Help How do you explain loneliness to people?

[notwhereIbelong]

I'm lucky enough to not be completely alone, I have two irl friends. But the feeling of loneliness persists; it's that feeling of being alone even in a group, like you're not really there or no one can hear you.

Now, I fucked up. Because of this feeling I did a thing that made my friends feel unappreciated, and now they're majorly pissed at me. I've already tried to apologize and explain my perspective, but I don't know how to properly get my point across.

I don't know how to really explain this feeling to someone who doesn't experience it. It's a feeling that is so intrinsic and ingrained in my brain that I don't know how to get it out.

I don't want to lose my friends, but I have no idea of how to avoid that. I feel stuck.

 

[cali22♡]

Talk to your friends and explain your current situation to them. . . Tell them how you feel etc and also admit what you have done wrong

If they were real friends they will understand

If not then unfortunately not

 

[wayn]

I feel the same way when I'm not talking with like let's say my girlfriend, or other people with higher intellectual level than the average, to be honest I feel very alone around people and I'm usally just dissociate. So yeah if that's your case aswell then find more different friends, but to be real there could be a lot of other reasons.

 

[Felodese]

I've tried to describe it to people as my depression being like a glass wall that surrounds me and seperates me from them; I can see them and hear them, but I can't feel them. I know they are there, but I'm still cut off from them, can't reach them and they can't reach me, so I am alone - behind the wall. And that feeling is not because of them or me, it's the depression.

 

[Lookingtoflyfree]

I explain that autism has made me an alien on planet earth, and loneliness feels like I'm an alien with an astronaut suit on with the helmet stuck - I can't take it off. So I have this thing I wear (thinking I will blend in with others) but I can't take it off, and am forever trapped seeing the world but unable to interact with people, and the loneliness from autism and ADHD means I quite literally get non-verbal. Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria means I'm terrified of saying the wrong thing or acting the wrong way. I'm on a stage fucking up my lines and the actors laugh at me.

If I had a stable set of consistent friends and a partner all in the same city, I would likely not want to die as much. But this past year has been so incredibly lonely and I just don't see a way to be able to 'people' successfully at my age. I feel anxious and after every interaction regret how I sounded. My only consistent friends are autism and ADHD and I hate them.

 

[Mirrory Me]

I didn't know, but apparently it's normal to have about 0-5 real friends during your lifetime.. That makes me thankful for that I even happened to have friends.

 

[guineapiglover8503]

I'm lucky enough to not be completely alone, I have two irl friends. But the feeling of loneliness persists; it's that feeling of being alone even in a group, like you're not really there or no one can hear you.

Now, I fucked up. Because of this feeling I did a thing that made my friends feel unappreciated, and now they're majorly pissed at me. I've already tried to apologize and explain my perspective, but I don't know how to properly get my point across.

I don't know how to really explain this feeling to someone who doesn't experience it. It's a feeling that is so intrinsic and ingrained in my brain that I don't know how to get it out.

I don't want to lose my friends, but I have no idea of how to avoid that. I feel stuck.

For me it is just feeling invisible. I can go anywhere and it seems like people pretend I don't exist. WHenever I try to make a conversation, it seems like the other person just wants to walk away. my parents wonder wjhy I don't hang out w people over the weekend and its because i have nobody to hang out with. I am always the odd one out. Whenever in school people get to choose their groups, I would be the one left out and if there are partners, and it is is an even amount of people, they would make a group of 3 to not talk to me

 

[killorbekilled]

It's like being trapped in an invisible glass box. You see everyone but you don't think they see you. You feel like an afterthought or a spectator rather than part of the act. For me, even though I have a lot of friends, I still feel lonely. I think it's also because you are the only person who can truly understand yourself, even if you want others to. Sometimes even you can't understand yourself.

 

[dreamfyre]

I think true lonliness is rooted in not being understood and seen.

I'm not super social at all but i have quite a few really good irl friends, but MY GOD I still feel so alone here at uni because none of them really know me truly

 

[Jeebo5021]

It's feeling misunderstood. Being surrounded by people, but everyone being on a different wavelength to you. Feeling like an alien in this world.

 

[SecretDissociation]

I describe as a chronic loneliness. It's a lack of emotional permanence. I may feel good or less alone or even forget about the feeling of loneliness sometime in the moment, but after that the feeling of loneliness comes back and the feeling of the event/being with friends just fades away sort of like how taste fades away.

It's like it never happened for me.

Even if I am an inch away from my friends, I always feel lime I am a mile away surrounded by darkness.