Making / maintaining friendships

[purplefan]

I think making friends is a bit like finding romance. if you go looking for it, then it wont work.
I do have a number of people that i would call acquaintances but only 1 real good friend whom i have had since school days.
Last years, socially has been good and through the church i have mate a lot of nice people whom i now consider to be friends. Funny thing is i don't feel connected to them the way i with the people on here.
I really look forward to going on DWD and find out what you guys have been up to. I think online friends are as important as Real world friends.

[stephenb]

I feel the friendship issue has had an affect on my general mental state, it is one of the reasons why I am here right now.
I have few very good friends and when I see others who go on holiday as groups and always interacting socially, i often feel very sad.
My wife is probably my best friend and she does not really like mixing too much with other people. She is very happy with just my company and especially her own company & it has led me to feel quite lonely.
I used to have some good friends when younger, but the natural drifting apart occurs.
I am available to be somebody's friend if anyone would have me (tears of sadness dribbling as we speak)

[Anna]

I've always found it very difficult to make friends as I'm fairly introverted. Despite that I don't particularly enjoy my own company and not have many friends definitely affects my mental state. I have one close friend I've known since I was 19, but she lives in Surrey and I'm up north in Cheshire, so we don't see each other that often. We speak or text most days though, so I know I'm really lucky to have that.

I really regret having let friends I've made in the past slip away, wish I'd taken the time to hang on to them and appreciated them more, but as others have said life gets in the way. I work from home so don't have any face-to-face interaction with work colleagues and I don't have the confidence to join any real-life groups or anything like that. I do think it's really difficult to form new friendships as an adult, particularly if you have any mental health issues and worry too much about what people think (!) Anyway I shall stop moaning It's great and comforting to be able to interact with and read about people who feel a similar way on here anyway.