So here's the deal; 18 months ago my partner and I moved cities, far enough away to not be able to visit old friends and family frequently, but we still holiday back there around 4 times a year to see everybody.

Since the move, we've only made one real friend. We were hoping through her we might meet more people and become part of a social group, but it's not really worked. Her friends are very "clique-y" and even 18 months later if we bump into them there's never anything more than a mere "hello". I even invited said friends around ours at first frequently, we went on nights out together and shared interests, but after months of this we were still seen as outsiders and felt pretty rejected.

I attend a charity-run project twice a week, for people with mental illness, and whilst it helps a lot with the loneliness of not having friends near, everyone is pretty busy with their own lives so making friends with them outside of the project would be difficult.

Me and my partner are just in a really awkward situation. We want to make friends, but having been "knocked back" so bad at first our confidence is shaken, and then there's the issue of me having mental illness and it really being an elephant in the room with any new people we meet.

So does anyone have any tips or advice? Whether it's for meeting new people being in the situation we are, or tackling the loneliness? It gets pretty crippling sometimes as I'm a naturally sociable and friendly person, and I just don't want it to spoil our lives here