(((penguinsing)))

I think you have done something very smart. You have figured out that loneliness is a major factor in you being depressed.

I think that gets overlooked way too much, even by therapists and psychiatrists and regular docs and everyone. Like "dailyhealing" said, "humans have a need for social interaction."

I am lonely, too, due to a problem since childhood. Unfortunately, I don't think you or I will be able to have too much contentment in this life, until we figure out how to break out of our shells. Maybe, you can figure out a way to live peacefully with solitude - but I don't think anyone can be lonely and not be in pain.

That's good that you do the volunteer work every Thursday. That is more than I am doing. Keep doing it, or something like that. You will learn something about people doing that.

That is what I think the problem is. We just never learned how to be social. Learning something that you don't know how to do is difficult and risky. There is the big problem. There is the risk of saying the wrong thing, or being awkward, and getting rejected, or feeling like you are not really wanted. That's how it is for me.

I think I have to accept that there will be rejections and that I will not die from being rejected. You won't either. I think we can't really connect with others, until we are willing to face the possibility of pain and rejection. Like - in learning to walk, the child must fall down a lot of times. That is how learning is done.

It is hard to believe that it is all worth the trouble. That is my problem. I don't want to stay as I am, so I must make the effort, or nothing will change.

Like I said at the start - I think you made the right connection: You are depressed because you are lonely. That's my story too.