Suffice it to say that I was never the popular kid in High School. Hell, I wasn’t even one of the unpopular kids. I was just invisible. I mean I had one or two friends, but I never hung out with them outside of school because they lived on farms so they were always busy and I lived in town. Even in college I was very withdrawn, never drawing attention to myself or participating in anything outside of mandatory coursework. Now I am almost 28, I’m almost 28, I suffered from CEN during my childhood which inhibited me from making any friends or learning how to socialize and make them. I left the toxic relationship I had with my mom and jumped right into another one with my current boyfriend (of 8 years). Literally all I ever do is work, eat, smoke weed, watch tv, and sleep. I’m trying to make positive changes in my life but have no idea how. I don’t know how to make friends. Yeah I can socialize and make small talk and put on the charm and blah blah blah, but I never seem to find myself interested in all the “pseudo-friendships”. You know, the kind where you put on a smile and make like the world isn’t really as bad as it is and you slowly die inside from the rot of deceitfulness each person hides. I tend to make deep character judgments about people upon interacting with them, and a lot of the time, who am I kidding, most of the time, I see things that make me not want to place my trust in loyalty in their hands. However, that being said, I’ve recognized it within myself and am actively trying to change it and be more open and accepting. Now, down to the brass tacks, I don’t know how to make friends. I don’t know where people go to make friends to be honest. All I really know how to do is to reach out online; hence this thread. So how do you make friends? How can I find someone with the same interests and values? Like I said before, I’m in a severe rut and never go do anything. So I don’t even know how to go do the things that interest me, well because I have virtually no experiences to pull from to allow me to go do them on my own and not be so codependent on my boyfriend.