Yes, I am lonely. Not particularly alone since I have family and friends, but I still feel extremely isolated.

I am almost convinced I am going to spend most of my life alone as well. I think the reason is that I have severe self-esteem and social anxiety issues, and so I push people away for many reasons. I have standards that I won't lower but they are too high for my worth. I am also very shy and don't reciprocate much so anyone wanting to get through to me has to be very persistent. So because of all of this I feel perpetually invisible and ignored. Yet I still crave a deep bond that I can share with someone which I do think would alleviate the sense of loneliness.

I have a pervasive feeling of not being good enough, nor entertaining, attractive or interesting enough for anyone to really care about me much. I can sometimes connect to people on a deeper emotional level (temporarily hiding the anxiety), but rarely do you find people who are willing to talk so serious all the time, and they will often move on to people they find more extroverted, fun and more attractive than me.

I am in therapy trying to fix these deep rooted issues.