Dear General, help me get over Avoidant personality disorder (52)

1 Name: Anonymous : 2006-05-02 07:00 ID:Heaven

Dear general@4-ch, during my childhood years, I was homeschooled. While this left my very mentally smart, socially, I'm practically an idiot.

There was only one year of my school life that I wasn't homeschooled (during middle school) and thus had sort of "friends," but I never really felt I could relate to them either and didn't really hang with a certain group or talk to anyone much.

I didn't know what a "dick" was until high school, I somehow managed to avoid Sex-ED until my middle school health class, which I pretty much put out of my mind as soon as I learned, only really learning about it after I got my first computer in high school. In fact, in middle school another kid once asked me if I was a virgin. I replied no, thinking it was some form of Christianity. Afterwards, a few other kids made a big deal out of it for a while, but what I had implied never really dawned on me until a while later.

Now here I am, 20. I spent most of my time at home (in my parent's house, of course) on computer, hardly ever going out save when I have class or a computer-related job to do.

I would love to make friends, but like any other guy my age, I'm mostly interested in women. In my opinion high school to college in the best time to meet women. They're developed, fresh, and easier to connect to as compared to when they're older. And I feel that if I don't find a female companion soon, then I probably never will.

Also, a couple of people on that I've known for a while online have shown interest in meeting me, but I always end up rejecting them because of... well, I guess I'm afraid that if I did meet them they would form some kind of negative opinion about me, or it would be a waste since I wouldn't know what to say to them and end up saying nothing, which would also make them think I'm weird. (Which I am.)

And I suck at conversation. Any conversation started with me usually ends up dying soon as I usually give the bare minimum answer.(Imagine Rei from Evangelion.) For example, if someone asks me "Nice day today, isn't it?" I would reply "Yeah..." and then try and figure out what else to add to it. If I do think of something else to add, it'll probably be minutes later causing, so I just don't say it because if I did, it would seem, well... weird.

So /general/, any advice?

2 Name: Anonymous : 2006-05-02 07:44 ID:c5XkJWTD

Probably the best thing to do is just go out and try to make friends somewhere. Somewhere you're likely to run into someone with similar interests. Experience is the best way to fix your lack of social skills. Go out, see how people interact with eachother, and try to emulate it, I guess. It's hard to just decide to go out and be sociable, but you're going to have to do it sooner or later -- might as well bite the bullet and make it sooner. Worst thing that could happen is a few people you'll probably never see again will think you're weird.

This thread has been closed. You cannot post in this thread any longer.