So dating people has always come easy to me. I've had several serious relationships, and am now engaged to my bf of five years. The relationship has undergone some major stressors including, me being assaulted, him recovering from an addiction, and both of working though some major family trauma. These things have never been the easiest things to work though, but with lots of communication and honesty, we learned how to support each other. I feel at home in this relationship, and am completely comfortable with the level of honesty and communication that are required to make a romantic relationship work.

But I am just terrible at friendship. I often feel like people don't like me, and I really don't know howto get a friendship going. I'm terrible at small talk, and want deep connection right away. I don't really know how to invite someone in who I'm not pursuing. I often feel that the things that are on my mind are too controversial or deep for people to want to talk about in social situations, so I just say nothing or wind up making awkward off color jokes. I don't really know how to show anyone who I'm just meeting who I really am, because I fear that they won't like it, or will disagree with it.

And when it comes to being friends I'm not really sure what it is suppose to look like. I've had a few friends here and there, but a lot of them have been major flakes, or I end up being the person who initiates things all the time. And when that happens I start to assume this means the other person doesn't like me. But I never talk to them about this because I'm afraid of conflicts in friendships (but not in romantic relationships).

Does any one else struggle with this. Is there some way to transfer my romantic relationship skill to the "friend zone?"