If I were to believe that meeting new people would benefit me in some way, rather than being something I ought to want to do, I might actually wish to do it. I feel odd and wrong and different because I dread meeting anyone new and can't see why anyone would find it appealing.
So the constant encouragements from every quarter to 'Go out! Meet new people! Make new friends!' fall on deaf ears with me, I'm afraid.
And if I felt I myself were in any way interesting or appealing, that would help. You might respond with "...Pete, I've been reading your posts for four years now and you sound quite interesting to me...". Well, posts from a distance, on a forum, are one thing, and face-to-face is quite another. I can assure that meeting me socially is no bed of roses. I'm the most tongue-tied, virtually silent and boring man you could ever hope (or not hope) to encounter, and I have no interest in social conversation. I just can't do it and don't see the point of exchanging trivia about each other's lives with some colleague or acquaintance.
And, as I said below, people just scare me.
Sometimes I look in the mirror and wonder how I have the nerve to appear in public with such an ugly face. So if I felt I weren't so visually repugnant and conspicuous that would go a long way too.
Ah, what a tangled thing is this social anxiety/phobia/call it what you will. No wonder I drift in and out of varying degrees of depression, carrying this weight around all the time.
