Feeling bad about being left behind
Hey everyone, a 22M from India here. I have been troubled a lot by my lack of romantic experience. It feels like I have been left behind in life by all my peers. The rest of my life is in order - decent job, decent physique and no money issues. I have been told that I am a fun person to talk to, and I believe that I can handle emotions well (mostly). I am a pretty empathetic listener and have helped multiple friends theough their relationship issues to their betterment. I wanted to list a few points stating why I feel the way I do.
Lack of success in OLD: I have used Hinge mostly, since that is the only place I have found any success at all, have gotten around 40-50 matches over a time period of 1.5 years being active over there. None of these matches ever resulted in something more than an instagram follower. Recently, I reinstalled Hinge, and even though I have had multiple people tell me that my profile is better, I have received 0 matches in 2 weeks.
Other friends’ success stories: My friends, both less attractive and more attractive than me, have received much more romantic success than I have. Whenever they mention some girl they went out with, or a girl they’ve started dating, I feel miserable knowing that I’ve never had something like this. I arguably have better hinge profiles, with funnier prompts and better pictures, but no success.
My looks: I have never been looked at the way other guys have been. Girls taking random glances at then, taking the initiative to approach them outright - this has never happened to me, and I feel miserable whenever I notice it or someone tells me about it.
All this has ended up with me feeling really insecure about myself. I feel left behind, unchosen and unloved.
I have had 2 women approach me before, but that was all the way back in high school when I wasn’t really looking for anything. I feel like I sabotage all possibilities of a relationship with someone because of the deep insecurities this has created - I become desperate and rely on this person as a proof of something rather than someone who can love me.
I would appreciate your help with guiding me around this.