how to be comfortable in your own company. That’s the easy bit, the hard part is figuring out how. I don’t think there’s a trick you can do, you need to put in some work. Maybe take your dog walking to more remote places than just a dog park? I guess if you’re in America this might be more difficult but are there any green spaces within a few hours drive you can spend the weekend at?
This line stuck out to me as well, but my follow up thought was different.
I’ve had friends who have been on cocktails like these, and one of them once said something like, “I’ve been depressed before, and this is not that. I’m not depressed. I don’t have the emotional capacity to be depressed. This is more like a total emotional blank slate.”
She was basically a robot for a few months. Incapable of really any emotions, including sadness, anxiety, frustration, etc. Suffice to say, she also didn’t have the emotional drive to push her towards positive things like deciding on how to spend her weekend free time.
Thankfully she’s changed her meds and is feeling overall better (if, admittedly, at the price of some emotional stability).
Try to find places you can become a regular, it sounds like you're experiencing true grief and isolation is exacerbating it. I know how hard it can be to pull yourself out. Making myself a regular in places that suited my interests, a local bookstore where I buy all of my books and have a chat with the owner, an arcade where I go, a bar that has a night of music i'm into helped me. Just getting to the point where you can go into a space, and be acknowledged as a human being that another human being has seen and talked to before was really grounding for me. I made no friends from doing this, but it helped me feel a bit less isolated and helped make other positive changes that led to being less alone. What you do is so much less important than forcing yourself to just put yourself into a situation where you are face to face with someone else. I hope this helps
I went through something similar after a long relationship ended. What helped me wasn’t “find a hobby” but a few small, repeatable things:
• Treat being alone as a skill you practice, not a verdict on your life – e.g. 20–30 minutes a day you choose to do something solo (walk, café, book) on purpose. Over time your brain learns “alone” can also be calm, not just panic.
• Give weekends a thin structure: one out‑of‑the‑house thing, one tiny “future me” thing (10 minutes learning/building something), and the rest whatever. It stops the 60 hours from feeling like an empty void.
• Have one low‑effort chat outlet (small group / one friend / Discord) just for “here’s what I cooked / fixed today” so that part of your brain doesn’t feel completely unheard.
You don’t have to learn to love being alone right now. Short‑term goal can just be “make the next few months tolerable while my system adjusts”, and that’s completely reasonable.
Part of what atas2390 wrote resonated with me: "being alone as a skill you practice, e.g. 20–30 minutes a day you choose ... on purpose. Over time your brain learns “alone” can also be calm, not just panic"
In fact, purposeful practicing aloneness rewires the brain so that is normal (and enjoyable again).
After divorce, I felt lonely a lot, and didn't enjoy my alone time the way I did before. I made myself go to more social events, but that did nothing to help me enjoy my alone time again. It was avoiding the thing that "scared" me.
I tried meditation (alone), guided by books, but though it helped some, it was too easy to skip, and the reward seemed low.
But then ... I found a Zen meditation school and started sitting with them weekly. It felt good to see familiar faces even if I didn't get to "know them" in the typical way. Sitting was hard at first, because I could see just how obsessively busy my mind was. But focusing on the breath, even in the beginning, slowed the mind down enough that I could see that further down, there is a person that can appreciate the goodness in just being alive ... grateful to draw the next breath ... to be in this moment, not regrets about the past or fears of the future.
I slowly started to feel more connected to myself and then, and this was a surprise, to the things around me. And as I relax into what is, instead of my desire to control what happens to me next, I found I could listen to others better and feel more connected to them. I've even started feeling I can listen to my own feelings better and be a better friend to myself.
I'm guessing any regular meditation practice could do this. I've heard friends say they got this experience from going to yoga, so there is more than one path.
There's an extra I did not expect because its a Zen Buddhism group. There are regular, brief (3-5 minute) kong-an (or koan) interviews with the teacher, with puzzles that can't be answered with Western thinking. Seems like the only answers that satisfy me (and the teacher) come from a more spiritual "gut" level. Getting there seems to poke chinks in my old foundation of western, American, achievement, doing-centered thinking.
All the above is leaving me more open to being alone or being with people. Existence can be more satisfying when you don't need to hold a yardstick to it.
Regardless of whether my input is helpful to you, I hope you find a path that works for you. I believe you can.
First was just “not drowning”. The breakup left this constant panic humming in the background, so my bar was low: I just wanted evenings and weekends that didn’t feel like a black hole.
Concrete stuff I did for the bullets I mentioned:
• “Being alone as a skill”: I picked one small thing per day that I did on purpose alone. For a few months it was mostly walking with a podcast, sitting in a café with a book, or cooking something slightly nicer than usual and actually sitting at the table to eat it. The important part wasn’t what I did, it was telling myself “this 20–30 minutes is chosen, not forced on me”.
• “Thin weekend structure”: I made a tiny checklist for Sat/Sun:
– one out‑of‑the‑house thing (even dumb stuff like going to the supermarket on foot, a movie, or a park)
– one “future me will be glad” thing (30 minutes learning something, fixing a small thing at home, writing, coding)
– the rest could be YouTube/doomscrolling/whatever without guilt.
That alone made the weekend feel like time that moved forward instead of an empty void.
• “Low‑effort chat outlet”: I had one friend I could message stupid little updates to (“made a decent omelette”, “fixed the sink”). We didn’t have deep talks every day, but just having a place to put those small moments kept me from feeling like my life was happening in a vacuum.
At some point — for me it was maybe 6–12 months — my nervous system calmed down enough that being alone stopped feeling like a verdict and started feeling like default background. I wouldn’t say I’m a monk who loves solitude 24/7, but I do genuinely enjoy my own company now. The interesting part is that once I didn’t need other people to make the feelings stop, my relationships got a lot better too.
Everyone’s timeline is different, but if right now it just feels awful, that doesn’t mean you’re doomed. Treat it like rehab for your attention and nervous system, not a life sentence.
>• “Low‑effort chat outlet”: I had one friend I could message stupid little updates to (“made a decent omelette”, “fixed the sink”). We didn’t have deep talks every day, but just having a place to put those small moments kept me from feeling like my life was happening in a vacuum.
I ran a media-centric chatroom at one time filled with folks that would drop in and tell me about their omelettes, and then over the course of some time, wars, struggles, disease, etc they all disappeared.
This is a bit other-sided, but while I was happy to provide the environment they needed to offload silly stuff (and they, too, were struggling) I never anticipated how much I would miss the small daily comments once they were gone.
If you have that kind of connection with folks, regardless of how silly, cherish it. They will probably end up feeling similarly in the long run.
I'm kind of going through the opposite. I was alone until 38, and then suddenly I wasn't alone anymore. I'm now realising that I did indeed develop an effective strategy to combat loneliness over the years.
What you need is a personal project. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking this needs to be something with significant utility, but that's a lot of pressure to put on yourself. My recommendation is to make your project as specific to your life as you want, and as dumb as you want. It could be a radio station localised only to your house, or a chat app for you and three other people, or a mechanical toy for a friend. Then find some friends or a community you can share that thing with when you're done.
Think about what it would be fun for you, specifically, to do, or to make, or to achieve, go do that thing, and then share it. This technique got me through 38 years of loneliness (mostly) unscathed, so I'm confident it can work for others too.
I don't have any advice for being alone, but I want to remind you that you can open up your phone right now, start messaging people to say "want to come over for dinner at my place next Sunday?", and keep going until you have no more free seats at the dining table. You don't have to make peace with being alone.
If something gets in the way and stops you from doing this, then that thing - depression, anxiety, not having anyone to message, your friends are all busy, you don't feel ready - might help you understand and fix whatever is going on at a deeper level.
Also, that sucks. I've been in a similar place at various points in my life and it can feel inescapable until, somehow, you escape.
I was a decent reader as a kid, then for the longest time I couldn’t read. I got psychological help to recover my attention, and gently started reading 10 mins of something easy after waking up. Now I read at a pace of about 1.5 books per week and I can’t get enough of it. There are so my worlds that I want to explore further. Russian literature. The history of ideas. Sci-fi. 19th century France. Computer science. So many books, so little time!
Reading can generate many virtuous cycles. It requires attention, but begets attention. It can calm the mind and feel meditative. It can inspire thought and sometimes useful action. It can help you be more interesting in conversation. It can become addictive, but rarely as much as screens and won’t make you miss social opportunities.
It’s not for everyone but my theory is that if you’ve ever been immersed in two or three books at any point in your life, there’s a good chance that the potential is in you to scale it to a fulfilling habit.
I really hope you sort things out and find meaning one way or another. I’m glad that at you’re in good professional hands - that is a great first step.
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone. I read every comment, and your help has been far more than I'd hoped for.
If anyone feels like chatting (about anything, really), I'm "theshawwn" on Snapchat. If you email me (shawnpresser@gmail.com) I'll happily send you my number for texting / Signal. Any other app is fine too if you send me your info. I'll respond to everyone; I like hearing about your life, so feel free to talk about whatever you'd like, or just say hello.
You're all so kind. I grew up on HN (I think I was 19 when it first launched as Startup News) and the community never fails to amaze. Thank you for taking the time to try to help. I owe you all.
Forgive me because I'm maybe reading in too much, but it doesn't seem like you're asking how to be alone. It sounds like you might be asking how to deal with your new situation, which must be very difficult. If that's not out of bounds, one suggestion is to try what's called "rejection therapy." That is, make it a daily goal to go out and get rejected at something. It shifts something mentally and I hope it might be helpful for you.
I remember reading once that the biggest predictor of friendship/relationships was physical proximity.
And a book about a spy who built a relationship with and turned a diplomat by appearing at/around the same grocery store repeatedly, gradually building familiarity then trust.
I often think about these examples. And as much as hobbies etc are good ideas, I think one could start even simpler - walk the dog at the same time every day. Or drive to get a coffee, hang out there for 30 mins, etc. I find a change of scenery helps me too, as well as a routine, to lift the spirits, and those chance encounters will repeat.
> I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers
Disclaimer: this is not medical advice, but have you considered being on less medication? I have seen a close family member become absolutely numbed from being on antidepressants, and although I have personally never been on them, I am highly skeptical that the amount of drugs the average American is being prescribed is healthy. My preferred choice of self-fixing is by quiet introspection, though I've had some useful experiences from therapy sessions as well.
Sorry to hear you’re having a hard time — it sounds rough. Hope things get better soon.
Not related, but one thing that’s comforted me in the past is that one’s brain physiologically responds to these changes like an addiction withdrawal — and one has to endure a cocktail of hormones and awful feelings but those will subside, with time, even if you make no changes to your life at all.
It goes without saying that some new groups to socialize with would help, but that’s a lot easier said than done :) It’s also important for you to believe — emotionally, not logically — that things will get better. This is difficult. Depression can lead to black-and-white thinking in areas that it doesn’t belong, so I feel it’s essential to combat this if it’s something you’re seeing. One thing that helps a lot is trying to have your expectations violated in a pleasant way.
Specifically — rather than tunneling on a hobby you’re interested in, I think it’s surprisingly valuable to join a group around something you think you might kinda like, but don’t like too much. (D&D would be an example for me.) Things will rarely turn out the way you expect, and I think if you go in with a lower bar for success, you leave more room for yourself to be pleasantly surprised and feeling hopeful and open.
Look around your town and try a few regular local group activities. See "third place" for ideas. Be patient with yourself. This will take time, and that's okay.
Some of my most durable adult friendships started at group ballroom dance classes. The studio was a 15-minute drive from my suburban home, twice per week, and focused on social dancing, not competitive. I don't think dancing was the thing that made it work, but funny teachers and regular faces. That studio closed (pre-pandemic, thank goodness). No studio since has recreated the magic, but other activities have.
My mom moved to a remote area after she retired, she had a partner who moved there with her, although he was much older. They always lived in a house on a lake. She retired early because she wanted to enjoy the time that he was still active and travel, which they did. 10 years later her partner died and she had health complications that made it difficult for her to travel anymore. Once this happened, she hated the area she lived in. There wasn't even a YMCA nearby that she could exercise and swim at, which she would have enjoyed. She wouldn't go for a walk because her house was on a hill that was too difficult for her to walk. She could have driven to a different area and gone on walks but she didn’t ever want to do that by herself. It took me 45 minutes to drive to where she lived and help her grocery shop and clean house, which I did twice a week. The covid pandemic forced her to move into assisted living and she died three months after moving there due to her chronic illness. I couldn't tell you if the 10 years before things got bad were worth it in comparison to the misery she suffered at the end, but moving to a remote area definitely had its disadvantages that there was no solution for when it hit.
Commit to the service of others. It’s not for their benefit, it’s for yours. Be amazed how much it gets you out of your head and into a place of healing. Get involved with a food bank (be the one who packs bags full of canned goods and rice, or who loads the bags into people’s cars as they drive through). A place where the same people show up each week to do the work. I’m not Catholic but your local Catholic parish will know where this is.
Then go meta: don’t just do the work, and don’t be looking to find people to become friends with. Ask everyone around you how their day is going. How their week is going. Say you’re sorry when they tell you about the hard week they had or their sick kid or their divorce. When those people need a ride somewhere, offer to drive them.
The rest may come if and when it’s supposed to come. Start by connecting with people and connect by trying to be of service, it’s for your benefit not theirs.
You need to lift weights seriously, like get your squat at least to bodyweight, ideally 1.5x bodyweight. Of course it's great for the body, but it has profound effects on the mind too, like you might be able to get off those meds. Studies show mental health effects from working out depend on intensity.
Fix your diet and your sleep. Meditate.
The basic concept is invest seriously in yourself and you'll like being by yourself much better.
Agree, and you will meet people at the gym. Learn to lift barbells, not machines. Powerlifters can seem intimidating from a distance but they are the same mix of people as everyone else: nerds, extroverts, introverts, men, women, gay, straight... and in my experience they are very open and friendly to those who are getting started.
If you want a guide to get started, Starting Strength is a good one. It's aimed at novices.
Also if you're in the same apartment/house and city where you were living with your partner, consider moving if you can. Get away from all the reminders of your old life that just amplify the alone feeling. Depression can be related to your situation. At least if you're in a new place, being alone can feel more normal and might act as a reset.
It's a great technical manual. But you have to be careful because a lot of personalities there and around US fitness culture are nazis and deeply unhappy.
I like to mix working out with Buddhism (eg metta meditation). They complement each other quite well.
Having a similar story, I can tell you the the answer is not to try and fill that hole with someone else until you've worked out who you are, and what you really want.
You're not the person that you were when you moved out of your parents, and you need to work out what is "you" vs what was "us".
Don't rush to the next stage of your life. Live in the discomfort you are feeling and find out what quietens it. Easier said than done, I know.
Believe it or not there are those if us in Tech who crave that human connection.
Things that I've tried:
* Salsa was mentioned somewhere else, that's amazing to meet people, laugh at yourself, and learn a skill
* Walk the dog without earphones. It's amazing how dog walkers will give that knowing smile to each other. Lean into that. Say a hi, and ask about their dog. Simple, but if you're walking the same time every day you'll soon be chatting.
* Go and exist somewhere. The coffee house etc (I avoid bars, though I like a drink, as ironically lonely bar people are not the inspirational people I seek), just be there. I get that these are the 3rd places.
* Go to events (plays, theatre, cultural places). Turn up early, smile and say hi to random people. You've got an in there as you're there for a specific reason. Do a bit of research prior.
* Try a few different gyms. The vibe is different in every one. Be there longer than your workout.
* To the above, when you go places, be there early, don't rush off.
* If you can get yourself in to the tech leaders round table style dinners (8-10 people), you'll very quickly find interesting like minded individuals. You may have to commit to travel a bit to do this. Not sure how that works with the dog for you.
Things I've tried and don't work
* The random meetups. Unless they are focused on something you can all relate to (i.e. board games etc).
* Pubs / bars as above
* Professional networking events with over 20 people. That's just hustling.
If you want to just chat shit, or say hi to a human, feel free to reach out. I'm sure it would be good for both of us!
This might sound silly but I'd consider getting my dog a dog. This will not be the absolute solution but your dog will have a companion and your house will have more life.
My dog has been a beacon of hope through these last years of being alone. Highly agree. They can be a ton of work depending on the breed but there are plenty of dogs at the pound who might end up saving you in the end and not the other way around.
Loneliness is a state of mind. And sometimes when I am with people I feel the most alone. So above all else just be kind to yourself. Eat well, watch things you enjoy, do things you always dreamt of doing as a kid. That is how I stay sane at least, haha.
One thing you could look into is body doubling sites like flow club. It doesn't solve the core issue but might help in a small way outside of work hours. Outside of the internet I keep hearing that Pickleball is the most social sport around! Also have you tried hanging out and working at Starbucks (or similar) after some time (weeks) in the same place it's inevitable to start making connections. Also co-working spaces can offer connections, and they usually have various club goings on on notes on the pin boards etc. One thing I do know is that it takes quite a few times / weeks of time turning up to the same place for conversation to start. Hope this is helpful in some way.
First thing: No it is not normal thing to be alone. We humans are social animals. Once we are isolated we usually die soon, so take that seriously.
Being isolated from your tribe used to be a worse punishment than death. The greeks called that punishment ostracism. El mio Cid was the Spanish representative case.
In the US there is an epidemy of loneliness.
So, what to do? First recognise that this is a problem and do not dig deeper. Do not isolate yourself more. Do not play vdeogames, do not read books until you fix it.
My main advice is to stop thinking too much about yourself, think about others.
I was into religious(Cristian catholic) orgs and I helped old people(something I did not like), I helped poor people on the streets(liked it more) and I helped drug addicts and war refugees.
Helping drug addicts were a pain on the aßß, but once you make someone get out, he or she becomes a friend for life. It is like the friendships that are done in fighters of a war. Once you have put your life on the hands of someone else and trusted someone else so much, nothing can break that friendship.
If you think about that in a meta way, I was helping people that were marginalised, that were alone, and in the process I could not be alone. I did it in a religious group(a tribe in itself)
Thanks to this experience I can make friends very fast in a new place, something few adults know how to do.
If you are going to read, read a book called "How to influence people and make friends", but do not read the new book that is a badly revised book by the incompetent descendants of the writer, read the old original book.
But reading books is not going to help because you need action first, not reflection, and action is going to be painful for a while, and you have to endure the pain until it becomes easy. The best advise is to get out there, try hard, fail spectacularly and only then read the book.
Stop thinking about yourself, me, me and me. We are not wired to work for us alone. We are worked for working for others: Our tribe, our children, our family.
Instead of not trying to be alone, focusing on yourself (me, me and me) start thinking on helping other people that are alone. Start thinking on creating your own tribe or joining a new tribe. It can be a maker space, a group for hiking or helping or teaching kids.
I've seen people mention "How to influence people and make friends" before. I finally decided I'll read it. The PDF is available here for anyone else interested in following along :)
Edit: though this seems like it may not be the edition you meant? The cover says "the original is still the best", but this seems to be a revised edition.
One thought that I have from my experience of going through a divorce: think of who else in your life is important to you, and reach out to them more. If you have someone you can talk to about what you're going through, even if they're only available by phone or email or texting or video chat, do it.
I can relate to some of what you’re describing, though from a different angle. I’ve always been somewhat of a loner, and as I’ve gotten older I’ve grown increasingly dissatisfied with the shallowness of many modern interactions: the constant glance at the screen, that black brick glued to the hand, the strange absence of attention even when you try to do something kind for someone. It often feels like we’re all performing a kind of theater of socialization.
One thing that helped me over the years was cultivating a richer inner life and maintaining some contact with nature. Long walks, quiet time, reading, building things slowly, the kinds of activities that don’t depend on an audience. At first that kind of solitude can feel oppressive, but with time it can also become a kind of freedom.
As you get older, or at least that has been my experience, you begin to realize how precious each moment is, and how little sense it makes to spend too much of it on interactions that feel hollow. Real presence, even if rare, becomes much more valuable.
Your situation is clearly different, and the transition you’re going through sounds genuinely hard. But sometimes these chapters also open space to rediscover parts of yourself that were quiet for a long time. I wish you strength navigating this change, and I hope you eventually find a rhythm that feels meaningful again.
1. To be alone is FAR better than to be in bad company. And the world is full of bad company. Thousands of people are craving to be alone for this reason.
2. You need to be a nice companion to yourself. If you arrive at this level, when you meet other people, you will be eager to share this amazing companion with others, instead of appearing to be begging not to "be alone".
And one piece of advice:
1. If you are a Christian, it is a great time to learn and enjoy God's company through prayer; you will never be alone again.
Maybe not specific advice for your situation but I've always found this poem moving and valuable when it comes to building comfort in being alone. I hope it helps you too https://youtu.be/k7X7sZzSXYs?si=LwCMyP0L2vsllHJl
This post really resonated with me - I've been there, similar age in fact, and found it challenging... however in the time since, I've learned to love and value my time alone. I don't get it too much these days, but when I do, I embrace it.
Find connections. Join a club. Take up a hobby. Make the most of your time alone - deliberate actions on weekends, like going for a swim (you'll meet people if you swim regularly), a hike (same), buy a motorbike and join a casual riding club, take up amateur radio and make nerdy friends, work in a co-working space and get to know people even if you don't work "with" them, you can still work with them.
Then there's the more unusual suggestions which can be just as much fun - and I've done many of these and found value in them! Join a local volunteer fire brigade if you have one. Take a class and learn something new. Never been artistic? Join your local community college and take a class.
Life can be hollow, and as I tell my kids, it's what you fill it with that makes it full. Just as with boredom.. sometimes its good to be bored, and sometimes its good to experience hollowness and down, because then the ups feel so much more real.
I wouldn't jump straight into a new relationship (or even try to). Learn to love yourself and live with yourself, and the right person will come when they do and not a moment before. Lean on friends and family when you need support, and be there for others when they need it too. This is great for the soul.
So, I've been through this. I found a couple things really helpful.
1) make plans with people. Do something with a friend or friends and say "want to make this a regular thing?" For me, I went hiking every saturday morning at 9am, and coffee afterwards with a friend. Another friend was regular weekly lunches.
2) write it down. You will have all these thoughts, about the relationship, about yourself, and more. Just write it down. It will show you who you are. You will begin to unpack things.
3) exercise. Wears you out, makes you sleep, makes you smarter, puts your head on straight.
4) give it time. Right now you can do anything. that's a negative, but will become a positive as you rediscover yourself and relax.
A few things that have helped me in the past are:
- Find small wins. Don't expect big changes immediately. Small wins accumulate over time. Examples: say hi to neighbors, go to a gym, work from a coffee shop etc.
- Join a coworking space. This was a huge help personally. It still took more than a few months but this changed my life.
You need to go through a proper grief. Cry, scream - the whole package. When the acceptance kicks in, try to find the root cause of what happen and why.
How was the relationship? Did you feel like the first 6–12 months were perfect, but then you started drifting apart and having arguments every week or two? Have you ever felt like you needed to record a conversation you had with your partner?
> great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers
> How was the relationship? Did you feel like the first 6–12 months were perfect, but then you started drifting apart and having arguments every week or two?
Not OP, but in a somewhat similar boat. Please don't assume they broke up. For example, my partner died.
I feel you. The fear of being alone is natural, it is uneasy because you are forced to confront your true self. It takes a while to get used to the lack of the social cushioning, but you don't have to do it all alone drastically. First thing you need to address is the fear of being lonely - the root cause is lack of self dependence. Or rather, too much social dependence. You need to (slowly) learn to be comfortable with your self. You do that by not looking at it like a punishment. It is just being at peace.
Having said that, I always like to join hobby groups on meetup.com (say cycling or DIY crafts or book clubs) and get to meet new people that way. It helps. The other thing I love to do is attend conferences or tech talks. It really removes that feeling of being lonely and since you do it on your terms, you will come to a point where you realize loneliness is just a choice and you can be around people whenever you like.
Also, look into real passion projects - you can spend time working on stuff you love to do and it will offset any emptiness you feel. I love working on my car and speaker building. Some of the projects can take years and I will spend one weekend or a random weekday working on it. It really turns being alone into an advantage.
When I felt alone early in my career, I used to go to this shared office space near my house or WeWork once or twice a week and surrounded myself with people there. It helped a lot. The day you realize you can live with yourself without needing anyone around is when you will also start feeling less depressed. People come and go, you are the only one for yourself.
Hope this helps and if you ever feel like talking to someone, don't hesitate to shoot an email (in my profile). Always love to meet new people :)
Being lonely is difficult. A lot of people will try to tell you that it is not or that you should be OK with it. Unfortunately, a lot of this advice is moralizing, the sort of "there must be something wrong with you if you can't be by yourself for long periods of time." This really annoys me. There is nothing wrong with wanting to spend time with people! Being social is one of our most fundamental needs. But just look at all the negative health benefits loneliness brings about[1]. If you wouldn't be OK with a friend smoking 15 cigarettes a day, you probably shouldn't be OK with yourself being lonely for most days.
Humans are social animals. Yes, some people are not like this. But if you feel unhappy when you are alone, there is nothing wrong with you. This only means that you are normal.
That aside -- what do you do when you are lonely? "Easy": Go to places where there are people doing stuff and join them. Eventually you will make weak connections. Ask these people to hang out in other contexts. You are done. There are no tricks. The hard part is it takes effort and time - you need to show up over weeks or months, and following up with people outside of the event and making plans is effortful.
If you want one really targeted tip: I love pickleball. Unlike almost any other sport, pickleball has a community where you can just wander over to a pickleball court and join in with virtually anyone. Also, it's great exercise, so even if you don't meet anyone you like, you still got healthier anyways - it's a win-win.
This is going to be a bit dry, but I'm going to overshare too much if I won't keep it compact.
Solitude is a grace when you have deep respect / is inspired by the world, life, or something more specific, because you belong to a construct you have a model for, and thus you have an obvious list of actions and values.
It's very intimidating when you don't though, because you feel lost and can't see a clear way to gain momentum - and movement is life, as they say. There are two things that can help with that.
1. Listening the ideas of people that share a language and values with you, but don't necessarily share your vision. These are friends, most of the time. I get that you might've distanced from yours and they might've become entirely different people, but try reconnecting with them, one at a time. What mends you here is paying attention to what these people worry about - it gives you choice of things to be enthusiastic about (which then makes more friends, initiatives, impact, which are all "movement" of sorts). Try not to fall for trap of "spending time to silence the doubts and discomfort" as that's the same as doing "snooze" on an alarm. You can try to find those people on conferences, language clubs, but they're pretty much everywhere, you should just pick the context that feels least awkward to start a conversation in.
2. Change of context. There's a pretty big chance of gaining momentum while traveling, because your attention sharpens while you're in an environment that is hard to predict. You'll notice a lot of things you enjoy or hate, some of them might inspire you to study, try something new or empathize to a different way of living.
There's a bonus one - building something for someone is very fulfilling for the usual auditory of HN. There's a lot of people who'd be glad to use a helping hand, just pick a person / group you'd be ok to help and ask what can you do for them with your talents / skills. You'll be surprised how glad you'll be that you did that.
P.S. There are also thinner rationales behind what I've written, and I explained it rather mechanistically, but basically that's what helped me a lot when I suffered from an abrupt cutoff from the community that was a big part of my life.
P.P.S. I'm young, but it probably doesn't matter as much. Have a virtual hug from me ;). I think it's going to be better for you rather soon!
Is this really new or you were already alone but distracted with others?
It is ok to feel alone. It is natural, and as long as you take the time to learn about yourself and what you really want and need, you'll learn and grow (even enjoy).
It won't be your last time, but it gets easier as you get older.
Cherish that your only priority is yourself (and your dog. f*k the cat :-p). It won't last.
There's already some good advice in this thread, but I want to add more.
This will indeed be very hard, but I'd urge you to take a long-term and positive forward looking approach.
It sounds to me like you don't have the best family/friends social structure to depend on. I'd focus on building that. It will take time ... and it won't happen on your schedule. The cold hard fact is that you have to put yourself out in the world in social spaces and be open and vulnerable. This is often why shared hobbies are recommended. But the hobbies aren't entirely the point. The point is that you're engaging in the real world with real people and learning to be open and vulnerable in that environment. If you embrace that (truly embrace), the friends and relationships will eventually come. But, it may take a long time. It's a long game. But its worth it.
In the short-term, you can find ways to cope. For me, I got REALLY deep into ultra-running after a bad breakup. It helped. But, it was seriously just a cope for not having the foundational social structures that everyone needs.
In summary: find healthy short/medium term coping methods, and invest in building longer-term social connections. And expect it to take some time. Give yourself grace. You're doing a hard thing. It's okay for it to be a struggle. Just keep working on it and you'll get through it. I've been through this. It gets better, I promise!
> I work remote, and that's currently my main way to gratify social cravings. But it's not a consistent way, since the time zone difference is quite large (I'm -7 hours vs them).
Go back to working together with people, face to face, if that's something you maybe miss. Everyone works in different ways, some people need to spend their long days while working at least together with other people, and that's ok.
The hollowness is from not being useful to someone. I went through your EXACT same thing. 17, graduated, moved in with my sweetheart (and her mother…), got a place of our own to rent at 23, married at 26, divorced at 36, alone entirely when my parents died 38, and 41. Now 43, the best advice I can give you is to forgive yourself, go outside, reconnect with the things that bring YOU joy (for me, that was getting back into flying) and volunteer and give back to the community around you.
If you aren't already start working out daily and learn to make healthy meals. Not necessarily to help with loneliness, but to prevent having another problem that will only make the first worst.
If you can work from a coffee shop, if you can afford a coworking space, do it. Plus one if the new office/coffee shop is a bit far from your house.
There are a lot of great comments here and I want to echo so many of them and not duplicate them.
There is one thing I'd like to add:
Learning to be happy while alone takes practice - lots of it. It's not easy, but it does get easier.
Learning to enjoy being along was one of the most important moments in my life, and it changed a lot of how I see the world now. I feel like this is up there with learning self-care that works for you - equally important and yet different.
One thing I do is make friends with people who have dogs that get along with my dog on walks. We've seen movies, gotten food out together, etc. Or just intentionally walk around the same time to chat.
Also, hobbies. Try to find something you can be interested in that has meetups.
Could be sports, cars, books, quilting, chess. I've heard of photography groups that do photo walks or group editing hangouts at coffee shops.
On the other hand, it's also ok to be on your own sometimes. I love catching a movie at a theater on my own. Sometimes I'll go to the park without my dog just so I can relax at a bench or have a nice walk at my own pace.
I was in a similar place a few years ago. I'll just list what worked for me, so it's not assuming you don't do any of this currently.
But firstly, know that things will get better over time. You need time to get through all the emotions, the new environment, the new way of life. I didn't know it at the time, but looking back at it, I wish I had this on my mind each day to just eke out any bit of positivity I could.
But the five main things I changed in my life to get me to feel better:
1. Lift weights. I didn't necessarily go to a gym, so there was no additional social aspect from this, so doing so would probably help. But I bought some gym gear and worked out at home religiously. Had a plan, tracked it on a spreadsheet, and measured and reviewed progress every two weeks. Really helped with the confidence, and there's a lot of research that shows exercise is good for mood and depression.
2. Walk everyday - ideally outside in the sun. I got up early, went for a walk so that I caught the sunrise during it. This was probably one of the biggest changes I made that improved my mood and wellbeing, that I continue to do it religiously today.
3. Learn a new skill. For me that was 3d modelling. Just having something new to do, and tracking progress, really helped with my self confidence. Though if you're not in the habit of lifting, you could combine this and [1] if you're learning to lift.
4. Changed my diet. This was a natural change from lifting. Eating whole foods, and reduced the junk (still enjoyed some pizza/fried chicken on weekends), but otherwise it was healthy foods during the week.
5. Volunteering. Sometimes at a food bank to feed the homeless, and sometimes helping a local group who was in charge of restoration of a creek which required cleaning/tree planting etc. It's amazing what doing something for others does for yourself.
I guess few people get what they want, as I crave for more alone time and hate socialization.
I haven’t gone through the same transformation, but here is my recommendation: find something you truly want to build, or change, or whatever, and go for it. You are now free to do whatever you want. Trace your thoughts to your youth, to your childhood, and find something you were excited about, long before you met your sweetheart, and go for it.
I haven't been in your situation, but I'm the same age and if my wife and I separated for whatever reason, I suspect I probably would be. I find being social and trying new things to be incredibly difficult. So it's something I've thought about. Personally I would not try to adapt to being alone, but rather I'd try to find & meet new people.
I would suggest trying to find in-person employment, whether that means changing to a job with a local office, or finding a co-working space to go in to. Then go in to the office every day. You can do less frequently than that, I guess, but it will just increase the time it takes for bonds to form. It turns out if you're a decent person to be around, it's almost impossible to not make social connections if you have lunch with the same people 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year. For both my wife and I, the vast majority of our friends are people we met at work, or through people we know at work. There are other ways to make friends, of course, but work is one of the faster & more reliable sources IME.
My other suggestion would be to get back into the dating pool when you feel more ready for it. It's an environment where everyone is expecting to meet new people and try things out and maybe things don't work and that's OK. I think dating is a lot different in your late 30s than it is in your early 20s, much more casual & experienced and hopefully less stressful. Even if it doesn't work out romantically, it's a way to get some practice meeting people and talking about yourself, and maybe make some new platonic friends and get out of the rut.
People suggest hobby groups and volunteering, but I dunno, I've tried that and it never really works out for me. I'm very shy and have a hard time inserting myself into an existing group. The infrequency of meetups also means it's hard to give the time for bonds to form, especially for someone fairly aloof like myself. That said I have started going to a weekly Fighting Game tournament and that might be working out. We'll see.
Just some ideas from my own ruminating on this issue. Hope you can find something that works for you.
I would not just rely on situations that are explicitly seen as "dating", such as bars or dating sites.
In my experience joining an IRL group activity is what works best (volunteering, community service, church, local band/orchestra/choir, group lessons, team sports etc) - even if you don't find your future partner there, at least you can make a few IRL friends and you will feel less lonely.
I've spent years of my life absolutely alone; gone months without talking to another person. There isn't anything you'll do that will give you the emotional fulfillment of interacting with someone else.
As for living with yourself:
Find some sort of exercise you don't mind doing and make it non-optional. The goal isn't to go all out, just get your heart rate up for half an hour. You won't want to do it sometimes but you still have to go. You can do a crappy job at it and slack off for a day or two but you have to go out. For me this is riding a bike.
Otherwise it's good to be absorbed in something. It's not the same feeling but there is intrinsic satisfaction in learning / building / experiencing things.
I think what you really need might be to make new connections. During difficult times in my personal life, what helped me most was really finding some community. I started online, on Reddit and Discord servers for Make Friends Over 30 and others (https://www.reddit.com/r/MakeFriendsOver30/). I'd highly recommend it. Also, finding things that get you out of the previous patterns you had for awhile. Gaming will be fun again another day. For now, go join a dart league or something (anything) to get around other people.
Sorry you're dealing with this. Hope things brighten up for you a bit.
Try out something like Timeleft (https://timeleft.com/). It's in most major cities now, and it will set you up with a dinner reservation for you and 5 strangers who are also looking to make friends.
I had a tough breakup a couple years ago and I know it would have been way tougher if I hadn't discovered Timeleft.
Even if you have enough friends already, you're at the age where it's probably difficult to get together regularly.
It's also good if you travel alone and want a night out in a city where you don't know anyone.
I'd suggest you to work on your general mood - drugs can help, but nature is also wonderful.
I think I have a relatively good life, but I still have hard times. I had circa 6 months long depression streak after my child was born (I'm male).
For me the best mood fixer is a walk still. Super small commitment, great with a dog too. For a weekend the best is a longer hike. I practice yoga and train my body - great mood boosters. I've trained my body to be able to sit comfortably on the ground so I can work from anywhere - sunshine in park hellooo.
It might be that you crave people in order to prove to yourself that you have people on your side. Might help to be alone for an extended period, then get together with someone afterwards to kind-of prove to your subconscious that relationships don't dissolve just because you're not constantly in contact.
I've done this for much of my life. It has always worked out OK. Perhaps because I've always picked a nice middle class person as my lodger. Even the mentally ill homeless person I rented my spare room to was a nice middle class mentally ill homeless person and a friend of a friend, who recovered from his reactive depression and moved on as anticipated.
If there is a university nearby, there are probably graduate students looking for a cheap place to stay while they finish writing up their PhD thesis. Since graduate students are pretty much guaranteed to be respectable, you may need to ask for less than the market rent to grab one, but you don't mention being short of money. They will have their own concerns about you, but your dog will vouch for you.
You don't mention having a spare bedroom that you could rent out, I'm just guessing that "working remote" implies living somewhere with affordable housing, and that you have extra space. If you live in a one bedroom flat, maybe sell it or rent it out entirely, and take the other side of the deal, becoming a lodger yourself.
That is not an option for me. I'm trapped by my stuff: grand piano, Boxford CUD lathe, too many maths books. I cannot vouch for that option, but it works for my lodger, so it works for some people. (I'm over sixty and he is older than me.)
I fear that my comment is a little "off" and not quite appropriate, but in my defense, it is responsive to "I sometimes panic when it's been too long since I've seen another person."
Go to a cooking lesson, a dancing lesson, a climbing lesson, a music lesson or a whateverthefuck lesson. That’s like a dummy’s way to socialize and find some people to hung around.
Hey friend, I am also 38, and I am also recently "aloned". I had a break up in August and lived with my parents until February.
At first it was strange, I was acutely feeling the loneliness. But gradually I started seeing its upsides, and I am beginning to dangerously enjoy it haha.
I am using the time and space to take care of and express myself. Live slowly, cook myself warm dinners, nice coffees; I made a cozy nook for reading, I am planning on adding fragrant flowers to my terrace.
I am planning on a routine, which includes going to the gym and actually trying and enjoy moving my body. Sometimes I have the luxury of just sitting in the park next to the gym and soak up some sun, enjoy the sounds if birds and the water fountain.
I am hybrid so I get to go to the office and see my colleagues. Somehow, luckily, every weekend some social event happened, a dear friend came to visit. It was my aunts birthday. I also have a housewarming planned in two weeks which motivates me to make the place beautiful to show off.
My advice would be, simply, to focus on the current moment. Thoughts take you awry, try not to ruminate. Have a plan, and trust the process. There are five things absolutely needed for health and happiness(not in a particular order):
So while you are alone, I would question the rest too, do you eat well? Do you exercise? Do you go out? Do you sleep well?
The way our mind works is whenever a state comes up, it ups the likelihood of that state to come up again. So try to summon happy states, would be difficult and feel fake at first but it really works. Gratitude is a good one. Writing or expressing it doesn't work well for me, so I like to do it when I clean, I feel grateful as I am gently scrubbing the mirror for instance for helping me fix up my appearance. Find yours.
From what you wrote it sounds like you already know what to do, but you are reluctant. Why is that? One could identify with one's depression by ruminating over it.
In closing I highly recommend the book, the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, it has a free audiobook on YouTube too.
I wish you the best of luck. Life could be whatever you want it to be and there is no true self, all is constructed and you can engineer your psyche anew.
I can second that the Book or even better Audiobook (read by Tolle himself) The Power of Now can have profound impact on ones life. I would recommend to give it a shot.
Couple of things that helped me in similar situations:
- volunteer: find a place you can help others, go cook for the homeless, work with other volunteers, not only are you doing good and meeting new people, you also appreciate what you have more
- think about what made you happy when you were younger, connect with your younger self, explore the dreams you never had a chance to fulfill
- go to therapy: this will help you better understand your feelings, a professional who is there to listen to you, help you get out of loops you are stuck in, normalize your thinking about life. Hinghly recommended!
- do sports: this will help you stay fit and have little successes, you can feel good about.
The world is wonderful, try to explore it and be patient with yourself. Trust the process, improve yourself, be kind and look at this period as a test that will shape your future self. It’s hard now but better days are coming if you put in the work. Good luck!
> many of you find alone-ness to be natural, and even required
You can hear that from people who are not truly alone, but have more attention from their closest than they need.
The answer to your question - "Don't". Shift your priorities, reshape your life, change your place of living if needed, but don't be alone. This shit will kill you.
Maybe you can discover other ways to be connected with meaninful people – not necessarily the closest/relatives ones - through sports, volunteering, local neighborhood initiatives. If needed, spend more money on it, travel to other countries to meet people that you care about. Anything that leads to real human hug will work. I measure unloneliness progress in the average number of human hugs per day :). Optimize your life for that.
Whatever you do, refuse to have the life where you're alone.
That's a really tough situation, but with some active work it's manageable.
Most important to remember that the feeling of loss you have for your family connection, is real, is okay. But like all things you will learn to live with it and see benefits in it if you work at it.
Nothing can replace meeting people, new (seeing people and talking to people) and familiar (family & friends).
So how does someone in your situation achieve this?
Well you've mentioned hobbies and this is your best option:
- is there a board game cafe near you? They often run social events especially DnD open nights.
- adult education classes. In person is good but online is fine..why don't you see who runs online courses? Location matters less. French, Spanish, Japanese?
- activities, these are great but need to have a connection to them. Swim clubs are great as are bouldering/climbing clubs.
My friend was in a similar situation, and what he did was just went on Meetup and Facebook and searched for groups for things that he was into. Two of those groups were white collar boxing and open mic nights. I had no idea he was lonely before. He was my friend. If you filled one day of your week with a social group in the evening and then another day of the week with another social group. And eventually you feel like you're doing enough things. And you'll end up being your friend. I only meet mine once a month outside of those, but it's still really nice. Also, if you do join any social groups, you'll find yourself going to the pub afterwards.
This sounds like grief and depression to me. You're struggling because you're still mentally filtering everything you do through another person who is no longer part of your life. You must learn to do things for you, not for someone else. You may find that some things you thought you enjoyed you actually were only doing for someone else. Likewise, you may discover that what you want do purely for yourself is different from what you might expect or predict.
Time will heal some of this naturally. But the #1 recommendation I would always make to anyone in this situation is to pursue exercise. Weightlifting, hiking, etc., generate rapidly compounding results across multiple dimensions of your life and also often generate some of the most authentic social experiences you can find as a 30+ year old adult.
I believe it is good to learn to be on your own for a while, it helps you figure out what you really want for yourself, but most humans are social being so don't try to accept it as the new normal as this is clearly not what you want. But it sounds a bit like you ask for advice for that.
It sounds you likely want a new partner, so .. at some point go out and find one. Not a replacement, your old partner seems gone, you want a different person you want to start a new life with.
And if you don't want a different person .. then you should first get over the divorce with your last partner. Otherwise it likely won't work.
(And aside
"I would blame depression, but I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizer" those things can have side effects, meaning you are stable to do your work, but are otherwise stuck emotionally. Therapy is a bit more, then taking meds)
So I am mostly a lurker here on HN for the past 15 years but I love the community and positivity and general helpfulnesses on this thread. You all are awesome and OP thanks for being vulnerable and I hope the community keeps loving on you!
How long has it been? It can’t not be hard at first. But if you try hard enough you’ll learn to be comfortable with yourself and be alone. Finding hobbies does help for sure, particularly those that involve people.
You could try yoga too, starting from scratch is a great place to begin. It’s a great tool to learn to see yourself objectively and be able to let external things affect you less. (I’ve been practicing for 10ish years and teaching for 5ish) Also yoga communities are usually great because it’s mostly people trying to actively improve themselves. But do go for the dynamic style if you try it, because it builds the mind but also the body. So even if you don’t get into the spiritual stuff, you always get a good workout.
Best of luck. Hope you can find the strength to embrace the pain and not flee or hide from it, because it truly makes us stronger.
>There are the usual suggestions: go to the dog park more often, pick something and build it, read books, hop on dating sites, find a hobby, and so on. But I'm finding it hard to actually do any of that. I would blame depression, but I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers.
At any rate, spending most of your time alone when you're the kind of person who needs to be around people to remain sane is going to give you depression, regardless of what substances you're taking.
Also -- it's cliched but that's because it works -- are any of your hobbies physical? Exercise works better than antidepressants, and depression can be reliably predicted by tracking the user's GPS coordinates (and detecting a reduction in physical movement).
"has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers"
Have you considered getting a second opinion on your meds? That sounds like a lot if that's 3 separate medications, and not without side effects which may be contributing to a lack of interest in interests.
I'm used to being alone due to difficulties socializing and having moved multiple times. I will turn 31 later this year.
Short term I would suggest you going to cafes or other similar places in the weekends. Even if you end up not interacting with people, having them around already helps in itself. Plus, you might actually end up interacting with someone.
To get out of the bad mood, you can also try to call a relative on the phone, I found this to be helpful many times in the moment, but not always.
Personally, especially now that the weather is getting warm where I am, I often go out for walks or runs while listening to podcasts. But beware that using headphones all the time makes it harder to interact with others.
More long term, I would advice looking for a job where you show up in person, so that you get to interact with your coworkers.
I would also suggest talking about this with your psychiatrist, to get some advice that is more tailored to you. One last thing. While I'm not a doctor and this definitely isn't medical advice, I heard about studies showing that physical exercise is as effective as certain anti-depressants. You could discuss this with your doctor as well, as if it works for you, it has more benefits and less side effects than pills. Additionally, if you join some sport class that could be another way to meet people.
I'm 37 and can relate to this. I lived and worked in another country for a pretty long time and was forced to move back home due to layoffs. I dont really know anybody apart from my family members any longer because I was away for so long. I don't feel bad about it all the time but there are days when I too feel hollow and long for some social life. I don't have a lot of answers, traveling has helped me to connect with other travelers a bit, that's one thing.
Making friends as an adult, especially starting from zero, is a universal struggle, so try to avoid any negative self-talk or other things that may compound your loneliness. The usual advice works, but like all advice it only works when we’re ready for it to work. I wish I could offer more than platitudes, but you sound like you have a decent self-support system already, and maybe are just temporarily lacking in confidence.
I personally found my community at church. It is a physical activity/community that meets every week. While i haven't been completely alone I have had feelings of loneliness I think loneliness and meaningless go together. So when you find meaning in certain parts of your life it can help but actual human contact (friends or family, or community) is an aspect that we cant do without. Go to the latin mass :) if you want to experience something new
Understand that even though you are on medication you can still be depressed.
You just lost someone you loved. Someone who by the sounds of things was a joy to be around and share experiences with. Someone who helped give your life purpose and regulate your emotions.
A cynical way to look at it is that socialisation draws us out of our own minds and shifts our focus outwardly so we use it as an escape from our current mental state. So learn to be comfortable in your own mind.
Start small, with things that don't require any preparation or commitment. Go walk a bit, aimlessly. It's a difficult time for you and you might simply need to back off for a bit. Eat well, sleep, exercise.
Definitely avoid any social media, youtube, etc. I'd suggest to limit your screen usage to just your work-life. You do not want to compare yourself with people who are not in your position. Spending time on the internet is not fulfulling.
Once you have a healthy daily routine down (which you might have already), a lifehack is to challenge yourself to get good at something that you would never have imagined yourself doing. The idea is that you will fill your head with thoughts about how to improve, rather than thinking about other things which might be too much to process right now. This is why the "start lifting" suggestions work. You don't have to lift, but simply set some random goal. Avoid trying to achieve some big ambition that you've always had.
Once you're on this path, with time you will recalibrate. It seems you are a social person and I bet you will find other people to connect with.
From my own experience, switching from a remote job to an in-office job helped when I felt too isolated. The job market is tough (from what I've heard), so you can check if you could join a coworking space or simply go to the local library to work. I've had friends that are happy to just work together in the same space.
The point of my response is not to tell you "how to be alone", but helpful advice if you want to make changes to your life, if you are unsatisfied with it. If you are unhappy, you could fill all your time thinking about how unhappy you are. It's not helpful, though. For now, find ways to fill your time, and while you do that, I truly believe you will find your footing again.
I lived with my original family the with 8 other guys in the dorm room, then two, the by myself, got married, got divorced, lived alone for few years, got (and remained) married. I went through a good amount of settings. Here is my advice but take it with a grain of salt because it is all very individual.
First of all, however this relationship ended - you cannot sweep it under the rug. You need to process the grief. If you have means at all - seek professional help.
Second, video games, social media, substances - unless you are absolutely sure you can control it - is a way to the abyss. Don’t go there.
Third, learn to appreciate the advantages of being in the state you are. When I lived alone - I traveled to some beautiful but risky places where I would not take my mate. Did some martial arts because nobody would bat an eye if I got bruised.
Fourth - decide what is right for you and think hard about the life you want to live. Any popular non fiction book is necessarily not very deep but you can start with “Designing your life”.
100% group fitness classes. Orange Theory. I joined boxing, and lost 50+ pounds. Plus I met super nice people, and might have learned a little technique too. If you're single, I've been to two gyms (first one close) and both had majority 20-35 year old women (who could knock me out in seconds).
Might be worth putting some focus on your physical health. That always pays dividends in every other aspect of your life.
Off the top of my head. Join a gym and just do a few machines or the treadmill. Gradually branch out into more.
Get a few minutes of noon time sun on your skin.
Prioritize good sleep.
Walk thirty minutes a day.
Start paying attention to what you eat.
Definitely! I was in a slump last year and once I've started doing stuff like this I felt better every week since the start of this year. Yeah, it doesn't sound like much if you take a peek at the YouTube fitness influencer sphere but it's what most people need in actuality. I also recommend pairing this with a habit tracker so it's easier to keep at it.
> when I have something to say about my day, there's nowhere to say it; no one on HN cares whether I fixed up the blinds or cooked pork steaks.
As someone who lives alone, two ways I address this aspect: talk to yourself out loud and to your pets like they're people, and also write these things down in a journal. Every night after I get into bed but before I turn out the light and fall asleep, I write a journal entry. Sometimes they're quite mundane, exactly like your examples. "I cooked a steak for dinner that turned out better than I expected" or "Tomorrow I'm thinking about making some bread." There's no pressure on length of entry, I fill anywhere from three sentences to a full page each night, but it helps fill the 'how do I communicate this minor accomplishment or discomfort that nobody else cares about' need for me.
My added 2 cents is to write in a journal and also to read it.
If it helps, be meta and write about what you would want to look forward to read in your own journal, what kind of writing makes you keep going back reading it.
Certainly, an awesome evergreen entry is your reflection on a previous entry.
Just like material on how to blog, there are self-help books on how to journal well.
Solitude doesn't have to be a curse if we learn how to treat it as a blessing.
I would recommend trying out an active activity in your community that seems to be pretty popular. Not only will the physical activity be beneficial in physical and mental ways, but the communities are usually pretty welcoming to newcomers. I've met some great people via pickle ball, tennis, table tennis, jiu jitsu, and rock climbing gyms.
This feeling of loneliness is hard to fill. It takes time. I'm a pretty lonely person for other reasons, I go out and have friends but I find that there is too much noise in my mind and the moments of genuine connection are rare. I'm now reading books on chan (zen) and learning to cultivate and enjoy a more peaceful mind. I've finished therapy and been a psychiatric patient for years. Nothing worked until it did. It's constant education. I'm not claiming to be cured or healthy, but I'm happy. I can imagine how hard it is for you becoming so sudden.
There's definitely a lot of paths you can explore. There is therapy, philosophy, experiences. You can go to therapy to find answers. Even to find a first step. You can read any sort of books to find myriad new ways in which you could perceive the world and yourself in it. And the experiences come along the way. If you are taking the effort that is good. To take up effort you need to see the future. Seems like you believe in it, but wish to see it clearer. Just know that at the beginning of the path nothing is clear, but time is the only constant. And that every feeling is there to tell you something but you only need to recognize it. If it's still there trying to break through, let it through. With every move you make progress. Be kind to yourself.
Most responses are about how not to be alone. Your question reminded me of an old YouTube video I found helpful called how to be alone: https://youtu.be/k7X7sZzSXYs
Meeting new people and transforming that to having people around is a journey you haven't started.
I would use this time wisely. There are opportunities that weren't available to you before. Those free weekends can be spent doing something productive.
Find your goals and go after them. You are in the best spot don't waste it.
Damn this thread is a gold mine. Wishing you the best. My advice is to prioritize health and exercise and spend time outside somewhere you can run into new interesting people. build a circle
Because if I had not I would have instead done the hard emotional labor of pursuing love, instead of becoming an isolated old man waiting to die. Being alone all the time is a kind of poverty, don't kid yourself. A lone billionaire is less wealthy than a beggar with a loving family.
A religion you vibe with is probably the one shot for this. In my case that's a flavor of Buddhism with strong deity practices. Atheists home about imaginary friends, but...
I've had several instances in my life where I've been alone for extended periods of time, almost at the same age you are now. I've generally enjoyed it, but not sure what the "How To" is for being alone. For me I've used my alone time to do new/learn things. I taught myself parkour, went and did Brazilian jiujitsu for years, did painting/art classes, went indoor rock climbing, read a lot more on philosophy, went to philosophy groups, joined my local humanist/secular society, worked out a lot more and went running, worked on my own programming projects, geocached, went to local lectures/presentations, all kinds of things. Basically I just followed any random thing my brain thought was interesting. As a side effect I ended up meeting a lot more people than I would have otherwise. I remember feeling anxious when I first became alone but I focused on the fact that I had a lot of freedom. Once you start experiencing your own freedom it feels good! It took a bit, I remember I felt mentally shackled about what I could do, but as I did things I just found there was more that I wanted to do.
It's not just a hobby you need, it's purpose. For some that is a hobby. If you go the hobby route, try to look for one that has in person meetups. Others going through this use self-improvement as their purpose (gym, suit up, etc). Church works for some. Consider some continuing education courses. Would charity work suit you? There are places like habitat for humanity that you can volunteer at. Maker spaces can be fun. You might also want to try out working from a co-working space.
OPTION 1: What ever you are into, see if there is a club in your town for that.
e.g. the suburban town I live in has a:
- rock climbing club
- board game club
- maker lab at the library
- Italian speaker's club
- and more
OPTION 2: Start a club
If you don't find a club you like: start one!
I did this with the town rock climbing club. I went on the town dad's Facebook and asked "anyone want to go rock climbing?", multiple people responded and now we have a club.
Fun fact: me starting the climbing club directly inspired the founder of the board game club to start that club too
OPTION 3: Host a cocktail party
If that sounds daunting, I can assure you it's not that hard and there is even a n EXCELLENT book by Nick Gray called The Two Hour Cocktail Part [0]
It lays out, step by step, all of the steps from invite to scheduling to name tags etc etc. It's like cookbook for how to have a great party.
And the idea is to make it less than 2 hours on a Mon/Tue/Fri so setup is easy and pressure to impress etc is low.
OPTION 4: Invite other people you know out for a drink/plate of wings etc
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is starving for time out away from their life. Whether it be single people, married people, old people, young people etc, everyone wants something to do outside the house.
Don't believe me? Search "dad loneliness" on Reddit. It's post after post of dad's, probably about your age, saying "Man, I wish someone would just call me and say 'hey, what's a good time to grab a beer next week?' "
I'm a little baffled. Do you live in a wilderness? In the list of potential things you gave, there are few social activities. Find a club for one of your hobbies. Find a group exercise program. Volunteer for an organization you are passionate about.
Also, being alone out in nature can be very beneficial for you.
Maybe find a therapist to help you decouple yourself from your prior relationship.
I'm slightly younger than you are but I remember how video games and sitting in front of my computer made me feel like this. You asked how to be willing to be alone but I will pivot my answer here that maybe you don't have to be alone? If you don't want to be alone here are the steps I would take nowadays.
I would recommend finding a improv class. This helps you to get used to laugh to yourself and make a fool of yourself. Also the people attending improv classes are more open in general. When you are more comfortable with these feelings then it becomes easier to open up a conversation with strangers. First times it feels awkward but you can frame the narrative that this is just you learning social skills and your body adapting to the new situation. When you do this enough it becomes easier to find new people into your life. You might feel creepy and they might feel that you're creepy but it becomes easier when you practice. Be open about your learning: "Sorry if I'm bothering you. I'm trying to learn how to speak to others. How is your day going?"
If the chit-chat goes well ask them for coffee or a lunch or if they want to join you for a walk with your dog. Strangers often ask if they can pet my dog when walking in the public with her. Put your focus into them rather than your feelings. Ask how their day has been. Ask how do they spend their time. Ask follow up questions: "Oh you like knitting? It reminds me of my Grandma. Are your granparents still alive? How often do you see them?". This way other people feel that you are actually paying attention and it helps you to connect with them.
Learn how to use your calendar and start planning stuff together with the people you meet. Most of the people are just self-centered and want to have someone who would listen to them. If you provide this for them you will find people who are interested in your company. Hopefully eventually you will meet also few people who will listen to you as well.
When you start having more friends/acquaintances the hollow feeling did go away for me. The hollow feeling still comes every now and then but I've somehow accidentally built a routine that when it comes I will reach my phone and suggest something to do for my friends.
YMMV but for me it has been a long journey but definitely worth it and doable for others if they can endure the anxiety during the way. Also remember to sleep/eat/excercise in addition like others said. When you don't everything else falls apart.
Only one passing mention of martial arts so far? Consider Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which is certainly not safe but is very grounding. After spending all your waking hours at a computer, grappling presses your soul back into your body. It's a very different kind of socialising, mutually-exhausted extremely-physical and in my experience very wholesome, even if the injury risk is higher than nearly every other hobby. (And you guarantee getting every airborne infection. I got two serious colds and the bona-fide flu this winter; still worth it.)
> Consider Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which is certainly not safe but is very grounding
What :D? I would say BJJ is an exceptionally safe martial art in that you can spar at 90-95% and not get hurt at all. Muay Thai or boxing sparring gives you regular bruises in comparison. At least that’s my experience.
Sure, for a martial art it's pretty safe - still in a different league from (say) bouldering or lifting, though!
And in solo sports, you can almost completely set your own safety budget, whereas in martial arts there's a large irreducible lump of danger from "the other person lacks the control to do something safely". The only other person I know in person who does BJJ who I didn't meet at BJJ is a brown belt, and just got a four-month leg injury during a routine rolling session; I myself am only just over a five-month chest injury that was probably from someone very heavy simply throwing himself down on top of me when I didn't react in time (obviously he shouldn't have done that, but I can't control what other people do).
Also how on earth are you managing not to get bruises at BJJ?! My legs are covered in them after pretty much every session just from sustained pressure.
Wow okay. Maybe my club is “gentle”, I’ve never had a single injury from BJJ.
I’ve had some from lifting weights.
I see your point about solo sports.
> Also how on earth are you managing not to get bruises at BJJ
Oh I get “finger marks” on the arms for sure, but never got a black eye or a nosebleed from BJJ. I got that quite regularly from boxing and muay thai/MMA training.
Fair enough, I got three black eyes within my first three months! The injury situation definitely gets better as you improve and when you train with more skilled people.
I think rock-climbing fills a similar void for me. It's social, physical, and mental, and has a progression to it where I feel like I've gained something after every session. Plus you can take your skills outside and enjoy nature and travel with friends
This will get downvoted to oblivion, but consider a major change: enlist in the military, sign up for a stint on a commercial fishing vessel, or go work as a firefighter. You will have tons of time with other people, even live with them for extended periods, but they will also tend to respect your space.
I’m 40, and I’ve spent most of my life alone. To be clear, I’m an introvert, so being by myself is something I’m quite used to. Still, I think I have some experience that might be worth sharing:
1. Find something that’s truly yours. Remote work is fine, but having a personal project you genuinely enjoy is a completely different feeling. Try to find something like that.
2. Fill your day with structure. My day starts with reading and studying languages, then I go for a walk, work, read and learn more things, and relax in the evening.
3. Walk more. This habit is hugely underrated. One or two hours of walking a day, especially in the sun, can brighten even the darkest day.
4. Exercise. Almost everyone talks about it — because it works. And it works really well. The key is consistency.
5. Travel if you can. You’ll get a lot of new impressions and meet many interesting people.
6. Don’t just play games — watch them. I’m serious. As silly as it might sound, let’s plays can genuinely help with loneliness. There’s even research suggesting that people in streams can sometimes ease loneliness better than real-life friends. If games aren’t your thing, find streams on topics you enjoy.
7. And finally: as others here have already said — try to find yourself and understand yourself. Often loneliness isn’t about the absence of people, but about not being able to accept who you are.
Society seems to disapprove of liking to be alone. What else can we expect, it's a society, so of course it does. But if you really want me to teach you how to do this terrible thing:
View it as an opportunity. You don't have to fix the blinds or cook, and you don't have tell anybody about it. There is nobody to maintain an image for. You can be really gross, or incredibly lazy, nobody will notice. (This is perhaps the real meaning of Sartre's phrase "hell is other people".)
Drop the pitiful attitude. Instead of whining "Who will comfort me?" you must experiment with saying "Yes! Everybody has finally fucked off!".
For a while it will seem as if you need other people to give life depth and meaning, but this is an illusion. You are habituated to leaching meaning off them, is all. Now you have to find your own sources. "Solitary confinement with internet" sound like the most ideal prison to me: would you really want to be surrounded by other prisoners, with their noise and drama?
This is adaptation, and thus will take time, because of ingrained habits, expectations, and habits not yet arrived at. The process unfortunately is slow and stupid and you'll have to sit it out, perhaps in front of a games console.
Get better games, until you find one you can immerse yourself in for a month, with enthusiasm. Don't skimp in hunting for games.
Listen to the silence. That is, listen to the distant ambient sounds. This should be soothing meditation, and if you do it long enough you'll get the peculiarly naughty and sensual feeling of sitting quietly. Think of it as a free John Cage concert. Silence is golden, right? It's something rare. Social people are continually destroying it for one another, so they miss out.
Warm up for every workout. Allow 72 hours recovery between lifts. I.e. if you bench press on Monday, don't do it again until Thursday. Do legs instead. I do squats on Monday, bench on Wednesday, deadlift on Friday.
Progressive overload is important but don't add more than 5lbs when you're moving up. Don't ego lift, there's always someone who can lift more than you; you should only be competing with yourself.
Always have a spotter or at least safety pins if you're anywhere close to your max weight or reps.
This is a very lame excuse. You can do 100 different things without compromising your shoulder. Try cardio. Or just wight lifting with very light weights. Or group classes.
Lame? I see what you did there. Either way, I have had a problem for two decades thanks to bad weight lifting. It's still bugging me right now as a matter of fact. Moral is that I should have worked with a decent trainer.
Games, hobbies, meds are not good. Those are like candy, you need real food.
There are 3 aspects to the issue you need to tackle:
# existential, deep
What you need to do is to get a glorious vision of 1- who you are and 2- what you are doing, aka. the plan.
Examples:
1- I am a scientist, 2- I'm getting a phd to then change the world with my research.
1- I am a father/husband, 2- I am raising a happy family.
1- I am a skinny/fat guy who will have an impressive transformation to bodybuilder, 2- I am targeting to raise my lean body mass by 2kg/year.
1- I am a guy with troubled emotions that feel like hell, who will overcome his suffering and find happiness, 2- I am becoming a buddist monk.
# physiological, shallow
Your negative emotions will be a burden in your journey to glory.
You need to feel comfortable being alone. You need to be able to be alone without intense negative emotions about it. It is like getting used to feeling cold/hot, hunger. Like adapting very hot sauna or marathons. You need to physiologically adapt to solitude.
The root solution will be what I explained before. Short-term, it would be good to have a break and to restart fresh (next time recognizing you didn't do it well the 1st time with your games, and that you need to work on a glorious plan). Options to get a break:
- move back with your parents for 1-2 years
- go to some cheap and nice destination and live in hostels, shared room. Change hostels every few weeks. Chat with guests. Just having a 'good morning' goes a long way.
# practical solution
While you have to adapt to solitude, you can also work on getting relationships.
In order to do this:
- go out and talk to people physically (Internet doesn't count). You can actually go to a stranger on a park/mall and talk. Try it. Also explore bars, courses, events. When you go to those, you have to talk to people, you get 1 point for each person you talk to, otherwise 0 points.
- make a list of people you have known and see if you can get back in touch and deepen the relationship. Include in the list people you currently have some relationship with. Yes, even the cashier that always gives you a good smile when he says: 'debit or credit?'. You can deepen the relationship over several days in this sequence: polite smiles -> trivial chit-chat -> personal talk -> invitation to hang out.
The pain of loneliness exists because it signals harm, danger to you. The US is hyper-individualistic because it serves capitalism. They want you to be alone so that you can fill that "pain point" with all manner of pleasure sold to you. I can only urge you to stop being alone by joining a run club, improv class, and saying yes to every invite. Move to a big city if you don't live in one. You must do this.
I'm truly sorry to hear about your suffering. Have you considered giving your life to Jesus? It can be a great source of healing and comfort in your time of need. I'd be happy to talk to you about (even privately) if it would be helpful.
> I would blame depression, but I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers.
You can have a great psychiatrist and be on a cocktail of mood-altering drugs and still be depressed. I know because I lived that way for many years. The sooner you admit to yourself that you're depressed, the sooner you can start trying to work through it. Cause that's the only solution to depression: working through it.
I mean, it's not really fair for me to armchair diagnose you and I'm certainly without qualification to do so. I'm just telling you what I recognize in your words. I refused to admit that I was depressed in 2020 (who wasn't that year) because that would "make it real." Once I finally stopped trying to trick myself out of it, I was able to accept my situation and even that was a slight relief (though certainly not a cure).
I wish you all the best. I really do. It's gonna be really difficult if I'm right, but me pretending that it won't be isn't gonna help you. All I can say is that I'm confident that you'll get to the other side eventually if you don't give up. I believe that to be true for most people and you haven't said anything that makes it seem untrue for you. I wish for you courage.
The gym is a great way to be around other people without any expectation or commitment. Malls are good too. Grocery shopping. Working at a coffee shop here and there.
Plenty of people have already said join a gym. I'll build on that and say try and find one that offers group classes - anything from the Les Mills line up, for instance. For several years until Covid struct, I used to do Body Combat twice a week, along with occasional Cx Works and Body Pump. A year before I started doing all of that it had never occurred to me that I might want to set foot in a gym!
In the most difficult stages of my life I've found that exercise raised my energy levels and left me more able to tackle the things I needed to face - and the friends I made through group classes helped as well.
Look for other kinds of in-person group activities (if you play an instrument, open mic nights, retro-computing meets or hackspaces), and give them a go - even if they're not the kind of thing you usually enjoy - be prepared to be surprised!
Check out improv if that might be your jam. I was effectively in the same situation (more so, via the empty-nest syndrome). Couple that to moving to a new town and working remotely, the isolation was devastating.
Improv pretty much selects for people that are playful, intelligent, and kind (it's a team sport after all).
Another aspect is learn to dance. Dance communities can be very strong, and dancing is a wonderful activity on so many levels. I initially went with expectations of meeting somebody, but now it's solely for the activity and sense of community.
First off, it's just hard. Sorry you have to go through it.
What's worked unfailingly for me for the 40+ years since I became an adult was always having long term habits that moved my life forward. I had no guidance on the big stuff, so from about age 12 I methodically taught myself about programming, sculpting a career, investment, running a business, running a household, being funny, being a man, etc. All years-long efforts. (If I had to do it all again I'd replace one of those with a martial art.)
So I had something to work on instead of lapsing into depression during very dark times. If you met me the last thing you would imagine is that chicks dig me, but they do. I'm not good looking by any standards. But building these skills created a person that people know can get things done at a pretty high level. People like a confident dude, and that will probably serve you much better than spending an ungodly amount of time on Hinge.
I'm sorry you're going through this and I'm impressed that you are in touch enough with your feelings to articulate it.
There's a lot of great advice in this thread. The best I have is to
1) Join a gym and go consistently. Nothing improves your mood like endorphins. Plus, at 38 you'll be amazed at what kind of shape you can get in.
2) Meditate. Learning to be present and grounded will enable you to decide who you want to be and who you want to be with. One I like is called Quantum Light Breath, particularly the version from Jeru Kabbal. It's a guided meditation so you can do it alone, although it is great in a group as well. Spoiler: It has nothing to do with quantum mechanics or the physics of light. There is a lot of breathing, though.
I am kind of put off by your description of your psychiatrist.
No, it's not a great psychiatrist when they subscribe you drugs to "fix" things. Drugs should be the very last resort. A psychiatrists' role is to help you with self debugging your memories and to help you put them into a context that you can understand easier. They should be a guide for dealing with emotional trauma and help you process and understand the loops that make you feel helpless, and to help you understand the moments that were out of your control.
Please, OP, find a psychiatrist where you feel safe to share, and that helps you to deal with the emotional loss. Swallowing it up because society expects you to be a "man" is unhealthy behavior, and carrying over trauma into your next relationship is unfair to the other/next person in your life.
Other than that, my advice would be to write a list of things you always wanted to do. And just do them. Find out what you are passionate about and what makes you happy.
Find a sport to keep your biological machine maintained, and find the thing you care about the most. There is a lot of problems in our society to get involved with. If there is no community around the things you care about, then found one and invite others to join.
You are not as alone as you think, you just stopped reaching out.
I initially read this as "I want to experience aloneness, how do I do it". I read it that way because to me, being alone is an incredibly wonderful and useful experience. You can know things when you are alone that you cannot otherwise know. Like your true size in the universe. There is nothing like being alone at night, outside, when the temperature is 20 without anything or anyone around you.
This is not something you will experience when being alone, locked in a room or a building. Or surrounded by people. You need to be in the wild, in nature. Do it.
In those moments of being alone you learn something that allows you to be more alive. More deeply in the world. And a way to give you a context for not being alone.
So my first suggestion is to go someplace where you are completely alone and on your own for a while. Out in nature.
People can be the most wonderful creatures on earth. And the worst. There is a pretty good way to find them at their best, and it is hilarious. Go on a quest.
What is a quest? It is not an intellectual thing, it is a thing of the heart. It does not have to be a great thing, but it does have to be one that matters to you - you have to care about it.
For example, you might decide to spend the night outside, alone in the winter. Do not read a book about this. Start asking people. Tell them why you are going on your quest and ask them if they know anyone who can help you learn how.
Now the secret to a successful quest is to follow it. If someone says Joe and Josie know, then go ask Joe and Josie. And of course you are honor bound to actually do the quest. People are utterly wonderful about helping someone, so ask for help.
Finally, write. Get a fountain pen and a notebook (or cheat and get a ballpoint pen). Sit down. Set a timer for one hour and write. The goal is to write sentences continuously for one hour. It matters not what you write. If you want (and can actually do it) you can write the same one over and over, but it has to be some sentence - no matter how broken.
We all get stuck in the past. The cure for the past is the future, the new. You have open doors in front. One or more of those has better things than anything in your past. So go there.
You were together all your adult life - you’re not two people anymore, you’re cleaved as one.
And now that’s been severed. It will hurt.
New hobbies and getting your mind off things won’t cut it. If this was a physical injury you wouldn’t recommend someone start a new sport. Your soul is injured.
If the partnership is totally irreconcilable (or if it’s something more tragic, then my condolences) then you just need to accept that and take the time to heal. But is it irreconcilable?
You should travel, the whole point of being remote is to enjoy life without being tagged to a location, since you have pets depending on how comfortable you are with them being in hostels you should definitely be traveling a lot more and then be able to meet folks and have a more filling life, start local and then go abroad often
> There are the usual suggestions: […] But I'm finding it hard to actually do any of that.
There are some other suggestions and ideas here in the comments and your response also boils down to “thank you but that’s too hard”.
Sorry to say this but - it’s going to be hard. Did you want something easy? I don’t think it exists in this situation. Creating new routines and breaking out into something different from what you were used to for years, will take effort and resources. There’s no magic pill.
You can do this but it’ll take effort and discipline. Go for it!
I love being alone as long as I have a couple of the friends to talk to a couple of times a week.
It's actually my ideal setup.
However I'm lucky enough to have some friends I can just chat with occasionally which makes all the difference.
When I was truly alone it was rough.
I feel like making friends is somewhat of a part-time job at first. You just got to do whatever you can to get around people.
A warning: predator type people can also sense vulnerable lonely people so don't just make friends with anyone who will be friends with you right away. Be vary careful and if you get a sense that something isn't right don't let the pain of loneliness override your safety.
Leave your house every single day and don’t go back home until you’ve talked to 10 people you don’t know. Say yes to any social invitation you receive no matter how much you don’t want to do it. Never flake on anything.
I had a very positive experience volunteering in retirement homes. The work mostly involved talking with the residents. Many of them often have no one to talk to and very little happening in their lives, so almost any conversation is interesting to them. You can learn a lot from them, have someone genuinely interested in you, and do a good deed at the same time.
I have been through the exact same thing at the same age.
I'm 40 now.
The last two years, I had to learn how to be alone with myself. How to deal with the ups and downs, and frankly, it was the most difficult yet the most growth I ever had in my life.
I have the opposite problem. Spending time with people is difficult for a few years now. Even though I was born in the west and have only known this world. Now I will be leaving the west soon.
Something I’ve wanted to do for reasons for 1-2 years. I will usually say it’s because of my finances/possible recession. That is a helpful practical benefit. Reasons due to a series of life events that “broke” my worldview during and right after the pandemic causing this [purposeful] loner situation are the actual reasons.
I wish I didn’t feel this way. It sucks never wanting to talk or hang out with the remaining people I am in touch with.
Well it sounds like you miss this other person. If they're still alive I would probably try to talk to them, explain your feelings and and let them know you want them back.
If the person is no longer alive then you need to allow yourself to grieve. You can allow yourself to revisit past times in your mind. You can keep their memory alive in your mind.
If the person broke up with you and doesn't want to get back together then try to focus on their negative personality traits. Nobody is perfect and you can surely find things that you are glad you don't have to put up with anymore. Focus on those things. Worst case, focus on how badly they treated you and reflect on what it says about their character... Maybe that will make them look less appealing. My experience is that when someone mistreats me (or others) in any way, it creates a natural deep dislike for them. Maybe focus on that.
Life is rarely fully comfortable. You're almost always dealing with something. The key is to not focus on the things that make it worse.
I live remotely in a very isolated area and work remotely (no slack, just email). I live with my partner but she is in town for work during the day. I go to town a couple of times a month. Before COVID I had an office in town but realized I don't need it. I've lived here for about 15 years.
Initially I was lonely occasionally during the day but it went away. I'm now perfectly comfortable with no human contact except comments (like this) on the internet for very long stretches. My girlfriend went on a 3 week trip to visit family last year and I visited town twice and saw a friend once during that time and had one long phone conversation with a brother. It was a perfectly comfortable 3 weeks. I don't play video games.
I'm not recommending this way of life. It's probably more psychologically healthy to have people around and so I have to recommend trying to rebuild social connections as you can, but the point is for your situation, it gets much more comfortable as time passes. I don't want to say "it's all in your head" but something along the lines of that sentiment is kind of how it works I think. You do need something to do, a reason to get up in the morning. I garden and keep animals.
> In many ways it feels like being imprisoned, except at least in prison there are other inmates to socialize with. "Solitary confinement with internet" is probably a better analogy.
To me this feels more like shouting in the void type of feeling at times. Like no matter what I say on this forum or that, the chances of real change from it stems unlikely :/
The world is in a depressing mood right now so I'd recommend to shut off news for some time if it troubles ya (genuine suggestion) and my friend, use a hackernews filter to block news related or AI related things as well. I suppose, just have some interesting cool facts that get shared on HN or something cool tech related! (I need to follow this...)
Another point, Just take things slow. Human mind desires intimacy and friendships and our brains are simply not designed for isolation for the most part. (I had written more part but it just felt like talking what I was feeling which was good to write personally but would've been hard for others to read and maybe get something nice out of so I have removed it now)
So what I am saying is:
1. have patience with yourself even if it feels hard, you are doing great by talking with us as I am telling you that you aren't alone in this struggle and I want you to please just do small steps towards just interacting with people in a more positive light. Maybe make the spirit as tomorrow's gonna be a brand new day :D
2. Use study-together Discord server (This is something that I personally used) or any place essentially where you can find people who are working when you are working and some of whom are relaxing when you are relaxing. This allows some talks in middle of just normal stuff. Maybe there can be a work-together community too I am not sure.
Anecdotally, I have found the idea being that this problem is within us. This is actually good because we can actually solve the problem (to some degree) and we have control. The freedom is also scary especially for someone like me who lacks discipline/patience at times but yeah.
Recently I had felt so alone in my head like completely alone sometime sort-of and then I had a marriage of my cousin and within just 3 days, I felt so connected. I danced so much that I lost track of my breath or even what's going on. I just danced :D, Perhaps there can be some event where you can just give every part of frustration into something external and feel happy as I did with my cousin's marriage? [Not that things are doing extremely better now but for short term, it was so absolutely good]
A lot of that joy came because like, I was myself and people appreciated me for it. Like even in hackernews or like whatever idk, I try to be myself but still feel short sometimes. Like the idea of greed even maybe of wanting more but I don't think that Internet or IRC can completely substitute but rather alleviate in the sense of making friends.
I am experimenting with some new things on the internet though. Anything which makes me feel passionate actually.
Another Idea I wish to say is that perhaps you are trying to replace the intimacy with Internet or Gaming or any hobby. That's completely okay and I have sort of done that but I have found some sort of same feelings as you lingering when I try to do that. I think they still linger and some feelings of acceptance , as harsh as it sounds feels like the stoic way to approach. These are your feelings tho and you are correct feeling them but just acknowledge them and try to co-operate with them and work with them and maybe you can figure something out. I am sure.
(I usually start these messages with saying I am 17 or something, but this time I'd rather end with saying it. So right now, I absolutely get the idea of high school sweetheart and so I imagine that and the situation that you are talking about 20 years later. That's almost my entire age, It's entirely true that its gonna take some time to adjust. It means that you cared, cared enough that you are bothered by its lack. You are human. Have patience sir and with the patience , try new things which make you feel alive. Not necessarily something risk taking but suppose even a good game of chess in real life with pieces moving and people watching makes one feel alive. Here's a hug and you aren't alone, I suppose everyone feels lonely online in some capacity. Connected yet disconnected. I am trying out some new yet old things on internet like sharing links) but that's not really the point to bring back some control but yeah. It's 3 Am and I have spent around an ~hour when I have a maths test tomorrow :)
I sort of believe that every generation has some loneliness when you think about it so I also think that there are people who are likely to give you perspectives and help you out who are far more knowledgable than me. I might have to go sleep now as I am unable to write anything which can be more useful for ya even though I have tried.
Depression will make you want to be antisocial, but positive social situations are good for your mental health so sometimes you have to force yourself into it. Exercise is very good for your mental health, and I think part of your issue is working from home. Take vitamins because many people are deficient in them — B will give you energy, C better immune system and D will help with your mood and sleep. It is good that you have pets, because they are company.
I would say that hobbies are a good shout. Especially those that result in the production of something physical whether it is a knitted item, a wooden thing or whatever. Also very good to take up a musical instrument. I was put off music for decades but am finally playing something.
Online socials are no real substitute for meeting in person. I've learnt that the hard way. If you want socialisation, then consider night classes (especially spoken language since they are interactive), writing groups, and joining societies. If you are religious, consider joining a congregation (mileage may vary so shop around), if not there are atheist groups that do meetups and secular sunday services etc. If you need to, take the initiative and start up your own group. I have done this for nearly four years now and it is still working well.
Get out into nature, not just manicured parks and artificial environments.
The onset of the pandemic in 2020 left me more isolated than I'd even been before in my life. I was single, I was working remotely, and the lock-downs finally killed what was left of my preexisting friend group. I have a naturally solitary disposition, but even for me, it was hard.
Here are some coping strategies you can apply right away:
→ Listen to podcasts, especially podcasts in a chatty & informal style. It really helps to just hear people talking. If you're looking for recommendations, I'm very fond of If Books Could Kill.
→ A lot of podcasts have Discord servers associated with them, where fans of the show congregate & talk. Sometimes you have to pay a couple bucks on Patreon to get access. These can be good places to go for a very easy, low-effort social space. You can keep it open on another monitor & let it serve as background chatter that you can dip into at any time.
→ Do stuff. Go to museums, go to movies, go to dinner. Some people have hangups about (e.g.) eating at restaurants alone, but you must overcome this psychological hurdle immediately. You will feel much more alive if you go outside.
→ Read a book. If it doesn't grab you, then set it down and start another. Beauty is good for the soul, and the wonderful thing about a paperback novel is that, unlike TV and movies, you cannot pull out your phone and multitask. With practice, you can stay immersed in a text for longer & longer periods of time. Eventually, a good novel will be able to eat up your whole weekend and leave you feeling great afterwards.
→ Start a journal. Without an intimate partner to talk to, it can feel like your head is heavy with half-formed thoughts that you just can't get rid of. Getting them down on paper is almost as good as voicing them to another person. The podcasts are nice, but spending all your time listening to podcasts can gradually teach you to be uncomfortable when left with your own thoughts. Keeping a journal helps you stay on good terms with yourself. I can't recommend it enough.
Now I'll get into some longer-term lifestyle changes. These can take a while to come to fruition and may require leaving your comfort zone, but they're worthwhile.
→ For me, there is nothing better for my mental health than a 90-minute park run on a breezy day in late spring. Even a 30-minute stint on a treadmill in the dead of winter will clear my mind. I don't know what your relationship to exercise is, so I can't really call this a quick fix, but think about ways to incorporate exercise into your routine in ways that you'll enjoy. Personally, I suggest running.
→ There's a broad stratum of fun social events designed for meeting people and developing shared hobbies. Pottery classes, choir programs, ultimate frisbee. You pay a couple hundred bucks to sign up, then you go to the event on Thursday nights and maybe get drinks with some of the other members afterwards. You won't be best friends right away, and you'll probably never get that close with most of them, but having a loose community like this is nice, and if you stay in contact with people after the course ends, you may take away some lasting friendships.
→ Undertake a creative project. I wrote a novel during the pandemic. It sucked, but I put a lot of time and love into it and I really felt like I did something. (The trouble with writing a novel, of course, is that nobody will want to read it. If you're smarter than me, you'll pick up something like painting, which produces stuff you can hang up, show off, and give away. Pottery and music I mentioned earlier, but I'll mention them here again.) Creativity is extremely fulfilling. It takes time to feel like you're producing anything valuable, but when you do, it'll mean a lot.
As weird or hard as it sounds, you need to embrace being alone. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to expose yourself to situations where you meet people or think about how you spend your time (may I suggest: limit internet/computer time). It just means you should enjoy the positives that come with being alone and avoid seeing it as a shameful thing you need to distract yourself from. Other people in other circumstances never get a chance to be for themselves and have the reflection and thoughts this allows for. You are with yourself and that is hard and frightening, but also a chance to come to terms with yourself. From your description it is pretty clear thst this is probably something you need to do.
Get something to care for, plants for example. If you need inspiration on a deeper level consider watching Perfect Days by Wim Wenders. Don't read too much about it before. It is one of those films that gave me a new perspective on things, may it do the same for you. To find joy in the simple things and go through your day in dignity.
I went through a similar experience with a high school sweetheart. I am in my thirties. I focus heavily on being a father now (maybe too much), and it’s extremely rewarding. I picked up guitar and took lessons, was introduced to a beginner cover band, and met friends through that. The gym is another big one. For me, exercise makes me feel better mentally in a noticeable lasting way.
My advice is to pick up a hard hobby you really enjoy and finding places where people doing that thing would be.
Drop medication and go out. By which I mean meetup/join a club/choir/whatever you can tolerate or maybe even enjoy the activity on its own (to get company and not feel forced).
It's tough, and I must admit the times I've lived on my own for any length of time weren't always easy. I've done it twice.
First time I realised I was spiralling a bit and looked for a form of exercise I enjoyed, which was cycling, and getting into that, doing long-ish rides every so often, it really helped my outlook, I got a little fitter and it made me feel more positive. There are also cycling groups in most places that you can join, that make it more of a social activity, some more relaxed than others. It doesn't need to be cycling, but some sort of stimulating activity is always good, even better if it can casually involve other people.
Second time, I just spiralled into drinking too much, too often, and it wasn't healthy. So, you know, I'm only so good at following my own advice.
You've already identified the cliches - 'get a hobby' being a big one, but the thing is they are clichess for a reason. If you can find something that interest you outside of the house, you'll probably naturally meet people while doing it, get some interaction and improve your mood.
You could look into volunteering things that are going on in your local community. My local community does a 'planting day' each year where volunteers plant shrubs and trees in an area undergoing regeneration. There's some light socialising, you're doing something useful, it's good for you. They do various other volunteer days throughout the year, and they aren't a big, regular commitment that way.
I love games too, but IMHO they're really good as respite from other things, not as a replacement for social interactions.
By rethinking everything about yourself and your relationship to the World as a whole.
I live alone with a hermit-like lifestyle (even though i live in the middle of a big city) and so perhaps my advice may be of some use.
Read Philosophy, Read Psychology and orient your entire Worldview accordingly. This is very important; you cannot choose solitude while thinking and longing for external socializations/validations. Self-Denial and Self-Control are the key attitudes to practice. A complete framework/discipline like Patanjali Ashtanga Yoga is a good one to follow.
Keep Body Active, Maintain proper Diet and Sleep. Whenever you feel down/depressed get out and walk (or do any physical activity). Become aware of what in the environment triggers your "loneliness" and consciously move away from it.
When you go to the grocery store/coffee shop/restaurant/etc. converse/joke/laugh with the employees/customers there since that is your much needed essential "socialization" fix. Understand how the self uses social-surrogates to satisfy its social needs eg. social media.
The key idea is that you limit socialization/interaction to the absolute essentials i.e. to that which is impelled by nature.
Also Mind and Body are one and so problems can be solved by approaching them via both avenues. This is why motion/exercise is so good for the mind.
Cultivate total Zen-like "mindfulness in the present" so that your mind forgets the self and is fully occupied in any activity you are engaged in which could be as mundane as house-cleaning/dishwashing/etc.
Live in the present, with your consciousness externalized momentarily but without any effort; when the mind stops linking itself to the past and to the future, it becomes no-mind. If from moment to moment your mind dwells on what is and drops it effortlessly at once [just before moving on to something else], the mind becomes no-mind, full of purity.
Volunteer your time .. animal shelters, food kitchens, trash cleanups, habitat for humanity, or even just drop in to a nursing home .. there are tons of people that would also love to talk and share.
>There are a few parts to the difficulty. One is that when I have something to say about my day, there's nowhere to say it; no one on HN cares whether I fixed up the blinds or cooked pork steaks. I hang out in an IRC chatroom for that, but sometimes nobody's around for hours.
I wasn't necessarily gonna reply to this thread, but you struck a chord with me here. I spend a lot of time on IRC myself. I would say branch out to more channels and/or invite more people to your usual channel. I have some IRC friends I like more than others, but pretty much around the clock someone is around. The Finns, the Poles, the Brits, the Americans/Canadians, not to mention the NEETs and night owls with shifting schedules who could pop up at any time. Sometimes there are lulls and I'll write 20 lines in a row talking to myself, and maybe I'll have moments where it feels pointless or like I'm going crazy, but then one of the lads wakes up a few hours later and starts replying to stuff and everything is fun and exciting again. Find a way to stick out the lows, and make the highs more common.
As for no one caring, someone probably cares at least a little. Maybe they prefer to lurk, maybe they're busy, maybe they feel weird replying for some reason. There's probably someone who'd miss you if you stopped posting for a while. I know I find myself doing a .seen (bot command) on a handful of nicks throughout the day if they haven't posted in a while, or cycling through some saved quotes with the bot to get some conversations going again. I try not to spend all my free time chatting because I do have things I want to watch and play also, but IRC is hugely important in my life for sure, as someone who doesn't get out much, and frankly doesn't like to get out much either.
As for games, YMMV but after a long multi-year break from games, I found fun in them again by approaching them a bit differently. No more shooters (first/third person) since I think the genre is extremely oversaturated and tired, plus I played too many in the past, keep the game count per month low, aim to get all the achievements if possible, and if all is on track, switch games at the start of a new month. I basically deep-dive into every game that I decide to play and get to know it quite well. It's fun then to write a review at the end of the month as well. I stick mostly to games which are either singleplayer or still fun when played singleplayer. I do not want to play anything that relies on other people to be any good, there's too much room for failure. I try to avoid AAA or FotM stuff. I'll resist using the word but I don't play games like Peak or Lethal Company. I end up saying no to most games suggested to me, or delaying trying out a game for a few months because I'm in the middle of another game, or already have the next game or two picked out. I find this a lot more fulfilling than jumping between 10 games in a day, feeling bored and aimless, never finishing anything.
I don't know how you feel about anime, but you could pick out some seasonal anime and keep up with it as it airs. MAL and LiveChart have the season charts. Gives you reason to look forward to particular days of the week, and the shows all have clear ends, giving you lots of stopping points. Optionally you can read/participate in episode discussions afterward. Watching a really good episode of anime is one of the best feelings.
Humans are social creatures. We’re not meant to live alone. The advise suggesting we should be able to seems to me like cope. I think you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Dating sites and online are not going to make you feel better so don't expect anything from that. 38 is young for a guy, and I met plenty of women in my 40s (in real life) who would have made a a good couple with.
As someone who has been alone in some deeply dark places, I'll share what's worked for me - YMMV.
* You gotta force yourself out. There's no trick, you just gotta fuckin' do it. It's hard. It sucks. You've also gotta do it if only to make sure you're varying your day and creating the opportunity for chance encounters. I spent fifteen months bottled up alone and it was only through the good graces of friends that I didn't...yeah.
* Eat out more, specifically for the human interaction. Find a local restaurant with a good deal on food (like a happy hour), and head there once a week for a meal you didn't make, and to be surrounded by strangers. Even just a "Yes Sir/Ma'am" and similar pleasantries will help, weirdly enough, because it's direct human contact. If there's a trivia night, even better - Buffalo Wild Wings was my brief go-to for that sort of thing.
* You gotta learn to love yourself, somehow. If there's an aspect you don't like, set about fixing it. For me, it was weight and my soft skills, so I worked on both in the time I could with the energy I had. Being alone means if you don't like yourself, you're never going to be in good spirits.
* You're also not really alone, depending on perspective. Setup a bird feeder and just sit and watch it. Talk to the wildlife, silly as that sounds. Your pets help, but they're "at home", while the rest of the world is decidedly not "at home". You gotta get out of the home if you don't want to be alone.
* You mentioned playing games, and I'll add that's actually what kept me sane during those fifteen months of solo unemployment. I joined a multiplayer game server community, worked my way into administration, made friends, ran events. Gaming can be a form of community if it's intentional, i.e. not just joining random lobbies to kill time.
Look, as someone still single at 39 (but blessedly living with my best friends), being alone sucks ass. There's no way around that, even for someone who generally enjoys their solitude. Lacking the warmth and intimacy of another person is debilitating in a way nothing else is, at least to me, but friends do help in their own way. We cook for each other, share our days, treat one another when we're dour, and do what we can to lift others up. So maybe I'm suggesting you reach out to other friends you may have in similar boats, see if they'd like to spend more time together.
Beyond that, some life lessons I've learned since I had more folks come into my life, that I use when I'm feeling alone or lonely again:
* Go to a city at night, downtown ideally. I look around at the empty buildings, the changing lights, the abandoned sidewalks. I remind myself I'm one of eight and a half billion people, on a single planet in a vast galaxy, itself a small part of an immense universe. Weirdly enough, the smallness of being helps me feel less alone, knowing how lucky I am to be amidst all this, right now.
* After the above, I grab a burger and a milkshake, because I deserve it.
* Pop in some earbuds, go outside for a walk, and dance. Fuck the onlookers, just exist for a moment outside your home. Prove to everyone else you're still here.
* VRChat has been damn helpful. Pop on my headset, drop into an avatar that reflects me in the moment, and world hop. Nobody judges what you do in VR, provided you're not breaking instance rules, and there's so many people there to hang out with, all while staying home. It legit got me through COVID.
* Run a game night! Gathering around Jackbox from every corner of the globe for an hour or two of weekly shitposting also got us all through COVID. Just make sure to all be in voice chat or video conferencing to rib one another.
As tired and cliche as this is, the last point I'll say is that this is exactly what the prior phase of your life was: a chapter. Chapters have endings, and this one is no different. Prepare for the long haul, but hopefully you find someone - and something - better, sooner. You're not alone in being alone, but you'll remain alone only as long as you choose to be alone.
Get out there. Force social interactions. Build those muscles.
There are many people that feel this way. I think one has to take the initiative, has to go somewhere, in real life, where other people are and the the conditions are right for getting to know people. Computer Games or IRC are just a weak substitute. Turn off the PC, go out. Give other people the chance to meet you. Go to (local) events, concerts, sports, anything where other people are. It doesn't really matter what, anything that doesn't bore you. Try things. Opportunities will come. Then take them.
Here are a couple of things I did where I got into contact with others naturally or where conversation with strangers developed easily. I think such activities or places can generate opportunities for a start of something that could be developed further.
Getting a gig as an extra in a film production. I registered with a free extras agency. They semi-regularly ask for availability, mostly for 1 full day, paying minimum wage. I've been on a couple of shoots, and there's always a longer wait time (hours) and a bunch of other extras to talk to. The people there are very diverse and very friendly: students, people of various ages, professions and education, locals, foreigners. They often strike up a conversation because there is really no other thing to do besides looking at your phone. It's very easy to start talking with people there; one can start commenting on the costumes, the set, the project, and the past extra experiences, then segue to what they do in real life. Often when shooting, we get paired up or grouped with people, which is another opportunity to chat casually, because there are also wait times between shots. I've met nice and interesting people there. Some are also there because they are lonely.
I think this has key elements that one might look for in other potential activities:
- common location in the real world
- people are open to talk
- multiple people
- natural topics to start a conversation, commonalities
- no expectations, relaxed atmosphere, no pressure, informal
Other examples:
Going alone to an outdoor basketball court in a public park, shooting hoops. I got asked to play in pick-up games. When having a break, a conversation can happen naturally.
Going to a park, playing soccer on a little pitch alone (taking some shots at the goal, dribbling). Some young kids also came onto the pitch, and I asked them if they wanted to make teams and play a match. At a break, a woman, who must have watched, came to me to ask me what my profession is. She said she thought I was in education because I was good with the kids. I think she might have flirted with me.
I know a person coming from another country, not really knowing anybody here. Now she has more friends and social contacts than anyone else I know. Besides her work acquaintances from her job training and job here, she actively looked for potential friendships on apps (Bumble BFF) and also was successful there. She also goes to dancing class and to meetings of a kind of Free Church, where they mostly talk about non-religious topics and help each other out. She often gets invited to birthday parties, weddings, etc., where she meets new people.
While going by train, in an almost empty cart, a guy I didn't know started a conversation with me. We talked for an hour. I think if I had asked him if he wanted to meet for another chat, he would have agreed.
Book recommendations:
Dale Carnegie: "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
I started going to tech meetups in the nearest large city. The tech scene is utter crap there compared to SF or Boston but I get to interact with a few smart, like-minded people almost each week. My wife says it's been good for me.
Marrying the right person helped. I'm quite in the opposite situation from you: I married for the first time in my mid-40s. I know what it's like to be alone, and to an extent I grew comfortable with it. Now that there's someone in my life, I'm all in disarray. That's not a bad thing, as I've been forced to grow to become worthy of this: two humans, six nonhuman animals, love filling the house.
If you just want to talk about your day or receive psychological support or even answer questions like this one, LLMs are great: Opus 4.6 is currently considered the best, but also try Gemini and ChatGPT.
As for interacting with humans, if you are finding it hard, maybe you can try something that is easy because it has a structure, such as some sort of workshop where you either share in a circle or are paired with a random partner and share (ask LLMs for help in finding them).
Or even pay someone to talk to them, such as a psychotherapist or a counselor.
So many takes and advices that could be taken on this topic, I'll keep my $0.02 short: Get a pet.
Perhaps this can also save you a little bit on psychotherapist costs: Learn to like yourself, and your own company.
Humans are social animals though, but don't try to be social for the sake of it, do things you like that involve people, and be nice to them. OTOH, I've met a couple of Uber drivers that are in it just for the social interaction of it (like retirees mostly). Others here will probably have better tips on this topic though, hope that helps.
People remember your kindness. That’s it.
I’ve had several senior neighbours who passed away, after decades of living alone. We’ve always helped each other in one way or another and when they passed, in all cases I thought back about the last time we talked. In all cases the conversations remembered involved kindness. Either from then to us or from us to them and them being grateful. It’s what remains.
Giving kindness is most satisfying. It makes the receiver happy, but it makes you happy as well in a wat that kind of lasts. It’s an interaction that compounds on both sides. I think that’s why church groups, and mentorships, ans teaching, and advisory roles are satisfying. Teaching, giving, coaching all make life far more vibrant emotionally, and far less lonely.
Giving grows the pie, while zero sum games see it as affixed. Trying to compete in the latter will make you lonely. Trying to grow the pie in any kind of local community might make you see things differently.
To get things out of the way: yes it is hard being alone. But it is also hard to be with someone and is very hard to take care of kids and family and such. And it is waaay harder to be with wrong person. There are no easy roads in life and being single is one of the easiest.
Now I’ll focus on practical advise:
- gym every day. No excuses. If you don’t know what to do or lack motivation- get a personal trainer.
- besides gym pick an active “hobby”. Cycling, rollerblading, running, skiing, surfing etc. You need self-supporting way to spend time outdoors. Again: do seek instruction.
- learn to play music. It is very healing and rewarding. Also frustrating and hard. Guess what? Take classes. Joining (community) school is great. Getting into local band is amazing. Most importantly here: you do not need to talk to these people. Same goes for drawing studio.
- professional education. Maybe you always wanted to be CPA?
- deep and challenging activities: sailing, diving, flying, mountaineering etc
- checklist reading, movie watching
- study textbooks
- systematic traveling
- volunteer
- build things with your hands and give them away
- learn to recognize your emotional state and how it changes.
My “qualifications”: I was single for ~10+10 years.
+1 for physical exercise. Curious though why you (or anybody else) would separate running and/or cycling from the gym? Gym gets its own (emphatic!) category and the sports are separate. Not a criticism, genuinely curious.
Being outdoors is a big differentiator for me. I find (uv) light exposure to noticeably improve my self being. Also I can’t stay productively in the gym for 3 hours, but I can easily cycle.
Same. I loathe gyms, actually. Perhaps Ive been absent for too long to have an honest loathing, I've no attraction to them though (I don't begrudge anybody who likes them or uses them though - easy to see their value).
A bicycle, on the other hand... a thing of beauty.
Gym is important to set a body routine and get it used to “flush” emotions out with sweat. Daily exercise when in vulnerable state is non-negotiable imo (but hard). Not everyone can afford to bike every day. Hence why I recommend gym first.
> Not everyone can afford to bike every day. Hence why I recommend gym first.
Err....
Are we talking about affording in time? Because from where I'm sitting once you have a bike it's free, where gyms need an ongoing subscription.
Plus if someone (like OP) works from home, getting on their bike is likely easier and lower-friction.
Does "single for ~10+10 years" mean 20 years, or that you were single before you were 10 and then till age 20?
I was single for 10 years after college. Then married for 7 (very very badly). Then single for another 10. I thought I will spend the rest of my days alone. I have two kids now.
I'm two years ahead of you in this journey. I got divorced after just over a decade with my partner. Social engagements to me were always ad-hoc. I suck at planning so I often found myself more alone than I'd like.
Looking back on the last two years and auditing what worked, I would say routine and lingering were the most important thing.
Trying new things is mentally draining and labor intensive, this is a fact of life for many. What worked for me was finding something I enjoyed (exercise classes) and doing it consistently multiple times a week at the same place for months. With repetition, it's very easy to make new friends. Complaining about one exercise one week turns into making comments about the music the next, and all of a sudden you're getting coffee with friends.
At the start it was very difficult, and I was very bad, but now I'm part of a community and have many close friends. Its a hour per day most days of the week. It's also a jumping off point for everything else social. It provides purpose and self-confidence. Which are prerequisites for everything else meaningful in life.
One other thought to drill deeper into regarding lingering.
I'm the type of guy that always moves with purpose. When I'm done doing something, I'm quick to leave. Looking back on my life so far, I think this has often been mistaken as antisocial.
Every event involving humans is default social. Leaving quickly precludes much of life's social whimsy.
I'm much the same. It's hard to notice. Coming up having onsites with three and four and five consulting clients in a "normally busy" day (you want 'high touch?' I started before smartphones!) taught me to associate just that purposeful attitude with the satisfying knowledge that I probably wouldn't end the day running further behind when I started.
It's a good energy to bring to work or to a crisis. Everywhere else? Maybe not so much. I appreciate you mentioning it here; it can serve me also, as a reminder to work on that.
Wonderful advice Geoff, that's the same kind of thing I started doing when my relationship broke down. You find your community, and the rest will come.
you hit the nail here.. repetition is key! that’s what happens at a workplace or school. You show up every day, do your thing, and have small interactions here and there. Over time, those interactions grow, and you get to know each other on a deeper level and become friends.
This can be replicated with similar activities that involve a schedule, like joining classes, volunteering, or whatever else fits that kind of setup.
I think there are a couple questions you need to ask yourself - the first is why is it hard for you to be alone? You're the one person you're stuck living with for your entire life - it shouldn't be hard to be alone with yourself. That's where it began. That's where it will end.
You mentioned you have a therapist - this is something you might wish to explore with them.
The second question is related - what are you looking for in the "not alone"? What do you want? What would bring you peace? Are you looking for a relationship? A friend? Sex? etc? While you have to be comfortable with yourself, part of that comfort is knowing and being confident in what you're looking for. It may be that the world won't or can't provide it, but that's why I put this question second.
The final point I'll make is that there's nothing stopping you. You're an adult... within the constraints of the laws of your society, you CAN do what you want and there's nothing stopping you. It may not go the way you want, but it might, and wouldn't it be fun to try?
I’ve been alone since about 20. I am 26 now and have been renting a room from someone who is in a similar state as myself. We mostly do our own thing but it’s nice to have others around. Something I learned was necessary when living alone was to have connections with people. I am religious and belong to a church the social connection there was critical to my survival as an individual. I had friends who were in multiple stages of life. I would try to spend time with others multiple times a week.
On Thursday’s I would spend time with my friend who’s in his 60s. I might help him fix some shelves or his furnace or whatever in exchange for a meal with him and his wife. We would play a few rounds of pickle ball or go for a bike ride in the evening and then we would sit around and talk.
I had a few other friendships like this. One family where I would spend a lot of time. The children where in their teens and I was friends with them and the parents they treated me as a bit of a son. It was good. I have since moved to a different community and have a very social job now so it’s not as crucial that I make such deliberate efforts to spend time with others.
So my advice is this make deliberate effort to spend time with people. Find people to spend time with involve yourself in their lives. Humans are social we all need some interaction and you can be an asset to others while helping yourself.
Too much time alone will absolutely destroy your mental state. Well it did mine. I have my friends to thank for taking care of me.
I should note many people rely on family for this sort of stuff. I don’t have family close geographically.
Having spent several years unexpectedly alone after a big breakup in my mid twenties, I'd also highly recommend getting involved in a church, even if it's just to serve others in some practical way organized by the church. Most churches have plenty of need in "care" ministries like bringing meals (and conversation) to people who are homebound, or in the hospital. One cool thing our church does is organize volunteers to help with teaching English as a second language to refugees living in our community.
Do enough of these kinds of things and not only will you connect with those you serve, but also with those serving others out of love. These are good people to be connected to, especially since you'll become more like them over time.
Ask yourself "Would I like to be friend with <me>". Then invest in things you do not like. Smile. Go to gym. Be friendly with people, but not creepy. Help people. Be good family member and friend. Get yourself good clothes. Find interesting hobby. Cook. Pay whole bill when you go outside occasionally. Do it for yourself, not for others. When you become best version of self, people will start notice you more and more.
One can take Be Your Own Friend a lot farther than just this. What would you tell your friend going through what you’re experiencing right now? What would you tell your friend not to beat himself up for? To push himself harder abouT?
Yep. You are your own best friend. Sadly most people are terrible a terrible friend to themselves.
I've also seen the reverse. Some people who treat me poorly have a terrible voice in their own head where they trashtalk themselves. It's like they see it as fair to do to others as long as they're not hypocritical about it.
Do you talk to yourself the way you talk to me? If so then you need to stop both.
When I was younger I was partly guilty of this and still occasionally catch it. But we are always more sensitive to vices in others that we police in ourselves.
I have seen this perspective a lot and I don't understand it at all. When I meet a stranger, I don't wonder if they exercise enough for me to befriend them. Same for their clothes-shopping habits, past some very basic threshold. Same for whether they pay for me.
A lot of this advice for how to improve yourself so that other people like you comes off so incredibly vain, neurotic, and juvenile.
I firmly disagree with this advice as well; it strikes me as the sort of advice one comes up with when sitting around one's room wondering why one doesn't have any friends. The worst part about it is that it will get you doing all these activities that take up your time but don't really solve the friend problem.
Making friends isn't trivial, but it isn't a complex thing - just ask people you sort of vaguely know to hang out sometimes. Asking people to spend time together is about 10,000,000% more effective than any other strategy.
They reflect the traits that OP values in others; these criteria wouldn't be universal. I think the thought experiment still holds: If I met myself on the street, would I like that person? If not, why not, and how can I fix that?
I don't know if this list motivates anyone, it just makes me feel like I'm not worth being friends with and I will be forever alone, even though I do have friends.
Seriously, do you only befriend perfect people?
I don't think the point is that you have to be all of those things, or even any of them. Just that imagining what kinds of things people you'd like do is a good way to know what might enrich you also. You shouldn't be discouraged if that seems far off, but all of it can be broken up into as many pieces as you like. If it all feels too much
I don't think anyone is asking for perfect, I think they are asking for "good enough".
If I may be blunt, it sound more like you might have some self-esteem issues, or shame, or just plain immaturity.
That implies they think some people (apparently the ones who eat takeout or don't go to gym), are just not "good enough" to have friends. It's an esteem for others issue.
disagree. I've felt the same after reading the same but I believe op tries just to point out that when you're the best version of yourselves, by removing the common denominator of bad versions, you'll be noticed more and that presents an interesting way for people to present a chance themselves to hear/see you. From there you get to go and may be, may be you find yourselves with a good friend. More importantly,Ithe confidence you'll get out of this is immense and you'll feel peace spending time for yourselves instead of feeling bad about having all the time and don't have anyone to spend with.. I cant say this advice helped me 100% but atleast it helped reduce the biased stress you put on yourselves.
I'm all for trying to be the best version of yourself, but I think it's discouraging to tie it with the person's worth as a friend. Replying with "find interesting hobby" to the poster who explicitly wrote he finds it hard to find a hobby in particular reads like condemnation, as if until you don't lock in and check those boxes don't even try to socialize. Imagine you meet an interesting person, learn they don't really have any hobbies, and break off a friendship because of it - I'd find that psychopathic. Why should we foster this attitude towards ourselves?
True. I realise my reply reflected a little of " don't even try to socialize untill you've checked all these boxes and the best version" which is wrong.. I merely pointed out / defended the realism od the comment I replied to. The definition is not and never should be the "hobbies". It's just something you find interesting which brings the parity to you and the other person. not necessarily a hobby and could be of anything.. Hobby is just a common way suggested to find people and then, only then, you get a change to know whether they are interesting.
It's not that not having hobbies makes you not worth befriending, it's that having hobbies is one thing that makes people more interesting, and makes it easier to make friends.
I'm going to assume you no longer live near family, or are not close to them. I was severely depressed for over a year where I lived alone (across the country from my parents) without pets after a painful breakup. Getting a remote job and moving back closer to my parents/cousins/grandmother helped the most, but other things that help(ed):
* Going to restaurants with bars (like diners or sushi bars) where I could attempt to make small talk with servers
* Regularly going to the gym. Cliche, I know, but at least 3 times a week at the same times and I started becoming friendly with other regulars who had similar schedules. If you get friendly enough with someone, don't be afraid to ask if they wanna get food or beer after.
* Volunteering (cliche as well, but it helps) at the same place once a week. I volunteered for a high school bringing near-spoiled produce from local supermarkets to their horticulture club. There's loads of ways to get involved, but maybe start with your city/county's website to look for volunteer opportunities, ideally ones where you see the same people every time. This lets you build trust and community with folks who are often from different walks of life.
My situation was nowhere similar to yours or OP’s, but back when I was dealing with depression a church group I was volunteering with was one of the main factors in my recovery. I met people that really helped me change for the better and helped give me at least a temporary purpose in life.
There were some days when I didn’t want to do anything, but due to my obligations as a formal member of the group I had to show up. This really helped me since it really forced me to get out and actually do something and not doomscroll YouTube Shorts.
I don’t want to make this specific to any religion or belief system, but in my experience groups centered around a place of worship and focused on service are some of the best ways to create social bonds as an adult. There are also other men’s groups that aren’t religious that fit this: Lions Club, Rotary Club, Veterans Outposts.
Join Discord servers of your favorite games and join social servers, build/play with the same folks. It can be like playing in a local band (also a great way to socialize and find purpose).
1. This will be tough. That doesn't mean you are doing it wrong.
2. Growth is proportional to your willingness to be uncomfortable.
3. Meds can work wonders, AND you can still be depressed. Medicine resolve biological depression. It doesn't resolve situational depression.
4. You will likely go through the stages of grief as you grieve this change. One of those stages is sadness.
Again, that's okay. You will grow so much as you find new ways to socialize and to enjoy solitude. It will be painful, but that is normal. It is part if the process.
Also again, I'm sorry to hear life took an unexpected turn. I know how hard that can be.
> You will likely go through the stages of grief as you grieve this change.
I think this is a very important observation. I've been through a divorce, and a friend made this observation to me, which I hadn't thought of, and it made a big difference.
This is great. Also, as somebody going through this change for the second time, I'll add that things come in waves. Sometimes grief, sometimes loneliness, sometimes regret, etc. It'll swell and seem to last for forever, but then it'll pass almost without noticing. When you're in the worst of it remember it will ease up eventually.
Whenever I feel down I try to redirect those thoughts into some new thing that I can do now. Nothing is ever 100% negative. Find those positives, dig them up and display them.
I get through by getting into every single thing I couldn't do before. Just like when I turned 18, I went to every place I could find to get carded. Even a great relationship is work and compromises are made, and it's hard to find the time to do all the things.
This weekend I dug out my trip collection I wasn't allowed to display. I pulled out old photos and hangers that didn't make sense for our blended family but now it's just what I want. I bought some used golf clubs. I rearranged the whole house to suit me (and to fill in the empty parts).
I'd bet your dog never seen either the snow or the beach, so take a whole trip just to do it. Learn to play drums. Spend hours at a bookstore. During a bad breakup some years ago, I volunteered for a campaign and went knocking on doors. Not only did I not get shot but I made some friends, too.
Revel in this phase. Because this will also pass and you'll find something else eventually (if you want to). I'm trying to be the most single I can be to really appreciate this time and learn from it.
You know, looking back at my life so far I realize.. all of my best stories were from my single days.
I could not agree more to this.
Other than that, keep trying to do stuff with your time. Check out your local library for events, go an evening course that's at least mildly interesting or honestly, whatever sparks even the tiniest interest or curiosity. There are also sites like meetup.com
If this is too hard for you right now, or even if it isn't try and find reasons to speak to your neighbors or just strangers.
See someone with cool hair at the store? Tell them! "Excuse me, I just wanted to say I think your hair is really cool", or if you see a neighbor or some random person enjoying the weather, looking at a cool car or whatever, say something about it! "woah, lovely weather", "oh, nice cars here today eh?" or whatever.
It often feels weird and awkward, but sometimes people strike up with a small convo and you'll feel connection for a little bit. I used to hate these interactions but I've learned to like them, they are very low-pressure as there isn't anything to maintain.
Good luck and take care
Before considering medication for mental health, I have to wheel out the usual old advice: sometimes it can be as simple as diet and exercise. The fundamentals really should not be overlooked when thinking about any medication for long term care.
I found out my anxiety symptoms were actually caused by my A1C being in diabetic territory (8%). High blood glucose has a direct impact on the brain and blood vessels. Random heart palpitations, breathing being off, etc. all lined up. I'm so thankful that my doctor had the experience and courage to tell me like it is and refused to believe it was anything truly serious. I brought it down to 5.5% in a few months and now have new cooking and eating habits for life. Too much alcohol can also lead to vitamin deficiencies (magnesium, potassium, zinc, etc. will need blood tests to confirm).
I kinda let myself go for a few years during the shift to remote work back in 2020. After I got back on track I even gained some muscle without weight loss and no longer have sleep apnea. Sleep quality and hydration are also important things that we forget when we are in a slump.
I concur. I am finally starting to snap out of a multi-year long depression spell myself. Now, I did not alter my diet nor exercise more. I drink the same amount as I did prior.
However, blood work showed I was deficient in Vitamin-D. So, I added some herculean dosage of fish-oil and prescription Vitamin-D to my life. After about 3 months or so, I am really starting to feel much better and I am starting to notice more productivity gains. The weather is warming up in my area too. That always helps.
3 is very true and reflects a serious issue in today's society. It is easier to treat symptoms than causes sometimes.
The good news is that situational issues can be fixed but it can take time.
Those feelings of hollowness of OP could be explained as a side effect of those meds, in fact. They wouldn't be the first.
> Meds can work wonders, AND you can still be depressed. Medicine resolve biological depression. It doesn't resolve situational depression.
It's not quite that simple. You seem to be hinting at the "chemical imbalance" theory of antidepressants, which has been largely debunked. The reality is much more nuanced and complicated.
> You seem to be hinting at the "chemical imbalance" theory of antidepressants, which has been largely debunked
Can you say more?
The "serotonin hypothesis" is largely unfounded. We don't actually know why SSRIs are effective for some people. It's likely more to do with increased neuroplasticity than a shortage of serotonin in the brain.
This is a good study to start with: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35854107/
> The main areas of serotonin research provide no consistent evidence of there being an association between serotonin and depression, and no support for the hypothesis that depression is caused by lowered serotonin activity or concentrations.
Prescribing antidepressants is a shot in the dark. Doctors can't know for sure if you'll respond to them, especially because we don't even really understand how they work.
Sorry that you’re going through this. I got divorced after a 10 year marriage last year. Although it was amicable, going from a house (with a dog) to living alone is pretty tough.
Other people have said the same, but strong +1 to staying active and building a routine around that.
All my friends live far away as well, but fortunately I connect with them virtually every weekend for games.
Maybe one more bit of advice.. doing things on your own feels odd at the start. But there are upsides, e.g if you go to a museum you just go at your own place, you take a vacation wherever _you_ want, etc. Initially you will have the impulse of wanting to share that moment with someone, but that also fades with time.
Plus you’ll meet someone new and build new memories together. You’ll be fine OP, but it’ll be shitty for a while.
First thing is going outside. Staying inside is only going to compound depression and cause days gone by to become a blur. Just doing that is a step in the right direction, bonus points if it involves moving the body.
Second, start writing. Writing can help prevent circular thoughts and force the brain to plan how to change your lifestyle and get you to a life worth living. If you don’t write, it’s very easy to repeat patterns over and over again.
Third, don’t lose hope. Having a positive outlook and a growth mindset is going to help you navigate setback and push through obstacles. It’s easy to resort to a fixed mindset, but the saints are the sinners who keep on trying as they say.
Best of luck!
I was in a similar situation. While I'm very much an introvert, the emptiness you mention became very strong.
I changed a few things to improve. I started riding a bike, and I joined some local casual bike riding meet-ups in the weekends. The meet-ups had a lit of new people each time as well as some frequent members, so I could usually choose between just riding along, talk to someone familiar or talk to someone new. After a bit I got some new friends this way which I met outside of the meet-up.
I picked up a couple of weekday activities. For one I went for something that interested me, but also was fairly casual and had natural dead time which allowed for talk. Bowling, darts, frisbee golf, that sort of thing. For the other I went with something that helped others. In my case they had an after-hours activity at a local school helping kids start programming.
I also played a lot of games before and after, mostly single player or just random multiplayer, but I ended up getting into a MMO and finding a guild. This became the primary place I'd hang out and talk about pork chops and broken blinds.
It wasn't a quick fix, but by working at it the emptiness faded.
A big difference was I had an office to come to with colleagues to talk to. We have a couple remote workers as well, and both of them have gotten an office space in a shared office building. This way they still get to eat lunch with someone or hang out by the coffee machine.
Best of luck and hang in there.
Leaning into vs. trying to kill the boredom/loneliness/emptiness is a strategy. Because this is how it is now. You will only ever get so much love from your cat.
I don't know you and all I know is what you've written here, but it seems like this new situation has unmasked your life and aspects of your personality and the truth is uncomfortable. This is who you were before as well, it's just more obvious now that you don't have the relationship you had.
How it is and who you are: these are the premises of the situation. Now given this, where do you go from here? You decide. The premises are just the start, the conclusion is something else and you're driving the car 100% now.
It sounds like you have the right idea, and this worked in my case. Find what sucks and work to make it not suck and don't expect results overnight. Persist, adapt, overcome.
I sincerely hope the best and that things improve for you.
There are no tricks because you're too smart to fall for your own tricks.
The one thing that works is the time buffer between your future self and now.
The real challenge is to override the sadness with new memories.
Doing all the things you listed (dog park / build sth. / books, etc) makes the time go by faster, especially if you find something you like.
Stay holed up, and the sadness keeps resonating, building its harmonics (reliving past images, what ifs).
Everyone has their own pace. Stay strong.
> fixed up the blinds or cooked pork steaks
I know how it feels. Wish you the best.
Try a few different CrossFit gyms near you; at least one is likely to have a strong social element. CrossFit is the closest thing there is to secular church, and most of the reason people go to church is for the social aspect.
CrossFit has its downsides (much ink has been spilled elsewhere), but the social element makes up for a lot.
You can easily end up doing 5-7 sessions a week there, with a consistent cohort of people that you develop relationships with.
Edit to add: CrossFit classes also add an element of structure to a daily routine that is not work related. This is really important. You don't have to plan anything for the class, other than show and and do the workout. But showing up at social event consistently has an impact all through your day.
I found myself in a similar place a couple of years ago. My partner passed away, which is different and the same as your situation.
My advice… Run. Don’t worry about being fast. Get the Jeff Galloway run-walk-run book and just do it. You probably aren’t a running person. Cool, do it anyway.
Couple of reasons. One, it will help you with your emotional state. There’s something liberating about just focusing on your steps and your brain is able to organize and pack stuff away. Two, it will make a real difference in your physical condition, which also helps the mind.
Get established and when you’re ready make a goal to do a 5k or something. If you want to, you can go from watching TV to a 5k in 2-3 months. When you do that, usually those events are organized by a running club. Go to some of their events or practice runs, do an meetup or two. When you’re ready, you’ll find a bunch of people not unlike yourself.
You are 38, getting out of a decades long relationship, and you’re introspective enough to post this post. It doesn’t feel like it now , but when it’s time, you are a hot commodity for future partners.
Getting started is easy. Get two pairs of good socks and good running shoes. Then go.
Good luck, whatever you do!
+1 to running. If you run consistently, you'll learn to believe in your body as something that naturally improves if you train it well, and that belief will cross over to your mind and heart.
+2 for running. Running can become a nice little exercise and data collecting obsession.
I'll speak from my own experience and not one of study or professional recommendation.
No matter how much I got out and about each day and night, I'd still feel 'alone' when I was home alone. I ended up developing panic attacks out of nowhere that got pretty rough for a while. In short, I felt like I was going crazy.
The only thing that helped was going back out and finding someone else. The process sucks, especially as you get older, but all my anxiety and panic attacks disappeared.
So I guess that's to say, it's possible some people just don't handle being alone well no matter what they try, as I've found with myself. I guess it makes some sense, humans are social creatures.
This is going to be a difficult time.. and that's OK. Great change is upon you.
One book I cannot recommend enough is Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life by James Hollis.
Listen deeply to yourself, be kind with yourself. It's so very hard but so very very rewarding.
What was your main takeaway from that book?
When I was 21, I moved out of my parents house and moved from Orlando to Dallas for a girl I met on the internet. We were together for about six months and then she broke up with me. Additionally, like two weeks later I got fired from my job.
I hold no grudges my ex girlfriend for that, I was far from an amazing partner, but I was now living in a new city where I knew basically no one, with no job to get out of my apartment, with no family nearby, and no money to artificially figure out ways to entertain myself. I had never in my entire life before that felt so alone. Days simultaneously felt ridiculously long and yet time seemed to also lose all meaning and it would feel like a week would go by without me even realizing it. When a job interview would come up, it would be the highlight of my week, primarily because it was an excuse to talk to another human.
I had friends from Orlando, of course, good friends even, and I would chat with them on Skype, and I would call my parents over the weekend, but of course they all had to work during the day and so most of the day I was purely alone.
It was dreadful. It felt like all I could do was apply for jobs, play through games on a SNES emulator, and learn new programming languages to try and make myself competitive in the job market.
I eventually found a job, with coworkers that I actually really liked. There was a married couple that I think liked me but also felt kind of sorry for me, so they would invite me over to their house on weekends to play video games and watch Game of Thrones, and I am eternally grateful for them. They were friends when I really needed friends.
I never really figured out how to be alone; I eventually met my girlfriend (now wife) and I haven't really been "alone" in the same way since then.
>I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers
>Everything feels hollow ... feels like being imprisoned
Just a humble observation: you may not have a psychiatrist that great.
You take three different medications just for everything to feel hollow? And that is life?
That sounds quite depressing to my ear.
My advice: find a community IRL, and hear from them IRL. Solitary confinement with internet is definitely not healthy. Go outside, learn something new, meet people and interact with them in real life, "remote" won't cut it. Meds will not make you feel, people will.
Hey, saw this while looking under new and wanted to try and help. I think the answer is to be places. Life needs randomness and interactions and that doesn't happen at home. Try to be in "3rd places" - the gym / work in a shared working space / pick up a couple of hobbies (I say a couple as just one is risky if say it's sports based an you injure yourself - something you can do outdoors, something you can do indoors). Trust that it will take time, but it will happen.
Thank you. Unfortunately I live in a suburb, and not a very walking-friendly one either, so there aren't really any third spaces to go to.
Maybe a silly question, but any suggestions on how to find hobbies?
I've tried a number of things over the years. Sailing, climbing, running, board game meet ups, drinking meetups, golf, crossfit, curling, probably some others I'm not thinking of. Just pick something and see if it sounds interesting to you and give it a go. My big advice is to avoid shelling out on gear. Rent or just get some beginner stuff. Most of these things didn't stick, but I'm a runner and a climber and oddly I've had some great platonic connections through crossfit as well.
Hey, so, I live in a city but visit my parents in the suburbs once or twice a year and at it did take some work, but there are certainly third spaces. After trying a few, I found some very comfy cafes to work out of, I prefer it since my parents can be a bit distracting. Also one cafe I really like is in a 'town center' which does also have a gym. So while you may not be in a city, see if there might be any pockets of walkability you can park at and enjoy the day on your feet.
Maybe moving house to a denser and more walkable location is a feasible option?
Yes moving is a pita, but you can’t fix an urban landscape that is not working for you.
In my opinion if you're searching for a hobby it's best to be a bit more methodical about it. Usually the way to get into hobbies is that a friend or acquaintance pulls you into it (either by talking about the hobby energetically or directly showcasing it) and going at it from the other end isn't really easy per se in my experience.
But yeah, it's more than doable. First things first take a piece of paper (or do it digitally) and divide it into 2 halves, indoor and outdoor, then further divide those 2 halves into solo and group. At this point it doesn't make sense to take financial constraints into account, that's up to it at the end as a determining factor if you want to start a hobby from your "short list".
So after you've done the above take a week to fill the paper with stuff like "Tabletop RPGs" which goes into indoor/group, or "nature photography" which goes into outdoor/solo and I hope you get the jist. I'm sure you know where to file embroidery for example.
You can continue to add hobbies as a hobby too for a little bit, call it hobby watching and searching, it's still a pastime. Now here's another important part, you have to decide your motivation for start a hobby (not a specific hobby but a new hobby). Some people try and do hobbies because they feel they're forced to if they want to appear interesting to their peers, sometimes you just want to fill a hole or fill time so you can't stop and think about that hole. In emotionally adjusted individuals supposedly you can pick a hobby for the fun of it and that's enough. Basically do a bit of soul searching so that you can decide if you gravitate towards a outdoor hobby with a group of people (because the hobby itself doesn't matter that much but you crave connection which is completely fine and that's why some old people go to church).
I could go on but thanks for reading my TED talk and I really hope you find what you are looking for, either a hobby or something else.
EDIT: I completely forgot! You might also try finding a charity in your area or volunteer organization and volunteer your time. Maybe you need a higher calling or a mission to keep you going instead of a hobby. Food for thought. Though do be careful if you take that route because some NGOs tend to attract people who are energy vampires to say the least. Try your local library too if you have one and see if they run some programs you can participate in or help with.
Can you move to a city? This is what most people I know in this situation do. Though I had a great time getting a car and taking myself out for hikes, sauna / spa days, activities and parties in the east bay near SF. Great place for practicing being alone. I had to think about it like dating myself - where would I have taken a date for fun? Try a bunch of things and see what sticks and remember you can appreciate moments by yourself with this mindset and it's like 80% as good.
Ironically I find cities more isolating than the countryside. At least in the countryside you have the beauty of nature. In many modern cities, there is less and less social connection and community. Sometimes I suppose it is finding the right groups... And sometimes you have to take the initiative and create in person groups.
The suburbs, though, are the worst of both worlds.
Cities at least are full of a huge variety of people looking to make connections.
Depends on the suburb and HOA. Mine has groups for books, card games, mahjongg, cycling, ladies lunch, men's lunch, happy hours, pickle ball, etc... Some are in our community center, some are hosted in people's homes. There are also occasional block parties, although they tend to revolve around kids.
+1 Moving to a city.
How about the library? A lot of suburbs have libraries
Try out a lot of different things and see what sticks. You will hate some things and love others. Computer gaming is fun, but is more of what you are already doing, because you are on a computer alone. Meeting in person is very important.
I've surprised myself by finding that I really enjoy knitting for example. I don't fit the usual profile at all. But I tried it and enjoyed it. It may not be for you, but something else might be. Some people love hanging off rocks on ropes, and some love D&D — neither of these are my things but it gives you an idea of the range of things out there.
Get a bike and ride into a forest. I don't know what it is, but it just makes all the problems go away, make that into a routine and now you have a constant thing which resets your state of mind.
ymmv, especially if you're in urban housing where there's private land as far as the eye can see.
> I would blame depression, but I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers.
Allow me to be blunt: you’re still suffering the symptoms of depression. I’m not a psychiatrist but you likely have what I’d think of as “situational depression” (as opposed to ingrained depression). Once you either fix the cause (loneliness) or adapt to it, the depression will lift.
I think it’s worth saying that you need to learn how to be comfortable in your own company. That’s the easy bit, the hard part is figuring out how. I don’t think there’s a trick you can do, you need to put in some work. Maybe take your dog walking to more remote places than just a dog park? I guess if you’re in America this might be more difficult but are there any green spaces within a few hours drive you can spend the weekend at?
This line stuck out to me as well, but my follow up thought was different.
I’ve had friends who have been on cocktails like these, and one of them once said something like, “I’ve been depressed before, and this is not that. I’m not depressed. I don’t have the emotional capacity to be depressed. This is more like a total emotional blank slate.”
She was basically a robot for a few months. Incapable of really any emotions, including sadness, anxiety, frustration, etc. Suffice to say, she also didn’t have the emotional drive to push her towards positive things like deciding on how to spend her weekend free time.
Thankfully she’s changed her meds and is feeling overall better (if, admittedly, at the price of some emotional stability).
Try to find places you can become a regular, it sounds like you're experiencing true grief and isolation is exacerbating it. I know how hard it can be to pull yourself out. Making myself a regular in places that suited my interests, a local bookstore where I buy all of my books and have a chat with the owner, an arcade where I go, a bar that has a night of music i'm into helped me. Just getting to the point where you can go into a space, and be acknowledged as a human being that another human being has seen and talked to before was really grounding for me. I made no friends from doing this, but it helped me feel a bit less isolated and helped make other positive changes that led to being less alone. What you do is so much less important than forcing yourself to just put yourself into a situation where you are face to face with someone else. I hope this helps
I went through something similar after a long relationship ended. What helped me wasn’t “find a hobby” but a few small, repeatable things:
• Treat being alone as a skill you practice, not a verdict on your life – e.g. 20–30 minutes a day you choose to do something solo (walk, café, book) on purpose. Over time your brain learns “alone” can also be calm, not just panic. • Give weekends a thin structure: one out‑of‑the‑house thing, one tiny “future me” thing (10 minutes learning/building something), and the rest whatever. It stops the 60 hours from feeling like an empty void. • Have one low‑effort chat outlet (small group / one friend / Discord) just for “here’s what I cooked / fixed today” so that part of your brain doesn’t feel completely unheard.
You don’t have to learn to love being alone right now. Short‑term goal can just be “make the next few months tolerable while my system adjusts”, and that’s completely reasonable.
Thank you.
Did you ever learn to love being alone? The idea of it sounds nice.
How long did it take for you to start to feel normal again?
If I may ask, what did you personally do for each of those bullet points? I'm curious about things that concretely helped people.
Part of what atas2390 wrote resonated with me: "being alone as a skill you practice, e.g. 20–30 minutes a day you choose ... on purpose. Over time your brain learns “alone” can also be calm, not just panic"
In fact, purposeful practicing aloneness rewires the brain so that is normal (and enjoyable again).
After divorce, I felt lonely a lot, and didn't enjoy my alone time the way I did before. I made myself go to more social events, but that did nothing to help me enjoy my alone time again. It was avoiding the thing that "scared" me.
I tried meditation (alone), guided by books, but though it helped some, it was too easy to skip, and the reward seemed low.
But then ... I found a Zen meditation school and started sitting with them weekly. It felt good to see familiar faces even if I didn't get to "know them" in the typical way. Sitting was hard at first, because I could see just how obsessively busy my mind was. But focusing on the breath, even in the beginning, slowed the mind down enough that I could see that further down, there is a person that can appreciate the goodness in just being alive ... grateful to draw the next breath ... to be in this moment, not regrets about the past or fears of the future.
I slowly started to feel more connected to myself and then, and this was a surprise, to the things around me. And as I relax into what is, instead of my desire to control what happens to me next, I found I could listen to others better and feel more connected to them. I've even started feeling I can listen to my own feelings better and be a better friend to myself.
I'm guessing any regular meditation practice could do this. I've heard friends say they got this experience from going to yoga, so there is more than one path.
There's an extra I did not expect because its a Zen Buddhism group. There are regular, brief (3-5 minute) kong-an (or koan) interviews with the teacher, with puzzles that can't be answered with Western thinking. Seems like the only answers that satisfy me (and the teacher) come from a more spiritual "gut" level. Getting there seems to poke chinks in my old foundation of western, American, achievement, doing-centered thinking.
All the above is leaving me more open to being alone or being with people. Existence can be more satisfying when you don't need to hold a yardstick to it.
Regardless of whether my input is helpful to you, I hope you find a path that works for you. I believe you can.
Yeah, I did, but it took a while.
For me there were two phases:
First was just “not drowning”. The breakup left this constant panic humming in the background, so my bar was low: I just wanted evenings and weekends that didn’t feel like a black hole.
Concrete stuff I did for the bullets I mentioned:
• “Being alone as a skill”: I picked one small thing per day that I did on purpose alone. For a few months it was mostly walking with a podcast, sitting in a café with a book, or cooking something slightly nicer than usual and actually sitting at the table to eat it. The important part wasn’t what I did, it was telling myself “this 20–30 minutes is chosen, not forced on me”.
• “Thin weekend structure”: I made a tiny checklist for Sat/Sun: – one out‑of‑the‑house thing (even dumb stuff like going to the supermarket on foot, a movie, or a park) – one “future me will be glad” thing (30 minutes learning something, fixing a small thing at home, writing, coding) – the rest could be YouTube/doomscrolling/whatever without guilt. That alone made the weekend feel like time that moved forward instead of an empty void.
• “Low‑effort chat outlet”: I had one friend I could message stupid little updates to (“made a decent omelette”, “fixed the sink”). We didn’t have deep talks every day, but just having a place to put those small moments kept me from feeling like my life was happening in a vacuum.
At some point — for me it was maybe 6–12 months — my nervous system calmed down enough that being alone stopped feeling like a verdict and started feeling like default background. I wouldn’t say I’m a monk who loves solitude 24/7, but I do genuinely enjoy my own company now. The interesting part is that once I didn’t need other people to make the feelings stop, my relationships got a lot better too.
Everyone’s timeline is different, but if right now it just feels awful, that doesn’t mean you’re doomed. Treat it like rehab for your attention and nervous system, not a life sentence.
>• “Low‑effort chat outlet”: I had one friend I could message stupid little updates to (“made a decent omelette”, “fixed the sink”). We didn’t have deep talks every day, but just having a place to put those small moments kept me from feeling like my life was happening in a vacuum.
I ran a media-centric chatroom at one time filled with folks that would drop in and tell me about their omelettes, and then over the course of some time, wars, struggles, disease, etc they all disappeared.
This is a bit other-sided, but while I was happy to provide the environment they needed to offload silly stuff (and they, too, were struggling) I never anticipated how much I would miss the small daily comments once they were gone.
If you have that kind of connection with folks, regardless of how silly, cherish it. They will probably end up feeling similarly in the long run.
I'm kind of going through the opposite. I was alone until 38, and then suddenly I wasn't alone anymore. I'm now realising that I did indeed develop an effective strategy to combat loneliness over the years.
What you need is a personal project. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking this needs to be something with significant utility, but that's a lot of pressure to put on yourself. My recommendation is to make your project as specific to your life as you want, and as dumb as you want. It could be a radio station localised only to your house, or a chat app for you and three other people, or a mechanical toy for a friend. Then find some friends or a community you can share that thing with when you're done.
Think about what it would be fun for you, specifically, to do, or to make, or to achieve, go do that thing, and then share it. This technique got me through 38 years of loneliness (mostly) unscathed, so I'm confident it can work for others too.
I don't have any advice for being alone, but I want to remind you that you can open up your phone right now, start messaging people to say "want to come over for dinner at my place next Sunday?", and keep going until you have no more free seats at the dining table. You don't have to make peace with being alone.
If something gets in the way and stops you from doing this, then that thing - depression, anxiety, not having anyone to message, your friends are all busy, you don't feel ready - might help you understand and fix whatever is going on at a deeper level.
Also, that sucks. I've been in a similar place at various points in my life and it can feel inescapable until, somehow, you escape.
Reading makes me feel addicted to life.
I was a decent reader as a kid, then for the longest time I couldn’t read. I got psychological help to recover my attention, and gently started reading 10 mins of something easy after waking up. Now I read at a pace of about 1.5 books per week and I can’t get enough of it. There are so my worlds that I want to explore further. Russian literature. The history of ideas. Sci-fi. 19th century France. Computer science. So many books, so little time!
Reading can generate many virtuous cycles. It requires attention, but begets attention. It can calm the mind and feel meditative. It can inspire thought and sometimes useful action. It can help you be more interesting in conversation. It can become addictive, but rarely as much as screens and won’t make you miss social opportunities.
It’s not for everyone but my theory is that if you’ve ever been immersed in two or three books at any point in your life, there’s a good chance that the potential is in you to scale it to a fulfilling habit.
I really hope you sort things out and find meaning one way or another. I’m glad that at you’re in good professional hands - that is a great first step.
Why couldn't you read and what kind of psychjological help did you get?
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone. I read every comment, and your help has been far more than I'd hoped for.
If anyone feels like chatting (about anything, really), I'm "theshawwn" on Snapchat. If you email me (shawnpresser@gmail.com) I'll happily send you my number for texting / Signal. Any other app is fine too if you send me your info. I'll respond to everyone; I like hearing about your life, so feel free to talk about whatever you'd like, or just say hello.
You're all so kind. I grew up on HN (I think I was 19 when it first launched as Startup News) and the community never fails to amaze. Thank you for taking the time to try to help. I owe you all.
I've got value over the years from Desiderata. At once both economical and powerful.
I already mentioned this to @sillysaurusx but will post here in case it yields interesting comments.
https://www.desiderata.com/desiderata.html
Forgive me because I'm maybe reading in too much, but it doesn't seem like you're asking how to be alone. It sounds like you might be asking how to deal with your new situation, which must be very difficult. If that's not out of bounds, one suggestion is to try what's called "rejection therapy." That is, make it a daily goal to go out and get rejected at something. It shifts something mentally and I hope it might be helpful for you.
Brilliant. But be prepared for failure. Some days instead of the rejection you're expecting you'll be accepted instead!
Yes, that's right. You work your way up to bigger and bigger potential rejections all while realizing that maybe you're asking too little.
I remember reading once that the biggest predictor of friendship/relationships was physical proximity. And a book about a spy who built a relationship with and turned a diplomat by appearing at/around the same grocery store repeatedly, gradually building familiarity then trust.
I often think about these examples. And as much as hobbies etc are good ideas, I think one could start even simpler - walk the dog at the same time every day. Or drive to get a coffee, hang out there for 30 mins, etc. I find a change of scenery helps me too, as well as a routine, to lift the spirits, and those chance encounters will repeat.
> I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers
Disclaimer: this is not medical advice, but have you considered being on less medication? I have seen a close family member become absolutely numbed from being on antidepressants, and although I have personally never been on them, I am highly skeptical that the amount of drugs the average American is being prescribed is healthy. My preferred choice of self-fixing is by quiet introspection, though I've had some useful experiences from therapy sessions as well.
Sorry to hear you’re having a hard time — it sounds rough. Hope things get better soon.
Not related, but one thing that’s comforted me in the past is that one’s brain physiologically responds to these changes like an addiction withdrawal — and one has to endure a cocktail of hormones and awful feelings but those will subside, with time, even if you make no changes to your life at all.
It goes without saying that some new groups to socialize with would help, but that’s a lot easier said than done :) It’s also important for you to believe — emotionally, not logically — that things will get better. This is difficult. Depression can lead to black-and-white thinking in areas that it doesn’t belong, so I feel it’s essential to combat this if it’s something you’re seeing. One thing that helps a lot is trying to have your expectations violated in a pleasant way.
Specifically — rather than tunneling on a hobby you’re interested in, I think it’s surprisingly valuable to join a group around something you think you might kinda like, but don’t like too much. (D&D would be an example for me.) Things will rarely turn out the way you expect, and I think if you go in with a lower bar for success, you leave more room for yourself to be pleasantly surprised and feeling hopeful and open.
Look around your town and try a few regular local group activities. See "third place" for ideas. Be patient with yourself. This will take time, and that's okay.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place
Some of my most durable adult friendships started at group ballroom dance classes. The studio was a 15-minute drive from my suburban home, twice per week, and focused on social dancing, not competitive. I don't think dancing was the thing that made it work, but funny teachers and regular faces. That studio closed (pre-pandemic, thank goodness). No studio since has recreated the magic, but other activities have.
My mom moved to a remote area after she retired, she had a partner who moved there with her, although he was much older. They always lived in a house on a lake. She retired early because she wanted to enjoy the time that he was still active and travel, which they did. 10 years later her partner died and she had health complications that made it difficult for her to travel anymore. Once this happened, she hated the area she lived in. There wasn't even a YMCA nearby that she could exercise and swim at, which she would have enjoyed. She wouldn't go for a walk because her house was on a hill that was too difficult for her to walk. She could have driven to a different area and gone on walks but she didn’t ever want to do that by herself. It took me 45 minutes to drive to where she lived and help her grocery shop and clean house, which I did twice a week. The covid pandemic forced her to move into assisted living and she died three months after moving there due to her chronic illness. I couldn't tell you if the 10 years before things got bad were worth it in comparison to the misery she suffered at the end, but moving to a remote area definitely had its disadvantages that there was no solution for when it hit.
Commit to the service of others. It’s not for their benefit, it’s for yours. Be amazed how much it gets you out of your head and into a place of healing. Get involved with a food bank (be the one who packs bags full of canned goods and rice, or who loads the bags into people’s cars as they drive through). A place where the same people show up each week to do the work. I’m not Catholic but your local Catholic parish will know where this is.
Then go meta: don’t just do the work, and don’t be looking to find people to become friends with. Ask everyone around you how their day is going. How their week is going. Say you’re sorry when they tell you about the hard week they had or their sick kid or their divorce. When those people need a ride somewhere, offer to drive them.
The rest may come if and when it’s supposed to come. Start by connecting with people and connect by trying to be of service, it’s for your benefit not theirs.
You need to lift weights seriously, like get your squat at least to bodyweight, ideally 1.5x bodyweight. Of course it's great for the body, but it has profound effects on the mind too, like you might be able to get off those meds. Studies show mental health effects from working out depend on intensity.
Fix your diet and your sleep. Meditate.
The basic concept is invest seriously in yourself and you'll like being by yourself much better.
Agree, and you will meet people at the gym. Learn to lift barbells, not machines. Powerlifters can seem intimidating from a distance but they are the same mix of people as everyone else: nerds, extroverts, introverts, men, women, gay, straight... and in my experience they are very open and friendly to those who are getting started.
If you want a guide to get started, Starting Strength is a good one. It's aimed at novices.
Also if you're in the same apartment/house and city where you were living with your partner, consider moving if you can. Get away from all the reminders of your old life that just amplify the alone feeling. Depression can be related to your situation. At least if you're in a new place, being alone can feel more normal and might act as a reset.
> Starting Strength
It's a great technical manual. But you have to be careful because a lot of personalities there and around US fitness culture are nazis and deeply unhappy.
I like to mix working out with Buddhism (eg metta meditation). They complement each other quite well.
The fact you're asking is great.
Having a similar story, I can tell you the the answer is not to try and fill that hole with someone else until you've worked out who you are, and what you really want.
You're not the person that you were when you moved out of your parents, and you need to work out what is "you" vs what was "us".
Don't rush to the next stage of your life. Live in the discomfort you are feeling and find out what quietens it. Easier said than done, I know.
Believe it or not there are those if us in Tech who crave that human connection.
Things that I've tried:
* Salsa was mentioned somewhere else, that's amazing to meet people, laugh at yourself, and learn a skill
* Walk the dog without earphones. It's amazing how dog walkers will give that knowing smile to each other. Lean into that. Say a hi, and ask about their dog. Simple, but if you're walking the same time every day you'll soon be chatting.
* Go and exist somewhere. The coffee house etc (I avoid bars, though I like a drink, as ironically lonely bar people are not the inspirational people I seek), just be there. I get that these are the 3rd places.
* Go to events (plays, theatre, cultural places). Turn up early, smile and say hi to random people. You've got an in there as you're there for a specific reason. Do a bit of research prior.
* Try a few different gyms. The vibe is different in every one. Be there longer than your workout.
* To the above, when you go places, be there early, don't rush off.
* If you can get yourself in to the tech leaders round table style dinners (8-10 people), you'll very quickly find interesting like minded individuals. You may have to commit to travel a bit to do this. Not sure how that works with the dog for you.
Things I've tried and don't work
* The random meetups. Unless they are focused on something you can all relate to (i.e. board games etc).
* Pubs / bars as above
* Professional networking events with over 20 people. That's just hustling.
If you want to just chat shit, or say hi to a human, feel free to reach out. I'm sure it would be good for both of us!
This might sound silly but I'd consider getting my dog a dog. This will not be the absolute solution but your dog will have a companion and your house will have more life.
My dog has been a beacon of hope through these last years of being alone. Highly agree. They can be a ton of work depending on the breed but there are plenty of dogs at the pound who might end up saving you in the end and not the other way around.
Loneliness is a state of mind. And sometimes when I am with people I feel the most alone. So above all else just be kind to yourself. Eat well, watch things you enjoy, do things you always dreamt of doing as a kid. That is how I stay sane at least, haha.
Not a bad idea actually. She spends each day alone, like me.
One thing you could look into is body doubling sites like flow club. It doesn't solve the core issue but might help in a small way outside of work hours. Outside of the internet I keep hearing that Pickleball is the most social sport around! Also have you tried hanging out and working at Starbucks (or similar) after some time (weeks) in the same place it's inevitable to start making connections. Also co-working spaces can offer connections, and they usually have various club goings on on notes on the pin boards etc. One thing I do know is that it takes quite a few times / weeks of time turning up to the same place for conversation to start. Hope this is helpful in some way.
First thing: No it is not normal thing to be alone. We humans are social animals. Once we are isolated we usually die soon, so take that seriously.
Being isolated from your tribe used to be a worse punishment than death. The greeks called that punishment ostracism. El mio Cid was the Spanish representative case.
In the US there is an epidemy of loneliness.
So, what to do? First recognise that this is a problem and do not dig deeper. Do not isolate yourself more. Do not play vdeogames, do not read books until you fix it.
My main advice is to stop thinking too much about yourself, think about others.
I was into religious(Cristian catholic) orgs and I helped old people(something I did not like), I helped poor people on the streets(liked it more) and I helped drug addicts and war refugees.
Helping drug addicts were a pain on the aßß, but once you make someone get out, he or she becomes a friend for life. It is like the friendships that are done in fighters of a war. Once you have put your life on the hands of someone else and trusted someone else so much, nothing can break that friendship.
If you think about that in a meta way, I was helping people that were marginalised, that were alone, and in the process I could not be alone. I did it in a religious group(a tribe in itself)
Thanks to this experience I can make friends very fast in a new place, something few adults know how to do.
If you are going to read, read a book called "How to influence people and make friends", but do not read the new book that is a badly revised book by the incompetent descendants of the writer, read the old original book.
But reading books is not going to help because you need action first, not reflection, and action is going to be painful for a while, and you have to endure the pain until it becomes easy. The best advise is to get out there, try hard, fail spectacularly and only then read the book.
Stop thinking about yourself, me, me and me. We are not wired to work for us alone. We are worked for working for others: Our tribe, our children, our family.
Instead of not trying to be alone, focusing on yourself (me, me and me) start thinking on helping other people that are alone. Start thinking on creating your own tribe or joining a new tribe. It can be a maker space, a group for hiking or helping or teaching kids.
I've seen people mention "How to influence people and make friends" before. I finally decided I'll read it. The PDF is available here for anyone else interested in following along :)
https://dn720004.ca.archive.org/0/items/english-collections-...
Edit: though this seems like it may not be the edition you meant? The cover says "the original is still the best", but this seems to be a revised edition.
Absolutely gold advice. Find your tribe. It will make so much difference.
One thought that I have from my experience of going through a divorce: think of who else in your life is important to you, and reach out to them more. If you have someone you can talk to about what you're going through, even if they're only available by phone or email or texting or video chat, do it.
and if you keep running out of those people’s available bandwidth,
have to lean into making new friends!
I can relate to some of what you’re describing, though from a different angle. I’ve always been somewhat of a loner, and as I’ve gotten older I’ve grown increasingly dissatisfied with the shallowness of many modern interactions: the constant glance at the screen, that black brick glued to the hand, the strange absence of attention even when you try to do something kind for someone. It often feels like we’re all performing a kind of theater of socialization.
One thing that helped me over the years was cultivating a richer inner life and maintaining some contact with nature. Long walks, quiet time, reading, building things slowly, the kinds of activities that don’t depend on an audience. At first that kind of solitude can feel oppressive, but with time it can also become a kind of freedom.
As you get older, or at least that has been my experience, you begin to realize how precious each moment is, and how little sense it makes to spend too much of it on interactions that feel hollow. Real presence, even if rare, becomes much more valuable.
Your situation is clearly different, and the transition you’re going through sounds genuinely hard. But sometimes these chapters also open space to rediscover parts of yourself that were quiet for a long time. I wish you strength navigating this change, and I hope you eventually find a rhythm that feels meaningful again.
Two different perspectives:
1. To be alone is FAR better than to be in bad company. And the world is full of bad company. Thousands of people are craving to be alone for this reason.
2. You need to be a nice companion to yourself. If you arrive at this level, when you meet other people, you will be eager to share this amazing companion with others, instead of appearing to be begging not to "be alone".
And one piece of advice:
1. If you are a Christian, it is a great time to learn and enjoy God's company through prayer; you will never be alone again.
Maybe not specific advice for your situation but I've always found this poem moving and valuable when it comes to building comfort in being alone. I hope it helps you too https://youtu.be/k7X7sZzSXYs?si=LwCMyP0L2vsllHJl
This post really resonated with me - I've been there, similar age in fact, and found it challenging... however in the time since, I've learned to love and value my time alone. I don't get it too much these days, but when I do, I embrace it.
Find connections. Join a club. Take up a hobby. Make the most of your time alone - deliberate actions on weekends, like going for a swim (you'll meet people if you swim regularly), a hike (same), buy a motorbike and join a casual riding club, take up amateur radio and make nerdy friends, work in a co-working space and get to know people even if you don't work "with" them, you can still work with them.
Then there's the more unusual suggestions which can be just as much fun - and I've done many of these and found value in them! Join a local volunteer fire brigade if you have one. Take a class and learn something new. Never been artistic? Join your local community college and take a class.
Life can be hollow, and as I tell my kids, it's what you fill it with that makes it full. Just as with boredom.. sometimes its good to be bored, and sometimes its good to experience hollowness and down, because then the ups feel so much more real.
I wouldn't jump straight into a new relationship (or even try to). Learn to love yourself and live with yourself, and the right person will come when they do and not a moment before. Lean on friends and family when you need support, and be there for others when they need it too. This is great for the soul.
It's a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.
So, I've been through this. I found a couple things really helpful.
1) make plans with people. Do something with a friend or friends and say "want to make this a regular thing?" For me, I went hiking every saturday morning at 9am, and coffee afterwards with a friend. Another friend was regular weekly lunches.
2) write it down. You will have all these thoughts, about the relationship, about yourself, and more. Just write it down. It will show you who you are. You will begin to unpack things.
3) exercise. Wears you out, makes you sleep, makes you smarter, puts your head on straight.
4) give it time. Right now you can do anything. that's a negative, but will become a positive as you rediscover yourself and relax.
A few things that have helped me in the past are: - Find small wins. Don't expect big changes immediately. Small wins accumulate over time. Examples: say hi to neighbors, go to a gym, work from a coffee shop etc. - Join a coworking space. This was a huge help personally. It still took more than a few months but this changed my life.
Hope these help a bit!
You need to go through a proper grief. Cry, scream - the whole package. When the acceptance kicks in, try to find the root cause of what happen and why.
How was the relationship? Did you feel like the first 6–12 months were perfect, but then you started drifting apart and having arguments every week or two? Have you ever felt like you needed to record a conversation you had with your partner?
> great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers
Have you gone through a therapy with him?
> How was the relationship? Did you feel like the first 6–12 months were perfect, but then you started drifting apart and having arguments every week or two?
Not OP, but in a somewhat similar boat. Please don't assume they broke up. For example, my partner died.
Solid advice wrt going through grief btw.
> Have you ever felt like you needed to record a conversation you had with your partner?
Just curious what you meant by that?
I feel you. The fear of being alone is natural, it is uneasy because you are forced to confront your true self. It takes a while to get used to the lack of the social cushioning, but you don't have to do it all alone drastically. First thing you need to address is the fear of being lonely - the root cause is lack of self dependence. Or rather, too much social dependence. You need to (slowly) learn to be comfortable with your self. You do that by not looking at it like a punishment. It is just being at peace.
Having said that, I always like to join hobby groups on meetup.com (say cycling or DIY crafts or book clubs) and get to meet new people that way. It helps. The other thing I love to do is attend conferences or tech talks. It really removes that feeling of being lonely and since you do it on your terms, you will come to a point where you realize loneliness is just a choice and you can be around people whenever you like.
Also, look into real passion projects - you can spend time working on stuff you love to do and it will offset any emptiness you feel. I love working on my car and speaker building. Some of the projects can take years and I will spend one weekend or a random weekday working on it. It really turns being alone into an advantage.
When I felt alone early in my career, I used to go to this shared office space near my house or WeWork once or twice a week and surrounded myself with people there. It helped a lot. The day you realize you can live with yourself without needing anyone around is when you will also start feeling less depressed. People come and go, you are the only one for yourself.
Hope this helps and if you ever feel like talking to someone, don't hesitate to shoot an email (in my profile). Always love to meet new people :)
Being lonely is difficult. A lot of people will try to tell you that it is not or that you should be OK with it. Unfortunately, a lot of this advice is moralizing, the sort of "there must be something wrong with you if you can't be by yourself for long periods of time." This really annoys me. There is nothing wrong with wanting to spend time with people! Being social is one of our most fundamental needs. But just look at all the negative health benefits loneliness brings about[1]. If you wouldn't be OK with a friend smoking 15 cigarettes a day, you probably shouldn't be OK with yourself being lonely for most days.
Humans are social animals. Yes, some people are not like this. But if you feel unhappy when you are alone, there is nothing wrong with you. This only means that you are normal.
That aside -- what do you do when you are lonely? "Easy": Go to places where there are people doing stuff and join them. Eventually you will make weak connections. Ask these people to hang out in other contexts. You are done. There are no tricks. The hard part is it takes effort and time - you need to show up over weeks or months, and following up with people outside of the event and making plans is effortful.
If you want one really targeted tip: I love pickleball. Unlike almost any other sport, pickleball has a community where you can just wander over to a pickleball court and join in with virtually anyone. Also, it's great exercise, so even if you don't meet anyone you like, you still got healthier anyways - it's a win-win.
[1]: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-beast/2023...
This is going to be a bit dry, but I'm going to overshare too much if I won't keep it compact.
Solitude is a grace when you have deep respect / is inspired by the world, life, or something more specific, because you belong to a construct you have a model for, and thus you have an obvious list of actions and values.
It's very intimidating when you don't though, because you feel lost and can't see a clear way to gain momentum - and movement is life, as they say. There are two things that can help with that.
1. Listening the ideas of people that share a language and values with you, but don't necessarily share your vision. These are friends, most of the time. I get that you might've distanced from yours and they might've become entirely different people, but try reconnecting with them, one at a time. What mends you here is paying attention to what these people worry about - it gives you choice of things to be enthusiastic about (which then makes more friends, initiatives, impact, which are all "movement" of sorts). Try not to fall for trap of "spending time to silence the doubts and discomfort" as that's the same as doing "snooze" on an alarm. You can try to find those people on conferences, language clubs, but they're pretty much everywhere, you should just pick the context that feels least awkward to start a conversation in.
2. Change of context. There's a pretty big chance of gaining momentum while traveling, because your attention sharpens while you're in an environment that is hard to predict. You'll notice a lot of things you enjoy or hate, some of them might inspire you to study, try something new or empathize to a different way of living.
There's a bonus one - building something for someone is very fulfilling for the usual auditory of HN. There's a lot of people who'd be glad to use a helping hand, just pick a person / group you'd be ok to help and ask what can you do for them with your talents / skills. You'll be surprised how glad you'll be that you did that.
P.S. There are also thinner rationales behind what I've written, and I explained it rather mechanistically, but basically that's what helped me a lot when I suffered from an abrupt cutoff from the community that was a big part of my life.
P.P.S. I'm young, but it probably doesn't matter as much. Have a virtual hug from me ;). I think it's going to be better for you rather soon!
Is this really new or you were already alone but distracted with others? It is ok to feel alone. It is natural, and as long as you take the time to learn about yourself and what you really want and need, you'll learn and grow (even enjoy). It won't be your last time, but it gets easier as you get older. Cherish that your only priority is yourself (and your dog. f*k the cat :-p). It won't last.
There's already some good advice in this thread, but I want to add more.
This will indeed be very hard, but I'd urge you to take a long-term and positive forward looking approach.
It sounds to me like you don't have the best family/friends social structure to depend on. I'd focus on building that. It will take time ... and it won't happen on your schedule. The cold hard fact is that you have to put yourself out in the world in social spaces and be open and vulnerable. This is often why shared hobbies are recommended. But the hobbies aren't entirely the point. The point is that you're engaging in the real world with real people and learning to be open and vulnerable in that environment. If you embrace that (truly embrace), the friends and relationships will eventually come. But, it may take a long time. It's a long game. But its worth it.
In the short-term, you can find ways to cope. For me, I got REALLY deep into ultra-running after a bad breakup. It helped. But, it was seriously just a cope for not having the foundational social structures that everyone needs.
In summary: find healthy short/medium term coping methods, and invest in building longer-term social connections. And expect it to take some time. Give yourself grace. You're doing a hard thing. It's okay for it to be a struggle. Just keep working on it and you'll get through it. I've been through this. It gets better, I promise!
Good luck. I'm rooting for you!
> I work remote, and that's currently my main way to gratify social cravings. But it's not a consistent way, since the time zone difference is quite large (I'm -7 hours vs them).
Go back to working together with people, face to face, if that's something you maybe miss. Everyone works in different ways, some people need to spend their long days while working at least together with other people, and that's ok.
The hollowness is from not being useful to someone. I went through your EXACT same thing. 17, graduated, moved in with my sweetheart (and her mother…), got a place of our own to rent at 23, married at 26, divorced at 36, alone entirely when my parents died 38, and 41. Now 43, the best advice I can give you is to forgive yourself, go outside, reconnect with the things that bring YOU joy (for me, that was getting back into flying) and volunteer and give back to the community around you.
You’ll find that hollowness was self-inflicted.
A dog is a great companion as well.
> reconnect with the things that bring YOU joy
This is great advice, think about something you have been wanting to do (or get back to) but could never quite put the time into.
If you aren't already start working out daily and learn to make healthy meals. Not necessarily to help with loneliness, but to prevent having another problem that will only make the first worst.
If you can work from a coffee shop, if you can afford a coworking space, do it. Plus one if the new office/coffee shop is a bit far from your house.
Call your parents daily if you can.
There are a lot of great comments here and I want to echo so many of them and not duplicate them.
There is one thing I'd like to add:
Learning to be happy while alone takes practice - lots of it. It's not easy, but it does get easier.
Learning to enjoy being along was one of the most important moments in my life, and it changed a lot of how I see the world now. I feel like this is up there with learning self-care that works for you - equally important and yet different.
One thing I do is make friends with people who have dogs that get along with my dog on walks. We've seen movies, gotten food out together, etc. Or just intentionally walk around the same time to chat.
Also, hobbies. Try to find something you can be interested in that has meetups.
Could be sports, cars, books, quilting, chess. I've heard of photography groups that do photo walks or group editing hangouts at coffee shops.
On the other hand, it's also ok to be on your own sometimes. I love catching a movie at a theater on my own. Sometimes I'll go to the park without my dog just so I can relax at a bench or have a nice walk at my own pace.
I was in a similar place a few years ago. I'll just list what worked for me, so it's not assuming you don't do any of this currently.
But firstly, know that things will get better over time. You need time to get through all the emotions, the new environment, the new way of life. I didn't know it at the time, but looking back at it, I wish I had this on my mind each day to just eke out any bit of positivity I could.
But the five main things I changed in my life to get me to feel better: 1. Lift weights. I didn't necessarily go to a gym, so there was no additional social aspect from this, so doing so would probably help. But I bought some gym gear and worked out at home religiously. Had a plan, tracked it on a spreadsheet, and measured and reviewed progress every two weeks. Really helped with the confidence, and there's a lot of research that shows exercise is good for mood and depression.
2. Walk everyday - ideally outside in the sun. I got up early, went for a walk so that I caught the sunrise during it. This was probably one of the biggest changes I made that improved my mood and wellbeing, that I continue to do it religiously today.
3. Learn a new skill. For me that was 3d modelling. Just having something new to do, and tracking progress, really helped with my self confidence. Though if you're not in the habit of lifting, you could combine this and [1] if you're learning to lift.
4. Changed my diet. This was a natural change from lifting. Eating whole foods, and reduced the junk (still enjoyed some pizza/fried chicken on weekends), but otherwise it was healthy foods during the week.
5. Volunteering. Sometimes at a food bank to feed the homeless, and sometimes helping a local group who was in charge of restoration of a creek which required cleaning/tree planting etc. It's amazing what doing something for others does for yourself.
Things will get better for you - no doubt!
I guess few people get what they want, as I crave for more alone time and hate socialization.
I haven’t gone through the same transformation, but here is my recommendation: find something you truly want to build, or change, or whatever, and go for it. You are now free to do whatever you want. Trace your thoughts to your youth, to your childhood, and find something you were excited about, long before you met your sweetheart, and go for it.
I haven't been in your situation, but I'm the same age and if my wife and I separated for whatever reason, I suspect I probably would be. I find being social and trying new things to be incredibly difficult. So it's something I've thought about. Personally I would not try to adapt to being alone, but rather I'd try to find & meet new people.
I would suggest trying to find in-person employment, whether that means changing to a job with a local office, or finding a co-working space to go in to. Then go in to the office every day. You can do less frequently than that, I guess, but it will just increase the time it takes for bonds to form. It turns out if you're a decent person to be around, it's almost impossible to not make social connections if you have lunch with the same people 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year. For both my wife and I, the vast majority of our friends are people we met at work, or through people we know at work. There are other ways to make friends, of course, but work is one of the faster & more reliable sources IME.
My other suggestion would be to get back into the dating pool when you feel more ready for it. It's an environment where everyone is expecting to meet new people and try things out and maybe things don't work and that's OK. I think dating is a lot different in your late 30s than it is in your early 20s, much more casual & experienced and hopefully less stressful. Even if it doesn't work out romantically, it's a way to get some practice meeting people and talking about yourself, and maybe make some new platonic friends and get out of the rut.
People suggest hobby groups and volunteering, but I dunno, I've tried that and it never really works out for me. I'm very shy and have a hard time inserting myself into an existing group. The infrequency of meetups also means it's hard to give the time for bonds to form, especially for someone fairly aloof like myself. That said I have started going to a weekly Fighting Game tournament and that might be working out. We'll see.
Just some ideas from my own ruminating on this issue. Hope you can find something that works for you.
> no one on HN cares whether I fixed up the blinds or cooked pork steaks
lies
where do you post your home DIY and grill updates?
Hahaha - thank you for making me laugh AND for being supportive all in the same breath
I would not just rely on situations that are explicitly seen as "dating", such as bars or dating sites.
In my experience joining an IRL group activity is what works best (volunteering, community service, church, local band/orchestra/choir, group lessons, team sports etc) - even if you don't find your future partner there, at least you can make a few IRL friends and you will feel less lonely.
I've spent years of my life absolutely alone; gone months without talking to another person. There isn't anything you'll do that will give you the emotional fulfillment of interacting with someone else.
As for living with yourself:
Find some sort of exercise you don't mind doing and make it non-optional. The goal isn't to go all out, just get your heart rate up for half an hour. You won't want to do it sometimes but you still have to go. You can do a crappy job at it and slack off for a day or two but you have to go out. For me this is riding a bike.
Otherwise it's good to be absorbed in something. It's not the same feeling but there is intrinsic satisfaction in learning / building / experiencing things.
I think what you really need might be to make new connections. During difficult times in my personal life, what helped me most was really finding some community. I started online, on Reddit and Discord servers for Make Friends Over 30 and others (https://www.reddit.com/r/MakeFriendsOver30/). I'd highly recommend it. Also, finding things that get you out of the previous patterns you had for awhile. Gaming will be fun again another day. For now, go join a dart league or something (anything) to get around other people.
Sorry you're dealing with this. Hope things brighten up for you a bit.
Try out something like Timeleft (https://timeleft.com/). It's in most major cities now, and it will set you up with a dinner reservation for you and 5 strangers who are also looking to make friends.
I had a tough breakup a couple years ago and I know it would have been way tougher if I hadn't discovered Timeleft.
Even if you have enough friends already, you're at the age where it's probably difficult to get together regularly.
It's also good if you travel alone and want a night out in a city where you don't know anyone.
I'd suggest you to work on your general mood - drugs can help, but nature is also wonderful.
I think I have a relatively good life, but I still have hard times. I had circa 6 months long depression streak after my child was born (I'm male).
For me the best mood fixer is a walk still. Super small commitment, great with a dog too. For a weekend the best is a longer hike. I practice yoga and train my body - great mood boosters. I've trained my body to be able to sit comfortably on the ground so I can work from anywhere - sunshine in park hellooo.
Hope you find your rhythm soon!
It might be that you crave people in order to prove to yourself that you have people on your side. Might help to be alone for an extended period, then get together with someone afterwards to kind-of prove to your subconscious that relationships don't dissolve just because you're not constantly in contact.
In the UK, there are tax breaks for renting out your spare room https://www.gov.uk/rent-room-in-your-home/the-rent-a-room-sc...
I've done this for much of my life. It has always worked out OK. Perhaps because I've always picked a nice middle class person as my lodger. Even the mentally ill homeless person I rented my spare room to was a nice middle class mentally ill homeless person and a friend of a friend, who recovered from his reactive depression and moved on as anticipated.
If there is a university nearby, there are probably graduate students looking for a cheap place to stay while they finish writing up their PhD thesis. Since graduate students are pretty much guaranteed to be respectable, you may need to ask for less than the market rent to grab one, but you don't mention being short of money. They will have their own concerns about you, but your dog will vouch for you.
You don't mention having a spare bedroom that you could rent out, I'm just guessing that "working remote" implies living somewhere with affordable housing, and that you have extra space. If you live in a one bedroom flat, maybe sell it or rent it out entirely, and take the other side of the deal, becoming a lodger yourself.
That is not an option for me. I'm trapped by my stuff: grand piano, Boxford CUD lathe, too many maths books. I cannot vouch for that option, but it works for my lodger, so it works for some people. (I'm over sixty and he is older than me.)
I fear that my comment is a little "off" and not quite appropriate, but in my defense, it is responsive to "I sometimes panic when it's been too long since I've seen another person."
Go to a cooking lesson, a dancing lesson, a climbing lesson, a music lesson or a whateverthefuck lesson. That’s like a dummy’s way to socialize and find some people to hung around.
Hey friend, I am also 38, and I am also recently "aloned". I had a break up in August and lived with my parents until February.
At first it was strange, I was acutely feeling the loneliness. But gradually I started seeing its upsides, and I am beginning to dangerously enjoy it haha.
I am using the time and space to take care of and express myself. Live slowly, cook myself warm dinners, nice coffees; I made a cozy nook for reading, I am planning on adding fragrant flowers to my terrace.
I am planning on a routine, which includes going to the gym and actually trying and enjoy moving my body. Sometimes I have the luxury of just sitting in the park next to the gym and soak up some sun, enjoy the sounds if birds and the water fountain.
I am hybrid so I get to go to the office and see my colleagues. Somehow, luckily, every weekend some social event happened, a dear friend came to visit. It was my aunts birthday. I also have a housewarming planned in two weeks which motivates me to make the place beautiful to show off.
My advice would be, simply, to focus on the current moment. Thoughts take you awry, try not to ruminate. Have a plan, and trust the process. There are five things absolutely needed for health and happiness(not in a particular order):
1. Good food 2. Exercising 3. Sunlight 4. Sleep 5. Friends
So while you are alone, I would question the rest too, do you eat well? Do you exercise? Do you go out? Do you sleep well?
The way our mind works is whenever a state comes up, it ups the likelihood of that state to come up again. So try to summon happy states, would be difficult and feel fake at first but it really works. Gratitude is a good one. Writing or expressing it doesn't work well for me, so I like to do it when I clean, I feel grateful as I am gently scrubbing the mirror for instance for helping me fix up my appearance. Find yours.
From what you wrote it sounds like you already know what to do, but you are reluctant. Why is that? One could identify with one's depression by ruminating over it.
In closing I highly recommend the book, the Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, it has a free audiobook on YouTube too.
I wish you the best of luck. Life could be whatever you want it to be and there is no true self, all is constructed and you can engineer your psyche anew.
Cheers
Thank you for the thoughtful comment. And particularly for:
> I feel grateful as I am gently scrubbing the mirror for instance for helping me fix up my appearance
If you'd like to chat, my email's in my profile. Thanks for the book recommendation too.
I can second that the Book or even better Audiobook (read by Tolle himself) The Power of Now can have profound impact on ones life. I would recommend to give it a shot.
Volunteering is a good way to get out of the house and meet people, while helping others at the same time.
Are you an IT person? In my experience charities are desparate for IT related help:
https://successfulsoftware.net/2018/02/04/volunteering-your-...
I wish you luck.
Couple of things that helped me in similar situations:
- volunteer: find a place you can help others, go cook for the homeless, work with other volunteers, not only are you doing good and meeting new people, you also appreciate what you have more
- think about what made you happy when you were younger, connect with your younger self, explore the dreams you never had a chance to fulfill
- go to therapy: this will help you better understand your feelings, a professional who is there to listen to you, help you get out of loops you are stuck in, normalize your thinking about life. Hinghly recommended!
- do sports: this will help you stay fit and have little successes, you can feel good about.
The world is wonderful, try to explore it and be patient with yourself. Trust the process, improve yourself, be kind and look at this period as a test that will shape your future self. It’s hard now but better days are coming if you put in the work. Good luck!
> many of you find alone-ness to be natural, and even required
You can hear that from people who are not truly alone, but have more attention from their closest than they need.
The answer to your question - "Don't". Shift your priorities, reshape your life, change your place of living if needed, but don't be alone. This shit will kill you.
Maybe you can discover other ways to be connected with meaninful people – not necessarily the closest/relatives ones - through sports, volunteering, local neighborhood initiatives. If needed, spend more money on it, travel to other countries to meet people that you care about. Anything that leads to real human hug will work. I measure unloneliness progress in the average number of human hugs per day :). Optimize your life for that.
Whatever you do, refuse to have the life where you're alone.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/feb/24/strange... should help.
That's a really tough situation, but with some active work it's manageable.
Most important to remember that the feeling of loss you have for your family connection, is real, is okay. But like all things you will learn to live with it and see benefits in it if you work at it.
Nothing can replace meeting people, new (seeing people and talking to people) and familiar (family & friends).
So how does someone in your situation achieve this?
Well you've mentioned hobbies and this is your best option:
- is there a board game cafe near you? They often run social events especially DnD open nights.
- adult education classes. In person is good but online is fine..why don't you see who runs online courses? Location matters less. French, Spanish, Japanese?
- activities, these are great but need to have a connection to them. Swim clubs are great as are bouldering/climbing clubs.
My friend was in a similar situation, and what he did was just went on Meetup and Facebook and searched for groups for things that he was into. Two of those groups were white collar boxing and open mic nights. I had no idea he was lonely before. He was my friend. If you filled one day of your week with a social group in the evening and then another day of the week with another social group. And eventually you feel like you're doing enough things. And you'll end up being your friend. I only meet mine once a month outside of those, but it's still really nice. Also, if you do join any social groups, you'll find yourself going to the pub afterwards.
This sounds like grief and depression to me. You're struggling because you're still mentally filtering everything you do through another person who is no longer part of your life. You must learn to do things for you, not for someone else. You may find that some things you thought you enjoyed you actually were only doing for someone else. Likewise, you may discover that what you want do purely for yourself is different from what you might expect or predict.
Time will heal some of this naturally. But the #1 recommendation I would always make to anyone in this situation is to pursue exercise. Weightlifting, hiking, etc., generate rapidly compounding results across multiple dimensions of your life and also often generate some of the most authentic social experiences you can find as a 30+ year old adult.
I believe it is good to learn to be on your own for a while, it helps you figure out what you really want for yourself, but most humans are social being so don't try to accept it as the new normal as this is clearly not what you want. But it sounds a bit like you ask for advice for that.
It sounds you likely want a new partner, so .. at some point go out and find one. Not a replacement, your old partner seems gone, you want a different person you want to start a new life with.
And if you don't want a different person .. then you should first get over the divorce with your last partner. Otherwise it likely won't work.
(And aside "I would blame depression, but I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizer" those things can have side effects, meaning you are stable to do your work, but are otherwise stuck emotionally. Therapy is a bit more, then taking meds)
So I am mostly a lurker here on HN for the past 15 years but I love the community and positivity and general helpfulnesses on this thread. You all are awesome and OP thanks for being vulnerable and I hope the community keeps loving on you!
I saw this a couple of years ago and felt that it might help you https://youtu.be/k7X7sZzSXYs?si=d1ibZfR9uKbuXpCd. Best of luck OP.
How long has it been? It can’t not be hard at first. But if you try hard enough you’ll learn to be comfortable with yourself and be alone. Finding hobbies does help for sure, particularly those that involve people.
You could try yoga too, starting from scratch is a great place to begin. It’s a great tool to learn to see yourself objectively and be able to let external things affect you less. (I’ve been practicing for 10ish years and teaching for 5ish) Also yoga communities are usually great because it’s mostly people trying to actively improve themselves. But do go for the dynamic style if you try it, because it builds the mind but also the body. So even if you don’t get into the spiritual stuff, you always get a good workout.
Best of luck. Hope you can find the strength to embrace the pain and not flee or hide from it, because it truly makes us stronger.
>There are the usual suggestions: go to the dog park more often, pick something and build it, read books, hop on dating sites, find a hobby, and so on. But I'm finding it hard to actually do any of that. I would blame depression, but I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers.
At any rate, spending most of your time alone when you're the kind of person who needs to be around people to remain sane is going to give you depression, regardless of what substances you're taking.
Also -- it's cliched but that's because it works -- are any of your hobbies physical? Exercise works better than antidepressants, and depression can be reliably predicted by tracking the user's GPS coordinates (and detecting a reduction in physical movement).
"has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers"
Have you considered getting a second opinion on your meds? That sounds like a lot if that's 3 separate medications, and not without side effects which may be contributing to a lack of interest in interests.
I dont know if this will help you, but i want to improve my english, so maybe we can chat a bit about life, or coding or whatever you have in mind.
I'm used to being alone due to difficulties socializing and having moved multiple times. I will turn 31 later this year.
Short term I would suggest you going to cafes or other similar places in the weekends. Even if you end up not interacting with people, having them around already helps in itself. Plus, you might actually end up interacting with someone.
To get out of the bad mood, you can also try to call a relative on the phone, I found this to be helpful many times in the moment, but not always.
Personally, especially now that the weather is getting warm where I am, I often go out for walks or runs while listening to podcasts. But beware that using headphones all the time makes it harder to interact with others.
More long term, I would advice looking for a job where you show up in person, so that you get to interact with your coworkers.
I would also suggest talking about this with your psychiatrist, to get some advice that is more tailored to you. One last thing. While I'm not a doctor and this definitely isn't medical advice, I heard about studies showing that physical exercise is as effective as certain anti-depressants. You could discuss this with your doctor as well, as if it works for you, it has more benefits and less side effects than pills. Additionally, if you join some sport class that could be another way to meet people.
I'm 37 and can relate to this. I lived and worked in another country for a pretty long time and was forced to move back home due to layoffs. I dont really know anybody apart from my family members any longer because I was away for so long. I don't feel bad about it all the time but there are days when I too feel hollow and long for some social life. I don't have a lot of answers, traveling has helped me to connect with other travelers a bit, that's one thing.
> "Solitary confinement with internet" is a lit better than being in prison. Not sure I’d like the company there.
Making friends as an adult, especially starting from zero, is a universal struggle, so try to avoid any negative self-talk or other things that may compound your loneliness. The usual advice works, but like all advice it only works when we’re ready for it to work. I wish I could offer more than platitudes, but you sound like you have a decent self-support system already, and maybe are just temporarily lacking in confidence.
I personally found my community at church. It is a physical activity/community that meets every week. While i haven't been completely alone I have had feelings of loneliness I think loneliness and meaningless go together. So when you find meaning in certain parts of your life it can help but actual human contact (friends or family, or community) is an aspect that we cant do without. Go to the latin mass :) if you want to experience something new
Learn to be your best friend.
Understand that even though you are on medication you can still be depressed.
You just lost someone you loved. Someone who by the sounds of things was a joy to be around and share experiences with. Someone who helped give your life purpose and regulate your emotions.
A cynical way to look at it is that socialisation draws us out of our own minds and shifts our focus outwardly so we use it as an escape from our current mental state. So learn to be comfortable in your own mind.
Start small, with things that don't require any preparation or commitment. Go walk a bit, aimlessly. It's a difficult time for you and you might simply need to back off for a bit. Eat well, sleep, exercise.
Definitely avoid any social media, youtube, etc. I'd suggest to limit your screen usage to just your work-life. You do not want to compare yourself with people who are not in your position. Spending time on the internet is not fulfulling.
Once you have a healthy daily routine down (which you might have already), a lifehack is to challenge yourself to get good at something that you would never have imagined yourself doing. The idea is that you will fill your head with thoughts about how to improve, rather than thinking about other things which might be too much to process right now. This is why the "start lifting" suggestions work. You don't have to lift, but simply set some random goal. Avoid trying to achieve some big ambition that you've always had.
Once you're on this path, with time you will recalibrate. It seems you are a social person and I bet you will find other people to connect with.
From my own experience, switching from a remote job to an in-office job helped when I felt too isolated. The job market is tough (from what I've heard), so you can check if you could join a coworking space or simply go to the local library to work. I've had friends that are happy to just work together in the same space.
The point of my response is not to tell you "how to be alone", but helpful advice if you want to make changes to your life, if you are unsatisfied with it. If you are unhappy, you could fill all your time thinking about how unhappy you are. It's not helpful, though. For now, find ways to fill your time, and while you do that, I truly believe you will find your footing again.
I lived with my original family the with 8 other guys in the dorm room, then two, the by myself, got married, got divorced, lived alone for few years, got (and remained) married. I went through a good amount of settings. Here is my advice but take it with a grain of salt because it is all very individual.
First of all, however this relationship ended - you cannot sweep it under the rug. You need to process the grief. If you have means at all - seek professional help.
Second, video games, social media, substances - unless you are absolutely sure you can control it - is a way to the abyss. Don’t go there.
Third, learn to appreciate the advantages of being in the state you are. When I lived alone - I traveled to some beautiful but risky places where I would not take my mate. Did some martial arts because nobody would bat an eye if I got bruised.
Fourth - decide what is right for you and think hard about the life you want to live. Any popular non fiction book is necessarily not very deep but you can start with “Designing your life”.
HTH
100% group fitness classes. Orange Theory. I joined boxing, and lost 50+ pounds. Plus I met super nice people, and might have learned a little technique too. If you're single, I've been to two gyms (first one close) and both had majority 20-35 year old women (who could knock me out in seconds).
Might be worth putting some focus on your physical health. That always pays dividends in every other aspect of your life.
Off the top of my head. Join a gym and just do a few machines or the treadmill. Gradually branch out into more. Get a few minutes of noon time sun on your skin. Prioritize good sleep. Walk thirty minutes a day. Start paying attention to what you eat.
Definitely! I was in a slump last year and once I've started doing stuff like this I felt better every week since the start of this year. Yeah, it doesn't sound like much if you take a peek at the YouTube fitness influencer sphere but it's what most people need in actuality. I also recommend pairing this with a habit tracker so it's easier to keep at it.
> when I have something to say about my day, there's nowhere to say it; no one on HN cares whether I fixed up the blinds or cooked pork steaks.
As someone who lives alone, two ways I address this aspect: talk to yourself out loud and to your pets like they're people, and also write these things down in a journal. Every night after I get into bed but before I turn out the light and fall asleep, I write a journal entry. Sometimes they're quite mundane, exactly like your examples. "I cooked a steak for dinner that turned out better than I expected" or "Tomorrow I'm thinking about making some bread." There's no pressure on length of entry, I fill anywhere from three sentences to a full page each night, but it helps fill the 'how do I communicate this minor accomplishment or discomfort that nobody else cares about' need for me.
> write these things down in a journal
My added 2 cents is to write in a journal and also to read it.
If it helps, be meta and write about what you would want to look forward to read in your own journal, what kind of writing makes you keep going back reading it.
Certainly, an awesome evergreen entry is your reflection on a previous entry.
Just like material on how to blog, there are self-help books on how to journal well.
Solitude doesn't have to be a curse if we learn how to treat it as a blessing.
I would recommend trying out an active activity in your community that seems to be pretty popular. Not only will the physical activity be beneficial in physical and mental ways, but the communities are usually pretty welcoming to newcomers. I've met some great people via pickle ball, tennis, table tennis, jiu jitsu, and rock climbing gyms.
This feeling of loneliness is hard to fill. It takes time. I'm a pretty lonely person for other reasons, I go out and have friends but I find that there is too much noise in my mind and the moments of genuine connection are rare. I'm now reading books on chan (zen) and learning to cultivate and enjoy a more peaceful mind. I've finished therapy and been a psychiatric patient for years. Nothing worked until it did. It's constant education. I'm not claiming to be cured or healthy, but I'm happy. I can imagine how hard it is for you becoming so sudden.
There's definitely a lot of paths you can explore. There is therapy, philosophy, experiences. You can go to therapy to find answers. Even to find a first step. You can read any sort of books to find myriad new ways in which you could perceive the world and yourself in it. And the experiences come along the way. If you are taking the effort that is good. To take up effort you need to see the future. Seems like you believe in it, but wish to see it clearer. Just know that at the beginning of the path nothing is clear, but time is the only constant. And that every feeling is there to tell you something but you only need to recognize it. If it's still there trying to break through, let it through. With every move you make progress. Be kind to yourself.
Good luck my friend.
Most responses are about how not to be alone. Your question reminded me of an old YouTube video I found helpful called how to be alone: https://youtu.be/k7X7sZzSXYs
Don’t immediately go looking for things to fill the empty spaces. There is a lot of value in being able to sit with oneself and one’s thoughts.
It’s also not a bad time to start practicing mindfulness/meditation if you are not already.
Keep the tv on it adds life.
Meeting new people and transforming that to having people around is a journey you haven't started.
I would use this time wisely. There are opportunities that weren't available to you before. Those free weekends can be spent doing something productive.
Find your goals and go after them. You are in the best spot don't waste it.
> Keep the tv on it adds life.
Hell no. Otherwise solid advice :)
Damn this thread is a gold mine. Wishing you the best. My advice is to prioritize health and exercise and spend time outside somewhere you can run into new interesting people. build a circle
Whatever you do, don't learn to cope with being alone. I did, and it was my biggest mistake.
Would you mind going into more detail? Why was that a mistake?
Because if I had not I would have instead done the hard emotional labor of pursuing love, instead of becoming an isolated old man waiting to die. Being alone all the time is a kind of poverty, don't kid yourself. A lone billionaire is less wealthy than a beggar with a loving family.
Are you me.
And it's not even depression and bitterness anymore. It's beyond that. It's the final form in the 50 yo wizard meme.
This life is not something you want to pursue. There is nothing romantic about a hermit. Choose another path.
Thank you. Really. I took that to heart.
Notice though that no specific reason is given:
> hard emotional labor
⸻ that's not a selling point,
> isolated
⸻ necessarily, that's the same as "alone",
> waiting to die
⸻ not necessarily, why?
> Being alone all the time is a kind of poverty,
⸻ "alone is bad", how?
> A lone billionaire is less wealthy than a beggar with a loving family
⸻ "company is worth lots of money", how, why?
I hope that you live a long healthy, happy life without ever learning the answers to these questions.
> But I'm finding it hard to actually do any of that.
Based on experience of someone in my family, I ask: are you and your doctor sure that the mood stabilizers themselves aren’t making that hard?
What are your hobbies?
I just started going to the gym, being a little more self-loving, and paying attention to my appearance and behaviour.
If you’re alone but look good enough for your age and are an interesting person, it’s just a matter of time before you have somebody around.
Being alone is painful, this is not a bug, it's a feature.
A religion you vibe with is probably the one shot for this. In my case that's a flavor of Buddhism with strong deity practices. Atheists home about imaginary friends, but...
I've had several instances in my life where I've been alone for extended periods of time, almost at the same age you are now. I've generally enjoyed it, but not sure what the "How To" is for being alone. For me I've used my alone time to do new/learn things. I taught myself parkour, went and did Brazilian jiujitsu for years, did painting/art classes, went indoor rock climbing, read a lot more on philosophy, went to philosophy groups, joined my local humanist/secular society, worked out a lot more and went running, worked on my own programming projects, geocached, went to local lectures/presentations, all kinds of things. Basically I just followed any random thing my brain thought was interesting. As a side effect I ended up meeting a lot more people than I would have otherwise. I remember feeling anxious when I first became alone but I focused on the fact that I had a lot of freedom. Once you start experiencing your own freedom it feels good! It took a bit, I remember I felt mentally shackled about what I could do, but as I did things I just found there was more that I wanted to do.
It's not just a hobby you need, it's purpose. For some that is a hobby. If you go the hobby route, try to look for one that has in person meetups. Others going through this use self-improvement as their purpose (gym, suit up, etc). Church works for some. Consider some continuing education courses. Would charity work suit you? There are places like habitat for humanity that you can volunteer at. Maker spaces can be fun. You might also want to try out working from a co-working space.
If you struggle being alone - you're not meant to be alone. It's not everyone's cup of tea
You have MANY options:
OPTION 1: What ever you are into, see if there is a club in your town for that.
e.g. the suburban town I live in has a:
- rock climbing club
- board game club
- maker lab at the library
- Italian speaker's club
- and more
OPTION 2: Start a club
If you don't find a club you like: start one!
I did this with the town rock climbing club. I went on the town dad's Facebook and asked "anyone want to go rock climbing?", multiple people responded and now we have a club.
Fun fact: me starting the climbing club directly inspired the founder of the board game club to start that club too
OPTION 3: Host a cocktail party
If that sounds daunting, I can assure you it's not that hard and there is even a n EXCELLENT book by Nick Gray called The Two Hour Cocktail Part [0]
It lays out, step by step, all of the steps from invite to scheduling to name tags etc etc. It's like cookbook for how to have a great party.
And the idea is to make it less than 2 hours on a Mon/Tue/Fri so setup is easy and pressure to impress etc is low.
OPTION 4: Invite other people you know out for a drink/plate of wings etc
Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is starving for time out away from their life. Whether it be single people, married people, old people, young people etc, everyone wants something to do outside the house.
Don't believe me? Search "dad loneliness" on Reddit. It's post after post of dad's, probably about your age, saying "Man, I wish someone would just call me and say 'hey, what's a good time to grab a beer next week?' "
0 - https://amzn.to/4rpUAhv
thanks for the plug to my book!!
I go to the library, farmer's markets, do group classes at the gym, and join groups that match my interests.
I'm the same way. I require people time, and work from home wears me down.
I'm a little baffled. Do you live in a wilderness? In the list of potential things you gave, there are few social activities. Find a club for one of your hobbies. Find a group exercise program. Volunteer for an organization you are passionate about.
Also, being alone out in nature can be very beneficial for you.
Maybe find a therapist to help you decouple yourself from your prior relationship.
Audiobooks are a good way to not feel alone in your head.
> Everything feels hollow now.
I'm slightly younger than you are but I remember how video games and sitting in front of my computer made me feel like this. You asked how to be willing to be alone but I will pivot my answer here that maybe you don't have to be alone? If you don't want to be alone here are the steps I would take nowadays.
I would recommend finding a improv class. This helps you to get used to laugh to yourself and make a fool of yourself. Also the people attending improv classes are more open in general. When you are more comfortable with these feelings then it becomes easier to open up a conversation with strangers. First times it feels awkward but you can frame the narrative that this is just you learning social skills and your body adapting to the new situation. When you do this enough it becomes easier to find new people into your life. You might feel creepy and they might feel that you're creepy but it becomes easier when you practice. Be open about your learning: "Sorry if I'm bothering you. I'm trying to learn how to speak to others. How is your day going?"
If the chit-chat goes well ask them for coffee or a lunch or if they want to join you for a walk with your dog. Strangers often ask if they can pet my dog when walking in the public with her. Put your focus into them rather than your feelings. Ask how their day has been. Ask how do they spend their time. Ask follow up questions: "Oh you like knitting? It reminds me of my Grandma. Are your granparents still alive? How often do you see them?". This way other people feel that you are actually paying attention and it helps you to connect with them.
Read also this one: https://www.experimental-history.com/p/good-conversations-ha...
Learn how to use your calendar and start planning stuff together with the people you meet. Most of the people are just self-centered and want to have someone who would listen to them. If you provide this for them you will find people who are interested in your company. Hopefully eventually you will meet also few people who will listen to you as well.
When you start having more friends/acquaintances the hollow feeling did go away for me. The hollow feeling still comes every now and then but I've somehow accidentally built a routine that when it comes I will reach my phone and suggest something to do for my friends.
YMMV but for me it has been a long journey but definitely worth it and doable for others if they can endure the anxiety during the way. Also remember to sleep/eat/excercise in addition like others said. When you don't everything else falls apart.
Only one passing mention of martial arts so far? Consider Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which is certainly not safe but is very grounding. After spending all your waking hours at a computer, grappling presses your soul back into your body. It's a very different kind of socialising, mutually-exhausted extremely-physical and in my experience very wholesome, even if the injury risk is higher than nearly every other hobby. (And you guarantee getting every airborne infection. I got two serious colds and the bona-fide flu this winter; still worth it.)
Or try the other side of the spectrum and pick up tai chi. I started practicing almost 15 years ago (grudgingly) and it's surprisingly great!
Happy to help find a place that fits. In my experience, martial arts schools are very much a vibe-compatibility thing.
> Consider Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which is certainly not safe but is very grounding
What :D? I would say BJJ is an exceptionally safe martial art in that you can spar at 90-95% and not get hurt at all. Muay Thai or boxing sparring gives you regular bruises in comparison. At least that’s my experience.
Sure, for a martial art it's pretty safe - still in a different league from (say) bouldering or lifting, though!
And in solo sports, you can almost completely set your own safety budget, whereas in martial arts there's a large irreducible lump of danger from "the other person lacks the control to do something safely". The only other person I know in person who does BJJ who I didn't meet at BJJ is a brown belt, and just got a four-month leg injury during a routine rolling session; I myself am only just over a five-month chest injury that was probably from someone very heavy simply throwing himself down on top of me when I didn't react in time (obviously he shouldn't have done that, but I can't control what other people do).
Also how on earth are you managing not to get bruises at BJJ?! My legs are covered in them after pretty much every session just from sustained pressure.
Wow okay. Maybe my club is “gentle”, I’ve never had a single injury from BJJ.
I’ve had some from lifting weights.
I see your point about solo sports.
> Also how on earth are you managing not to get bruises at BJJ
Oh I get “finger marks” on the arms for sure, but never got a black eye or a nosebleed from BJJ. I got that quite regularly from boxing and muay thai/MMA training.
Fair enough, I got three black eyes within my first three months! The injury situation definitely gets better as you improve and when you train with more skilled people.
I think rock-climbing fills a similar void for me. It's social, physical, and mental, and has a progression to it where I feel like I've gained something after every session. Plus you can take your skills outside and enjoy nature and travel with friends
Try out a new hobby, maybe take Salsa classes. Anything to be around people, don’t try to be comfortable alone.
> I was hoping for some psychological tricks to deal with that,
But this is a psychological trick. You "just" have to find your adaptation strategy and a way to move on.
I'd also suggest to see someone. Simply to talk it out and find those things in the process.
Move to South America and let the problem solve by itself.
Why fight a culture that enforces individualism?
Just move to a place where it’s rare being alone.
People in mexico and south are just different
Start a defacto book club in a local cafe, that is, become a regular, show up with a book at approximately same day, same hour
Lying on the grass, gazing at the sky, city walk, city drive,
This will get downvoted to oblivion, but consider a major change: enlist in the military, sign up for a stint on a commercial fishing vessel, or go work as a firefighter. You will have tons of time with other people, even live with them for extended periods, but they will also tend to respect your space.
I’m 40, and I’ve spent most of my life alone. To be clear, I’m an introvert, so being by myself is something I’m quite used to. Still, I think I have some experience that might be worth sharing:
1. Find something that’s truly yours. Remote work is fine, but having a personal project you genuinely enjoy is a completely different feeling. Try to find something like that.
2. Fill your day with structure. My day starts with reading and studying languages, then I go for a walk, work, read and learn more things, and relax in the evening.
3. Walk more. This habit is hugely underrated. One or two hours of walking a day, especially in the sun, can brighten even the darkest day.
4. Exercise. Almost everyone talks about it — because it works. And it works really well. The key is consistency.
5. Travel if you can. You’ll get a lot of new impressions and meet many interesting people.
6. Don’t just play games — watch them. I’m serious. As silly as it might sound, let’s plays can genuinely help with loneliness. There’s even research suggesting that people in streams can sometimes ease loneliness better than real-life friends. If games aren’t your thing, find streams on topics you enjoy.
7. And finally: as others here have already said — try to find yourself and understand yourself. Often loneliness isn’t about the absence of people, but about not being able to accept who you are.
Thank you, particularly for the "watch streams" suggestion. I'd forgotten about those.
Society seems to disapprove of liking to be alone. What else can we expect, it's a society, so of course it does. But if you really want me to teach you how to do this terrible thing:
View it as an opportunity. You don't have to fix the blinds or cook, and you don't have tell anybody about it. There is nobody to maintain an image for. You can be really gross, or incredibly lazy, nobody will notice. (This is perhaps the real meaning of Sartre's phrase "hell is other people".)
Drop the pitiful attitude. Instead of whining "Who will comfort me?" you must experiment with saying "Yes! Everybody has finally fucked off!".
For a while it will seem as if you need other people to give life depth and meaning, but this is an illusion. You are habituated to leaching meaning off them, is all. Now you have to find your own sources. "Solitary confinement with internet" sound like the most ideal prison to me: would you really want to be surrounded by other prisoners, with their noise and drama?
This is adaptation, and thus will take time, because of ingrained habits, expectations, and habits not yet arrived at. The process unfortunately is slow and stupid and you'll have to sit it out, perhaps in front of a games console.
Get better games, until you find one you can immerse yourself in for a month, with enthusiasm. Don't skimp in hunting for games.
Listen to the silence. That is, listen to the distant ambient sounds. This should be soothing meditation, and if you do it long enough you'll get the peculiarly naughty and sensual feeling of sitting quietly. Think of it as a free John Cage concert. Silence is golden, right? It's something rare. Social people are continually destroying it for one another, so they miss out.
Help people , there are many who need help.
Hit the gym a lot to find your inner peace. Both weightlifting and lots of zone2
Have to be careful with gyms. I injured my shoulder doing weights over twenty years ago and still have trouble with it.
Warm up for every workout. Allow 72 hours recovery between lifts. I.e. if you bench press on Monday, don't do it again until Thursday. Do legs instead. I do squats on Monday, bench on Wednesday, deadlift on Friday.
Progressive overload is important but don't add more than 5lbs when you're moving up. Don't ego lift, there's always someone who can lift more than you; you should only be competing with yourself.
Always have a spotter or at least safety pins if you're anywhere close to your max weight or reps.
This is a very lame excuse. You can do 100 different things without compromising your shoulder. Try cardio. Or just wight lifting with very light weights. Or group classes.
Lame? I see what you did there. Either way, I have had a problem for two decades thanks to bad weight lifting. It's still bugging me right now as a matter of fact. Moral is that I should have worked with a decent trainer.
Games, hobbies, meds are not good. Those are like candy, you need real food.
There are 3 aspects to the issue you need to tackle:
# existential, deep
What you need to do is to get a glorious vision of 1- who you are and 2- what you are doing, aka. the plan.
Examples:
1- I am a scientist, 2- I'm getting a phd to then change the world with my research.
1- I am a father/husband, 2- I am raising a happy family.
1- I am a skinny/fat guy who will have an impressive transformation to bodybuilder, 2- I am targeting to raise my lean body mass by 2kg/year.
1- I am a guy with troubled emotions that feel like hell, who will overcome his suffering and find happiness, 2- I am becoming a buddist monk.
# physiological, shallow
Your negative emotions will be a burden in your journey to glory.
You need to feel comfortable being alone. You need to be able to be alone without intense negative emotions about it. It is like getting used to feeling cold/hot, hunger. Like adapting very hot sauna or marathons. You need to physiologically adapt to solitude.
The root solution will be what I explained before. Short-term, it would be good to have a break and to restart fresh (next time recognizing you didn't do it well the 1st time with your games, and that you need to work on a glorious plan). Options to get a break:
- move back with your parents for 1-2 years
- go to some cheap and nice destination and live in hostels, shared room. Change hostels every few weeks. Chat with guests. Just having a 'good morning' goes a long way.
# practical solution
While you have to adapt to solitude, you can also work on getting relationships. In order to do this:
- go out and talk to people physically (Internet doesn't count). You can actually go to a stranger on a park/mall and talk. Try it. Also explore bars, courses, events. When you go to those, you have to talk to people, you get 1 point for each person you talk to, otherwise 0 points.
- make a list of people you have known and see if you can get back in touch and deepen the relationship. Include in the list people you currently have some relationship with. Yes, even the cashier that always gives you a good smile when he says: 'debit or credit?'. You can deepen the relationship over several days in this sequence: polite smiles -> trivial chit-chat -> personal talk -> invitation to hang out.
The pain of loneliness exists because it signals harm, danger to you. The US is hyper-individualistic because it serves capitalism. They want you to be alone so that you can fill that "pain point" with all manner of pleasure sold to you. I can only urge you to stop being alone by joining a run club, improv class, and saying yes to every invite. Move to a big city if you don't live in one. You must do this.
It was normal to die at that age 100 years ago, so you treat it like death, the stuff beyond physiological and safety needs don't matter.
I'm truly sorry to hear about your suffering. Have you considered giving your life to Jesus? It can be a great source of healing and comfort in your time of need. I'd be happy to talk to you about (even privately) if it would be helpful.
> I would blame depression, but I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers.
You can have a great psychiatrist and be on a cocktail of mood-altering drugs and still be depressed. I know because I lived that way for many years. The sooner you admit to yourself that you're depressed, the sooner you can start trying to work through it. Cause that's the only solution to depression: working through it.
I mean, it's not really fair for me to armchair diagnose you and I'm certainly without qualification to do so. I'm just telling you what I recognize in your words. I refused to admit that I was depressed in 2020 (who wasn't that year) because that would "make it real." Once I finally stopped trying to trick myself out of it, I was able to accept my situation and even that was a slight relief (though certainly not a cure).
I wish you all the best. I really do. It's gonna be really difficult if I'm right, but me pretending that it won't be isn't gonna help you. All I can say is that I'm confident that you'll get to the other side eventually if you don't give up. I believe that to be true for most people and you haven't said anything that makes it seem untrue for you. I wish for you courage.
The gym is a great way to be around other people without any expectation or commitment. Malls are good too. Grocery shopping. Working at a coffee shop here and there.
Plenty of people have already said join a gym. I'll build on that and say try and find one that offers group classes - anything from the Les Mills line up, for instance. For several years until Covid struct, I used to do Body Combat twice a week, along with occasional Cx Works and Body Pump. A year before I started doing all of that it had never occurred to me that I might want to set foot in a gym!
In the most difficult stages of my life I've found that exercise raised my energy levels and left me more able to tackle the things I needed to face - and the friends I made through group classes helped as well.
Look for other kinds of in-person group activities (if you play an instrument, open mic nights, retro-computing meets or hackspaces), and give them a go - even if they're not the kind of thing you usually enjoy - be prepared to be surprised!
Check out improv if that might be your jam. I was effectively in the same situation (more so, via the empty-nest syndrome). Couple that to moving to a new town and working remotely, the isolation was devastating.
Improv pretty much selects for people that are playful, intelligent, and kind (it's a team sport after all).
Another aspect is learn to dance. Dance communities can be very strong, and dancing is a wonderful activity on so many levels. I initially went with expectations of meeting somebody, but now it's solely for the activity and sense of community.
First off, it's just hard. Sorry you have to go through it.
What's worked unfailingly for me for the 40+ years since I became an adult was always having long term habits that moved my life forward. I had no guidance on the big stuff, so from about age 12 I methodically taught myself about programming, sculpting a career, investment, running a business, running a household, being funny, being a man, etc. All years-long efforts. (If I had to do it all again I'd replace one of those with a martial art.)
So I had something to work on instead of lapsing into depression during very dark times. If you met me the last thing you would imagine is that chicks dig me, but they do. I'm not good looking by any standards. But building these skills created a person that people know can get things done at a pretty high level. People like a confident dude, and that will probably serve you much better than spending an ungodly amount of time on Hinge.
I'm sorry you're going through this and I'm impressed that you are in touch enough with your feelings to articulate it.
There's a lot of great advice in this thread. The best I have is to 1) Join a gym and go consistently. Nothing improves your mood like endorphins. Plus, at 38 you'll be amazed at what kind of shape you can get in. 2) Meditate. Learning to be present and grounded will enable you to decide who you want to be and who you want to be with. One I like is called Quantum Light Breath, particularly the version from Jeru Kabbal. It's a guided meditation so you can do it alone, although it is great in a group as well. Spoiler: It has nothing to do with quantum mechanics or the physics of light. There is a lot of breathing, though.
Good luck.
You need a therapist - someone to help you through.
I am kind of put off by your description of your psychiatrist.
No, it's not a great psychiatrist when they subscribe you drugs to "fix" things. Drugs should be the very last resort. A psychiatrists' role is to help you with self debugging your memories and to help you put them into a context that you can understand easier. They should be a guide for dealing with emotional trauma and help you process and understand the loops that make you feel helpless, and to help you understand the moments that were out of your control.
Please, OP, find a psychiatrist where you feel safe to share, and that helps you to deal with the emotional loss. Swallowing it up because society expects you to be a "man" is unhealthy behavior, and carrying over trauma into your next relationship is unfair to the other/next person in your life.
Other than that, my advice would be to write a list of things you always wanted to do. And just do them. Find out what you are passionate about and what makes you happy.
Find a sport to keep your biological machine maintained, and find the thing you care about the most. There is a lot of problems in our society to get involved with. If there is no community around the things you care about, then found one and invite others to join.
You are not as alone as you think, you just stopped reaching out.
Probably a bit biased (as it's totally my modality) but maybe consider an extended ayahuasca retreat.
I initially read this as "I want to experience aloneness, how do I do it". I read it that way because to me, being alone is an incredibly wonderful and useful experience. You can know things when you are alone that you cannot otherwise know. Like your true size in the universe. There is nothing like being alone at night, outside, when the temperature is 20 without anything or anyone around you.
This is not something you will experience when being alone, locked in a room or a building. Or surrounded by people. You need to be in the wild, in nature. Do it.
In those moments of being alone you learn something that allows you to be more alive. More deeply in the world. And a way to give you a context for not being alone.
So my first suggestion is to go someplace where you are completely alone and on your own for a while. Out in nature.
People can be the most wonderful creatures on earth. And the worst. There is a pretty good way to find them at their best, and it is hilarious. Go on a quest.
What is a quest? It is not an intellectual thing, it is a thing of the heart. It does not have to be a great thing, but it does have to be one that matters to you - you have to care about it.
For example, you might decide to spend the night outside, alone in the winter. Do not read a book about this. Start asking people. Tell them why you are going on your quest and ask them if they know anyone who can help you learn how.
Now the secret to a successful quest is to follow it. If someone says Joe and Josie know, then go ask Joe and Josie. And of course you are honor bound to actually do the quest. People are utterly wonderful about helping someone, so ask for help.
Finally, write. Get a fountain pen and a notebook (or cheat and get a ballpoint pen). Sit down. Set a timer for one hour and write. The goal is to write sentences continuously for one hour. It matters not what you write. If you want (and can actually do it) you can write the same one over and over, but it has to be some sentence - no matter how broken.
We all get stuck in the past. The cure for the past is the future, the new. You have open doors in front. One or more of those has better things than anything in your past. So go there.
You were together all your adult life - you’re not two people anymore, you’re cleaved as one.
And now that’s been severed. It will hurt.
New hobbies and getting your mind off things won’t cut it. If this was a physical injury you wouldn’t recommend someone start a new sport. Your soul is injured.
If the partnership is totally irreconcilable (or if it’s something more tragic, then my condolences) then you just need to accept that and take the time to heal. But is it irreconcilable?
Good luck.
You should travel, the whole point of being remote is to enjoy life without being tagged to a location, since you have pets depending on how comfortable you are with them being in hostels you should definitely be traveling a lot more and then be able to meet folks and have a more filling life, start local and then go abroad often
> There are the usual suggestions: […] But I'm finding it hard to actually do any of that.
There are some other suggestions and ideas here in the comments and your response also boils down to “thank you but that’s too hard”.
Sorry to say this but - it’s going to be hard. Did you want something easy? I don’t think it exists in this situation. Creating new routines and breaking out into something different from what you were used to for years, will take effort and resources. There’s no magic pill.
You can do this but it’ll take effort and discipline. Go for it!
I have a friend on anti depressants and she mentions the same hollowness and lack of wanting to do anything - despite having a good social life.
When I went through depression I refused meds, self medicated with weed (don't take it as medical advice) and got through the end of it.
I'd blame the meds and recommend gently weaning off them. Once you feel better rebuilding a social life is absolutely possible.
Best of luck with everything
Converse: How to not be alone without putting up with people you shouldn't?
Read books & audiobooks. Find a meetup club for books near you.
Don't work remote.
I love being alone as long as I have a couple of the friends to talk to a couple of times a week.
It's actually my ideal setup.
However I'm lucky enough to have some friends I can just chat with occasionally which makes all the difference.
When I was truly alone it was rough.
I feel like making friends is somewhat of a part-time job at first. You just got to do whatever you can to get around people.
A warning: predator type people can also sense vulnerable lonely people so don't just make friends with anyone who will be friends with you right away. Be vary careful and if you get a sense that something isn't right don't let the pain of loneliness override your safety.
Board sports. Longboard, skateboard, surfskate, etc
Leave your house every single day and don’t go back home until you’ve talked to 10 people you don’t know. Say yes to any social invitation you receive no matter how much you don’t want to do it. Never flake on anything.
Start dancing Argentine tango. I am dead serious.
I had a very positive experience volunteering in retirement homes. The work mostly involved talking with the residents. Many of them often have no one to talk to and very little happening in their lives, so almost any conversation is interesting to them. You can learn a lot from them, have someone genuinely interested in you, and do a good deed at the same time.
I have been through the exact same thing at the same age.
I'm 40 now.
The last two years, I had to learn how to be alone with myself. How to deal with the ups and downs, and frankly, it was the most difficult yet the most growth I ever had in my life.
I have the opposite problem. Spending time with people is difficult for a few years now. Even though I was born in the west and have only known this world. Now I will be leaving the west soon.
Something I’ve wanted to do for reasons for 1-2 years. I will usually say it’s because of my finances/possible recession. That is a helpful practical benefit. Reasons due to a series of life events that “broke” my worldview during and right after the pandemic causing this [purposeful] loner situation are the actual reasons.
I wish I didn’t feel this way. It sucks never wanting to talk or hang out with the remaining people I am in touch with.
Well it sounds like you miss this other person. If they're still alive I would probably try to talk to them, explain your feelings and and let them know you want them back.
If the person is no longer alive then you need to allow yourself to grieve. You can allow yourself to revisit past times in your mind. You can keep their memory alive in your mind.
If the person broke up with you and doesn't want to get back together then try to focus on their negative personality traits. Nobody is perfect and you can surely find things that you are glad you don't have to put up with anymore. Focus on those things. Worst case, focus on how badly they treated you and reflect on what it says about their character... Maybe that will make them look less appealing. My experience is that when someone mistreats me (or others) in any way, it creates a natural deep dislike for them. Maybe focus on that.
Life is rarely fully comfortable. You're almost always dealing with something. The key is to not focus on the things that make it worse.
I live remotely in a very isolated area and work remotely (no slack, just email). I live with my partner but she is in town for work during the day. I go to town a couple of times a month. Before COVID I had an office in town but realized I don't need it. I've lived here for about 15 years.
Initially I was lonely occasionally during the day but it went away. I'm now perfectly comfortable with no human contact except comments (like this) on the internet for very long stretches. My girlfriend went on a 3 week trip to visit family last year and I visited town twice and saw a friend once during that time and had one long phone conversation with a brother. It was a perfectly comfortable 3 weeks. I don't play video games.
I'm not recommending this way of life. It's probably more psychologically healthy to have people around and so I have to recommend trying to rebuild social connections as you can, but the point is for your situation, it gets much more comfortable as time passes. I don't want to say "it's all in your head" but something along the lines of that sentiment is kind of how it works I think. You do need something to do, a reason to get up in the morning. I garden and keep animals.
> Everything feels hollow now
I feel the same way sometimes (most times?)
> In many ways it feels like being imprisoned, except at least in prison there are other inmates to socialize with. "Solitary confinement with internet" is probably a better analogy.
To me this feels more like shouting in the void type of feeling at times. Like no matter what I say on this forum or that, the chances of real change from it stems unlikely :/
The world is in a depressing mood right now so I'd recommend to shut off news for some time if it troubles ya (genuine suggestion) and my friend, use a hackernews filter to block news related or AI related things as well. I suppose, just have some interesting cool facts that get shared on HN or something cool tech related! (I need to follow this...)
Another point, Just take things slow. Human mind desires intimacy and friendships and our brains are simply not designed for isolation for the most part. (I had written more part but it just felt like talking what I was feeling which was good to write personally but would've been hard for others to read and maybe get something nice out of so I have removed it now)
So what I am saying is:
1. have patience with yourself even if it feels hard, you are doing great by talking with us as I am telling you that you aren't alone in this struggle and I want you to please just do small steps towards just interacting with people in a more positive light. Maybe make the spirit as tomorrow's gonna be a brand new day :D
2. Use study-together Discord server (This is something that I personally used) or any place essentially where you can find people who are working when you are working and some of whom are relaxing when you are relaxing. This allows some talks in middle of just normal stuff. Maybe there can be a work-together community too I am not sure.
Anecdotally, I have found the idea being that this problem is within us. This is actually good because we can actually solve the problem (to some degree) and we have control. The freedom is also scary especially for someone like me who lacks discipline/patience at times but yeah.
Recently I had felt so alone in my head like completely alone sometime sort-of and then I had a marriage of my cousin and within just 3 days, I felt so connected. I danced so much that I lost track of my breath or even what's going on. I just danced :D, Perhaps there can be some event where you can just give every part of frustration into something external and feel happy as I did with my cousin's marriage? [Not that things are doing extremely better now but for short term, it was so absolutely good]
A lot of that joy came because like, I was myself and people appreciated me for it. Like even in hackernews or like whatever idk, I try to be myself but still feel short sometimes. Like the idea of greed even maybe of wanting more but I don't think that Internet or IRC can completely substitute but rather alleviate in the sense of making friends.
I am experimenting with some new things on the internet though. Anything which makes me feel passionate actually.
Another Idea I wish to say is that perhaps you are trying to replace the intimacy with Internet or Gaming or any hobby. That's completely okay and I have sort of done that but I have found some sort of same feelings as you lingering when I try to do that. I think they still linger and some feelings of acceptance , as harsh as it sounds feels like the stoic way to approach. These are your feelings tho and you are correct feeling them but just acknowledge them and try to co-operate with them and work with them and maybe you can figure something out. I am sure.
(I usually start these messages with saying I am 17 or something, but this time I'd rather end with saying it. So right now, I absolutely get the idea of high school sweetheart and so I imagine that and the situation that you are talking about 20 years later. That's almost my entire age, It's entirely true that its gonna take some time to adjust. It means that you cared, cared enough that you are bothered by its lack. You are human. Have patience sir and with the patience , try new things which make you feel alive. Not necessarily something risk taking but suppose even a good game of chess in real life with pieces moving and people watching makes one feel alive. Here's a hug and you aren't alone, I suppose everyone feels lonely online in some capacity. Connected yet disconnected. I am trying out some new yet old things on internet like sharing links) but that's not really the point to bring back some control but yeah. It's 3 Am and I have spent around an ~hour when I have a maths test tomorrow :)
I sort of believe that every generation has some loneliness when you think about it so I also think that there are people who are likely to give you perspectives and help you out who are far more knowledgable than me. I might have to go sleep now as I am unable to write anything which can be more useful for ya even though I have tried.
I wish you to have a nice day, sir
Depression will make you want to be antisocial, but positive social situations are good for your mental health so sometimes you have to force yourself into it. Exercise is very good for your mental health, and I think part of your issue is working from home. Take vitamins because many people are deficient in them — B will give you energy, C better immune system and D will help with your mood and sleep. It is good that you have pets, because they are company.
I would say that hobbies are a good shout. Especially those that result in the production of something physical whether it is a knitted item, a wooden thing or whatever. Also very good to take up a musical instrument. I was put off music for decades but am finally playing something.
Online socials are no real substitute for meeting in person. I've learnt that the hard way. If you want socialisation, then consider night classes (especially spoken language since they are interactive), writing groups, and joining societies. If you are religious, consider joining a congregation (mileage may vary so shop around), if not there are atheist groups that do meetups and secular sunday services etc. If you need to, take the initiative and start up your own group. I have done this for nearly four years now and it is still working well.
Get out into nature, not just manicured parks and artificial environments.
The onset of the pandemic in 2020 left me more isolated than I'd even been before in my life. I was single, I was working remotely, and the lock-downs finally killed what was left of my preexisting friend group. I have a naturally solitary disposition, but even for me, it was hard.
Here are some coping strategies you can apply right away:
→ Listen to podcasts, especially podcasts in a chatty & informal style. It really helps to just hear people talking. If you're looking for recommendations, I'm very fond of If Books Could Kill.
→ A lot of podcasts have Discord servers associated with them, where fans of the show congregate & talk. Sometimes you have to pay a couple bucks on Patreon to get access. These can be good places to go for a very easy, low-effort social space. You can keep it open on another monitor & let it serve as background chatter that you can dip into at any time.
→ Do stuff. Go to museums, go to movies, go to dinner. Some people have hangups about (e.g.) eating at restaurants alone, but you must overcome this psychological hurdle immediately. You will feel much more alive if you go outside.
→ Read a book. If it doesn't grab you, then set it down and start another. Beauty is good for the soul, and the wonderful thing about a paperback novel is that, unlike TV and movies, you cannot pull out your phone and multitask. With practice, you can stay immersed in a text for longer & longer periods of time. Eventually, a good novel will be able to eat up your whole weekend and leave you feeling great afterwards.
→ Start a journal. Without an intimate partner to talk to, it can feel like your head is heavy with half-formed thoughts that you just can't get rid of. Getting them down on paper is almost as good as voicing them to another person. The podcasts are nice, but spending all your time listening to podcasts can gradually teach you to be uncomfortable when left with your own thoughts. Keeping a journal helps you stay on good terms with yourself. I can't recommend it enough.
Now I'll get into some longer-term lifestyle changes. These can take a while to come to fruition and may require leaving your comfort zone, but they're worthwhile.
→ For me, there is nothing better for my mental health than a 90-minute park run on a breezy day in late spring. Even a 30-minute stint on a treadmill in the dead of winter will clear my mind. I don't know what your relationship to exercise is, so I can't really call this a quick fix, but think about ways to incorporate exercise into your routine in ways that you'll enjoy. Personally, I suggest running.
→ There's a broad stratum of fun social events designed for meeting people and developing shared hobbies. Pottery classes, choir programs, ultimate frisbee. You pay a couple hundred bucks to sign up, then you go to the event on Thursday nights and maybe get drinks with some of the other members afterwards. You won't be best friends right away, and you'll probably never get that close with most of them, but having a loose community like this is nice, and if you stay in contact with people after the course ends, you may take away some lasting friendships.
→ Undertake a creative project. I wrote a novel during the pandemic. It sucked, but I put a lot of time and love into it and I really felt like I did something. (The trouble with writing a novel, of course, is that nobody will want to read it. If you're smarter than me, you'll pick up something like painting, which produces stuff you can hang up, show off, and give away. Pottery and music I mentioned earlier, but I'll mention them here again.) Creativity is extremely fulfilling. It takes time to feel like you're producing anything valuable, but when you do, it'll mean a lot.
As weird or hard as it sounds, you need to embrace being alone. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try to expose yourself to situations where you meet people or think about how you spend your time (may I suggest: limit internet/computer time). It just means you should enjoy the positives that come with being alone and avoid seeing it as a shameful thing you need to distract yourself from. Other people in other circumstances never get a chance to be for themselves and have the reflection and thoughts this allows for. You are with yourself and that is hard and frightening, but also a chance to come to terms with yourself. From your description it is pretty clear thst this is probably something you need to do.
Get something to care for, plants for example. If you need inspiration on a deeper level consider watching Perfect Days by Wim Wenders. Don't read too much about it before. It is one of those films that gave me a new perspective on things, may it do the same for you. To find joy in the simple things and go through your day in dignity.
> I have a great psychiatrist who has me on antidepressants, anti-anxiety meds, and mood stabilizers.
One of the things that has happened to be several times on different meds is a compression of emotional peaks and valleys.
The highs don't feel nearly as high but the lows don't feel as low, either.
This situation for you is going to take a lot of time to work through.
I wish you the best of luck.
I went through a similar experience with a high school sweetheart. I am in my thirties. I focus heavily on being a father now (maybe too much), and it’s extremely rewarding. I picked up guitar and took lessons, was introduced to a beginner cover band, and met friends through that. The gym is another big one. For me, exercise makes me feel better mentally in a noticeable lasting way. My advice is to pick up a hard hobby you really enjoy and finding places where people doing that thing would be.
reinvest in your relationships with friends and family. they may have been neglected during your relationship.
Drop medication and go out. By which I mean meetup/join a club/choir/whatever you can tolerate or maybe even enjoy the activity on its own (to get company and not feel forced).
It's tough, and I must admit the times I've lived on my own for any length of time weren't always easy. I've done it twice.
First time I realised I was spiralling a bit and looked for a form of exercise I enjoyed, which was cycling, and getting into that, doing long-ish rides every so often, it really helped my outlook, I got a little fitter and it made me feel more positive. There are also cycling groups in most places that you can join, that make it more of a social activity, some more relaxed than others. It doesn't need to be cycling, but some sort of stimulating activity is always good, even better if it can casually involve other people.
Second time, I just spiralled into drinking too much, too often, and it wasn't healthy. So, you know, I'm only so good at following my own advice.
You've already identified the cliches - 'get a hobby' being a big one, but the thing is they are clichess for a reason. If you can find something that interest you outside of the house, you'll probably naturally meet people while doing it, get some interaction and improve your mood.
You could look into volunteering things that are going on in your local community. My local community does a 'planting day' each year where volunteers plant shrubs and trees in an area undergoing regeneration. There's some light socialising, you're doing something useful, it's good for you. They do various other volunteer days throughout the year, and they aren't a big, regular commitment that way.
I love games too, but IMHO they're really good as respite from other things, not as a replacement for social interactions.
By rethinking everything about yourself and your relationship to the World as a whole.
I live alone with a hermit-like lifestyle (even though i live in the middle of a big city) and so perhaps my advice may be of some use.
Read Philosophy, Read Psychology and orient your entire Worldview accordingly. This is very important; you cannot choose solitude while thinking and longing for external socializations/validations. Self-Denial and Self-Control are the key attitudes to practice. A complete framework/discipline like Patanjali Ashtanga Yoga is a good one to follow.
Keep Body Active, Maintain proper Diet and Sleep. Whenever you feel down/depressed get out and walk (or do any physical activity). Become aware of what in the environment triggers your "loneliness" and consciously move away from it.
When you go to the grocery store/coffee shop/restaurant/etc. converse/joke/laugh with the employees/customers there since that is your much needed essential "socialization" fix. Understand how the self uses social-surrogates to satisfy its social needs eg. social media.
The key idea is that you limit socialization/interaction to the absolute essentials i.e. to that which is impelled by nature.
Also Mind and Body are one and so problems can be solved by approaching them via both avenues. This is why motion/exercise is so good for the mind.
Cultivate total Zen-like "mindfulness in the present" so that your mind forgets the self and is fully occupied in any activity you are engaged in which could be as mundane as house-cleaning/dishwashing/etc.
Live in the present, with your consciousness externalized momentarily but without any effort; when the mind stops linking itself to the past and to the future, it becomes no-mind. If from moment to moment your mind dwells on what is and drops it effortlessly at once [just before moving on to something else], the mind becomes no-mind, full of purity.
-- Yoga Vasistha
PS: Some of my previous comments which are relevant here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40978488 , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44987175 , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41538322 , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29777785 , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32918811
Go to where the people are.
Volunteer your time .. animal shelters, food kitchens, trash cleanups, habitat for humanity, or even just drop in to a nursing home .. there are tons of people that would also love to talk and share.
>There are a few parts to the difficulty. One is that when I have something to say about my day, there's nowhere to say it; no one on HN cares whether I fixed up the blinds or cooked pork steaks. I hang out in an IRC chatroom for that, but sometimes nobody's around for hours.
I wasn't necessarily gonna reply to this thread, but you struck a chord with me here. I spend a lot of time on IRC myself. I would say branch out to more channels and/or invite more people to your usual channel. I have some IRC friends I like more than others, but pretty much around the clock someone is around. The Finns, the Poles, the Brits, the Americans/Canadians, not to mention the NEETs and night owls with shifting schedules who could pop up at any time. Sometimes there are lulls and I'll write 20 lines in a row talking to myself, and maybe I'll have moments where it feels pointless or like I'm going crazy, but then one of the lads wakes up a few hours later and starts replying to stuff and everything is fun and exciting again. Find a way to stick out the lows, and make the highs more common.
As for no one caring, someone probably cares at least a little. Maybe they prefer to lurk, maybe they're busy, maybe they feel weird replying for some reason. There's probably someone who'd miss you if you stopped posting for a while. I know I find myself doing a .seen (bot command) on a handful of nicks throughout the day if they haven't posted in a while, or cycling through some saved quotes with the bot to get some conversations going again. I try not to spend all my free time chatting because I do have things I want to watch and play also, but IRC is hugely important in my life for sure, as someone who doesn't get out much, and frankly doesn't like to get out much either.
As for games, YMMV but after a long multi-year break from games, I found fun in them again by approaching them a bit differently. No more shooters (first/third person) since I think the genre is extremely oversaturated and tired, plus I played too many in the past, keep the game count per month low, aim to get all the achievements if possible, and if all is on track, switch games at the start of a new month. I basically deep-dive into every game that I decide to play and get to know it quite well. It's fun then to write a review at the end of the month as well. I stick mostly to games which are either singleplayer or still fun when played singleplayer. I do not want to play anything that relies on other people to be any good, there's too much room for failure. I try to avoid AAA or FotM stuff. I'll resist using the word but I don't play games like Peak or Lethal Company. I end up saying no to most games suggested to me, or delaying trying out a game for a few months because I'm in the middle of another game, or already have the next game or two picked out. I find this a lot more fulfilling than jumping between 10 games in a day, feeling bored and aimless, never finishing anything.
I don't know how you feel about anime, but you could pick out some seasonal anime and keep up with it as it airs. MAL and LiveChart have the season charts. Gives you reason to look forward to particular days of the week, and the shows all have clear ends, giving you lots of stopping points. Optionally you can read/participate in episode discussions afterward. Watching a really good episode of anime is one of the best feelings.
Humans are social creatures. We’re not meant to live alone. The advise suggesting we should be able to seems to me like cope. I think you’re barking up the wrong tree.
Dating sites and online are not going to make you feel better so don't expect anything from that. 38 is young for a guy, and I met plenty of women in my 40s (in real life) who would have made a a good couple with.
As someone who has been alone in some deeply dark places, I'll share what's worked for me - YMMV.
* You gotta force yourself out. There's no trick, you just gotta fuckin' do it. It's hard. It sucks. You've also gotta do it if only to make sure you're varying your day and creating the opportunity for chance encounters. I spent fifteen months bottled up alone and it was only through the good graces of friends that I didn't...yeah.
* Eat out more, specifically for the human interaction. Find a local restaurant with a good deal on food (like a happy hour), and head there once a week for a meal you didn't make, and to be surrounded by strangers. Even just a "Yes Sir/Ma'am" and similar pleasantries will help, weirdly enough, because it's direct human contact. If there's a trivia night, even better - Buffalo Wild Wings was my brief go-to for that sort of thing.
* You gotta learn to love yourself, somehow. If there's an aspect you don't like, set about fixing it. For me, it was weight and my soft skills, so I worked on both in the time I could with the energy I had. Being alone means if you don't like yourself, you're never going to be in good spirits.
* You're also not really alone, depending on perspective. Setup a bird feeder and just sit and watch it. Talk to the wildlife, silly as that sounds. Your pets help, but they're "at home", while the rest of the world is decidedly not "at home". You gotta get out of the home if you don't want to be alone.
* You mentioned playing games, and I'll add that's actually what kept me sane during those fifteen months of solo unemployment. I joined a multiplayer game server community, worked my way into administration, made friends, ran events. Gaming can be a form of community if it's intentional, i.e. not just joining random lobbies to kill time.
Look, as someone still single at 39 (but blessedly living with my best friends), being alone sucks ass. There's no way around that, even for someone who generally enjoys their solitude. Lacking the warmth and intimacy of another person is debilitating in a way nothing else is, at least to me, but friends do help in their own way. We cook for each other, share our days, treat one another when we're dour, and do what we can to lift others up. So maybe I'm suggesting you reach out to other friends you may have in similar boats, see if they'd like to spend more time together.
Beyond that, some life lessons I've learned since I had more folks come into my life, that I use when I'm feeling alone or lonely again:
* Go to a city at night, downtown ideally. I look around at the empty buildings, the changing lights, the abandoned sidewalks. I remind myself I'm one of eight and a half billion people, on a single planet in a vast galaxy, itself a small part of an immense universe. Weirdly enough, the smallness of being helps me feel less alone, knowing how lucky I am to be amidst all this, right now.
* After the above, I grab a burger and a milkshake, because I deserve it.
* Pop in some earbuds, go outside for a walk, and dance. Fuck the onlookers, just exist for a moment outside your home. Prove to everyone else you're still here.
* VRChat has been damn helpful. Pop on my headset, drop into an avatar that reflects me in the moment, and world hop. Nobody judges what you do in VR, provided you're not breaking instance rules, and there's so many people there to hang out with, all while staying home. It legit got me through COVID.
* Run a game night! Gathering around Jackbox from every corner of the globe for an hour or two of weekly shitposting also got us all through COVID. Just make sure to all be in voice chat or video conferencing to rib one another.
As tired and cliche as this is, the last point I'll say is that this is exactly what the prior phase of your life was: a chapter. Chapters have endings, and this one is no different. Prepare for the long haul, but hopefully you find someone - and something - better, sooner. You're not alone in being alone, but you'll remain alone only as long as you choose to be alone.
Get out there. Force social interactions. Build those muscles.
You got this.
There are many people that feel this way. I think one has to take the initiative, has to go somewhere, in real life, where other people are and the the conditions are right for getting to know people. Computer Games or IRC are just a weak substitute. Turn off the PC, go out. Give other people the chance to meet you. Go to (local) events, concerts, sports, anything where other people are. It doesn't really matter what, anything that doesn't bore you. Try things. Opportunities will come. Then take them.
Here are a couple of things I did where I got into contact with others naturally or where conversation with strangers developed easily. I think such activities or places can generate opportunities for a start of something that could be developed further.
Getting a gig as an extra in a film production. I registered with a free extras agency. They semi-regularly ask for availability, mostly for 1 full day, paying minimum wage. I've been on a couple of shoots, and there's always a longer wait time (hours) and a bunch of other extras to talk to. The people there are very diverse and very friendly: students, people of various ages, professions and education, locals, foreigners. They often strike up a conversation because there is really no other thing to do besides looking at your phone. It's very easy to start talking with people there; one can start commenting on the costumes, the set, the project, and the past extra experiences, then segue to what they do in real life. Often when shooting, we get paired up or grouped with people, which is another opportunity to chat casually, because there are also wait times between shots. I've met nice and interesting people there. Some are also there because they are lonely.
I think this has key elements that one might look for in other potential activities: - common location in the real world - people are open to talk - multiple people - natural topics to start a conversation, commonalities - no expectations, relaxed atmosphere, no pressure, informal
Other examples: Going alone to an outdoor basketball court in a public park, shooting hoops. I got asked to play in pick-up games. When having a break, a conversation can happen naturally.
Going to a park, playing soccer on a little pitch alone (taking some shots at the goal, dribbling). Some young kids also came onto the pitch, and I asked them if they wanted to make teams and play a match. At a break, a woman, who must have watched, came to me to ask me what my profession is. She said she thought I was in education because I was good with the kids. I think she might have flirted with me.
I know a person coming from another country, not really knowing anybody here. Now she has more friends and social contacts than anyone else I know. Besides her work acquaintances from her job training and job here, she actively looked for potential friendships on apps (Bumble BFF) and also was successful there. She also goes to dancing class and to meetings of a kind of Free Church, where they mostly talk about non-religious topics and help each other out. She often gets invited to birthday parties, weddings, etc., where she meets new people.
While going by train, in an almost empty cart, a guy I didn't know started a conversation with me. We talked for an hour. I think if I had asked him if he wanted to meet for another chat, he would have agreed.
Book recommendations:
Dale Carnegie: "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
Viktor Frankl: "Man's Search for Meaning"
Good Luck.
I started going to tech meetups in the nearest large city. The tech scene is utter crap there compared to SF or Boston but I get to interact with a few smart, like-minded people almost each week. My wife says it's been good for me.
Marrying the right person helped. I'm quite in the opposite situation from you: I married for the first time in my mid-40s. I know what it's like to be alone, and to an extent I grew comfortable with it. Now that there's someone in my life, I'm all in disarray. That's not a bad thing, as I've been forced to grow to become worthy of this: two humans, six nonhuman animals, love filling the house.
Go to the hard techno party. It will reshape your soul.
M.D.M.A and new friends
If you just want to talk about your day or receive psychological support or even answer questions like this one, LLMs are great: Opus 4.6 is currently considered the best, but also try Gemini and ChatGPT.
As for interacting with humans, if you are finding it hard, maybe you can try something that is easy because it has a structure, such as some sort of workshop where you either share in a circle or are paired with a random partner and share (ask LLMs for help in finding them).
Or even pay someone to talk to them, such as a psychotherapist or a counselor.
It's probably less damaging to recommend abusing Xanax than recommending using a LLM.
So many takes and advices that could be taken on this topic, I'll keep my $0.02 short: Get a pet.
Perhaps this can also save you a little bit on psychotherapist costs: Learn to like yourself, and your own company.
Humans are social animals though, but don't try to be social for the sake of it, do things you like that involve people, and be nice to them. OTOH, I've met a couple of Uber drivers that are in it just for the social interaction of it (like retirees mostly). Others here will probably have better tips on this topic though, hope that helps.