Hi, Daryl!

Loneliness and making friends are the subject of countless books and articles, none of which I have really read. My impression of the advice given boils down to “focus outward toward others.” But, as you, Wants2Fly and many others here know, depression undermines the energy and short circuits the personal skills necessary to do that.
I suspect where you go no one has read your PsychCentral posts.

I want to ask, “Really, no one at all likes you?” and “Why do you think no one (or very few) likes you?” But, I'm not asking those questions because I know all too well we depressives are poor judges of ourselves. Depression skews or totally mangles our self-perception.

If I had the nerve (I don't), I'd call someone who I know doesn't like me and ask them straight, “Why don't you like me?” They'd probably deny it out of courtesy or give me some sort of short answer, which might be valuable but would itself need to be interpreted, and – again – I'd be a poor one to interpret it.

All this is an overly long way of saying, “Sorry, Daryl, I don't know how to help you with your offline loneliness.” I wish I did. On the other hand, I can truly say I enjoy rubbing electronic shoulders with you here.