I struggle with making new friends
Hi, I really hate that because of this. I’d love to make new friends, but I always overthink everything - “how should I say hi?”, “will they think I’m weird?” etc. It stops me from texting or talking to people. To actually feel confident enough to start a conversation I feel like I need some reason or topic first. And you could ask “then why don’t you just do that?” The problem is that because I mostly stay around the same small friend group I never really meet anyone new and we don’t really do anything that would give me a reason to talk to new people. I also asked my friends many times if they could introduce me to their other friends but I always felt kinda desperate doing that and most of the time they just ignored it or didn’t really want to. It honestly annoys me that I’m so bad at starting friendships, but my overthinking and lack of confidence just angers me. And to be clear, I’m kind of a pussy when it comes to this stuff. I can’t just walk up to someone and start talking to them out of nowhere - I’m way more comfortable chatting first.
I also think one of my problems is that I hate that awkward beginning stage in new friendships. I kinda skip it and try to talk to people like we’ve known each other for a long time already so someone new might think “this guy is kinda weird.” But later once people actually get to know me they usually tell me I’m genuinely fun to talk to and a really nice person. I honestly don't know what to do with that.