I mean… yeah?
Feel sad for you
I’m not going to make another person suffer through a relationship with me. I’m horrrible and very difficult to be with!
See there’s the mistake. You’re capable of enough self analysis to understand you’re flawed. Like 60% of people just aren’t capable of that and are actual shit.
My partner of 16 years basically told a mutual friend that she liked me and then the friend did all the logistical stuff.
Brittany has a crush on you
I harass cashiers until they fall in love with me.
This was how I got my ex boyfriend and my currently… more than friends less than lovers chick.
Somethings in life are without label. You do you!
I’m a parent.
Kids activities are awash with lonely single parents.
Oh nice so all I need is to find a kid
These days pets seem to be analogous to kids. Check out puppy pre school or something.
What if I want kittens tho
Hey, I was raised on the premise that women want to be left alone and be independent which taught me that there is no environment or time where an approach would be appreciated. In return I assumed that in time and when ready, they would be the ones to initiate. Guess they really haven’t held up their end of the bargain. Or maybe I’m just a dumb fool for assuming that.
I may be getting downvoted for this but women do want to be approached, you just have to have 400 IQ and make it work.
As an autistic person I already fail because I cannot read their expressions, but some women will do things like touch your forearms or smile a lot at you. These signals like any other needs careful thinking because some women just like to play and flirt.
Women in 2026 do not want to feel like they’re being preyed on, having a welcoming but safe body language is an extremely difficult game.
I think our societal norms for dating will shift as no one likes the dating apps, who knows what’s next.
You don’t have any women in your friend group? Most relationships are with people who start out as friends-of-friends that grow closer during social interactions over time.
You don’t have any women in your friend group?
I do, but they’re all in long term relationships.
Are they not introducing you to their other friends or available family members? If they know you are looking for someone, and that you’re having a hard time meeting new people, they could at least keep an eye out for you.
No, because that’s weird
How so?
What makes you think I have friends if I don’t leave home.
Spiders and stray cats count
Friends are much like vampires. They cannot cross the boundaries of your dwelling unless invited in.
That’s fair, making friends be hard.
Wow…profunnndo…
🤔
Nope, not once in my life. But granted, I studied for a male dominated degree, I work in a male dominated area and I can’t afford “attractive” hobbies. Being a first gen immigrant in a very conservative public school system doesn’t exactly leave you with a blooming social circle either.
I’m also severely depressed, poor, not exactly charismatic and not easy on the eyes.
I know, I am a real catch :) /s
I’m funny tho, at least so I’ve been told irl. I was also told that being funny would be enough. But turns out it’s more of a deal-closer not the entire deal. If all you have is “funny”, you might as well put on the makeup and go be a clown.
I have a steady job as the Universes bad example.
You study chemistry at that school, right?
Some chemicals are very reactive. Others need the right conditions. You’re waiting for some free radical to come along, kick off a reaction, and somehow leave you with a stable bond.
Sure, that can happen randomly, but you improve your odds by getting compatible ingredients in the same place and supplying a little activation energy. You don’t have to force the chemistry—you just have to give it the conditions to happen.
If you keep everything sealed in separate bottles, your whole experiment depends on somebody accidentally knocking over the shelf.
I did have two women make an attempt. But my autistic ass was too oblivious to understand until someone explained it to me later on. One of them even undressed down to her underwear in front of me, despite me only knowing her for like 2 days. Apparently that could be a sign, together with the fact that she was weirdly obsessed with me. Unfortunately my cousin got incredibly jealous of her, so she ended the friendship with her. Never met her again after that (we live 200 km apart and didn’t have each other’s number).
I’m not sure if I’m happy dor you that this happened to you or sad.
I wouldn’t exactly call myself Sherlock Holmes when it comes to social engagement, but I feel like emotional intelligence is one of my strengths. I can definetly, with 100% certainty say no women has ever even had a single neuron fire in my direction. Hell I’d argue that all my conversation that I had with women one-on-one outside of work and family would fit on roughly 10 pages at 11pt. I can and have easily entertained a whole crowd of people but in the end that’s all I’ve ever been, a talking head.
I hope you read this full comment. I spent some time on it and I am happy to help if you want to DM.
I’d recommend therapy, look into sliding scale or other public mental health services. They might be non-existent, but there is also Telehealth services which might help with cost. If you have a job that offers benefits, even if they are poor, might have EAP benefits which you can usually use for a small handful of sessions for zero cost. Focus on finding a provider that takes EAP in your local area, and focus on finding low cost mental health services so you can continue care.
Start dressing better, go to a store with an employee (even if it’s a thrift store) and ask for their recommendations and opinions. Make sure they are well fitting, and if you can afford it, get some alterations or learn to sew.
Go to a stylist, not a barber or chain, before you go, ask them if they do consultations. Tell them you want a haircut that suits your face and you. I personally prefer to have women do this part. Once the haircut is done, take photos and videos of every angle. Have them show you how to style it yourself, then do it yourself, and have them correct it. Purchase the products they recommend, if cost is a concern, voice that and see if they can recommend different ones that fit your budget.
Take care of yourself, clean your ass, shower regularly, use shampoo and conditioner, groom yourself.
Take some time to pick out a good cologne/parfum. Don’t go overboard with it, but a good scent goes a long way! Spend some time, find a good salesperson who will actually HELP you instead of just handing samples out. Get a good parfum around $100 and a decent one at a lower price. It’s expensive, but it’s worth the investment.
Start finding clubs, meetups, small business groups, etc. something to become social, don’t worry about attracting your preferred partner. Even if the entire meetup is 100% your preferred partner, everyone is a friend. Make friends, push yourself, if you “click” with someone, say “hey, I really enjoyed talking with you, here is my phone number. Let’s talk more” you can also say “get coffee” or whatever.
If you like gaming, then add them on that, try and play with them.
People won’t reciprocate as much, so you’ll have to be the “active” friend who reaches out and sets up stuff.
Lots will fade, be rejected, or be ghosted. That’s okay, you are refining your social skills. It’s a muscle, you have to practice, exercise, etc.
Work on your apartment/bouse/whatever. Get toiletries for both genders, regardless of your preferences. Tampons, pads, conditioner, shampoo, some nicer towels.
Clean your bathroom, keep it tidy and smelling nice. Clean your whole apartment. Trash cans in every room.
Connect with old friends, be social, push yourself.
Lastly, actually dating. Online dating is hit or miss, but have multiple single photos, 1-2 max with friends. Humor works, I met my partner by putting together a slide deck for my online dating profile. Stuff like “pictures of animals that I do not own” and pictures of me with random animals. Make light fun of yourself, I had a bulleted list of “reasons why you should date me” and a few bullets were “not bad at sex”, “gives unlimited foot massages”, “has many hoodies for you to steal” and the last was “please”. The slide deck increased my matches by a few orders of magnitudes, because I showed that I am chill, I like animals, and I have a sense of humor. Look at online forums for things like tinder, not really for advice, but to see the things that they make fun of. For men it’s pictures of them with fish or dead animals. Don’t do things like that.
If/when you get a date, show up a bit early, don’t drink or consume drugs, be well groomed, break out your fancy parfum. At this point you’ve practiced your social skills, so just treat this person as if they are a human. Not an object. Don’t push or have expectations.
A small gift like flowers or a trinket is okay. You can skip it for a first date.
Make sure to give them an opportunity to talk, they should give you an opportunity as well. Temper your interests, it’s okay to talk about your interests, but don’t go on a 40 minute rant. It’s also okay to catch yourself and go “oh I’m sorry, I just feel passionately about X” and let them have an opportunity to let you continue or not.
It’s okay if it doesn’t work out, I’ve been on many dates that went no where. Show you care and are engaged, even if they aren’t someone you see a future with they can be a friend.
Be conscious of their safety and health. Give them your jacket if it’s cold, hold the door, etc. make sure they make it home safe, if you have their number, send them a text asking if they got home safe and if appropriate, the next day express that you enjoyed the date.
I appreciate the breakdown but first, I’m not in the US. Where I’m from we don’t do therapy, we burn out, we have a mental breakdown, we cash in our sick days and after 2 weeks we’re back to work. If your mental problems aren’t directly work related, nobody gives a shit. Just as an example, the waiting period to get an appointment for every single therapist in my city is about 2+ years.
The short time I’ve been to the US I have to say, dating in the US seems to be easy mode. Trust me, whatever social rules you think apply in the US don’t fly in most European countries. Theres no way to “enter” social circles, you’re either in or you’re out. Being an immigrant, I know this to well.
And I don’t need a step-by-step tutorial on how to put myself together. I’m not a 16 year old. I’m in my 30s, and I spend a good chunk of my life trying to play by the book, with zero success. Just to make myself clear, not “little” success, zero success. I’ve never even gotten a phone number. That feels like an anomaly, a statistical impossibility even. But it is what it is.
Besides, life has gotten so expensive that I couldn’t even afford any single thing you’ve listed. I’m at a point where 50 bucks are life changing. The economy is completely stacked against single people, always has been. Of course with a decent job that would be different but I’m overworked and barely make above minimum wage. I basically live paycheck to paycheck while my friends are buying houses. We all went to the same school and graduated together, so there’s really no excuse for me being an absolute loser.
It’s not like I act like a crazy person in public. As much as I dislike self-censoring, I dial down the inappropriate humor and keep the topics lighthearted with new people. I just have accepted that there’s something about me that women absolutely despise, something invisible to me and frankly to other guys. I have zero issues hanging out with dudes, even randoms. I’m a silver tongued smooth talker with the boys, but the second I turn any of that confidence to a girl… Let’s say I have seen enough smiles fade and eyes roll.
And you’re under the assumption that I want a partner in the first olace, that’s not true. What I genuenly want with every fibre of my being is to just die and get this over with. So much so, that I’ve been deliberately ignoring 2 weeks of hard stomach pain because I’m hoping it’s colon cancer - gotta let it simmer and spread a little before giving the doctors a heart attack.
I’d be an absolute catastrophic burden on any serious partner. My brutal mental disorders have destroyed friendships with a strong lifelong foundation. How the hell am I supposed to develop a romantic relationship from a fleeting interaction? There is simply no winning in this situation. If feel like somebody checkmated me and people are sitting around the board thinking of pieces to move to somehow turn the game around. There are no moves left only lessons to learn.
Same situation as OP, and i don’t really wanna date my close friend anyway. But on the plus side friendzone is very comfortable, i’m not lonely despite living alone and only meet them occasionally, and i have cats as companion.
It’s not so much about dating close friends, but about friends of friends—people you don’t necessarily know, but who are not strangers, on account of your shared mutual friend. A friendly introduction by your mutual puts you a billion steps ahead of the rando at the coffee shop awkwardly trying to start up a conversation with you.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s becoming more rare these days. I met my wife online, worked out since our social circles never crossed
I’m sure you’re right, but at least when it comes to dating apps, those tend to reward people with conventional appeal. People whose best qualities only become apparent when you get to know them can find online dating options to be kind of a dead end.
I’m fat and average height lol, I guess my face isn’t terrible though.
It did take a very long time and was absolutely soul crushing for a while. Took 1 or 2 years, I got lucky. Only ever met 1 person online and we got married.
there is no environment or time where an approach would be appreciated
Doesn’t really follow from
women want to be left alone and be independent
There’s a lot of spaces between “don’t hit on the waitress” and “chat with friends of friends at a birthday party”
Of course, you do have to enter the world to be perceived by the world.
I think root comment is simply saying that they didn’t want to “bother” women.
But reality is that when initiating any kind of social contact, you have to risk being a “bother”. Over time you learn to judge the risk better, but there’s always a risk. If you want to form relationships you just have to take the chance and go ahead anyways. Even if you’re afraid of being a creep, or being annoying, or bothering them. You have to use your best judgement and initiate when you feel it’s ok.
I’m not 18 anymore. All, and I mean all friends and friends of friends are either married, longterm or with children. Do you know what it’s like to be the only one with any realationships past your 30s? Not just “single”, “no relationships”. People look at you differently, people talk to you differently, people treat you differently. Especially your inner circle of friends where something like that is common knowledge. At least with strangers you can play on the novelty of the conversation and pretend your life isn’t in shambles before they start to catch on.
Besides depression already did it’s thing and I haven’t had contact with any of my friends for over a year. So I guess its safe to say, no more birthday invites for me…
Talk about it, communication is everything
So you were taught wrong, and/or made incorrect assumptions, and that’s the woman’s fault she didn’t live up to the bargain you invented? Do you really think that women who don’t “initiate” are breaking some kind of pact? Do you think being decent and non-creepy entitles you to attention from women? Are you respectful because they deserve respect or because it’s your “end of the bargain”?
You know that common culture dictates that the man be the aggressive one? If you think that’s not fair, I agree, but flipping the script can’t be fair either.
You may want to consider that your difficulty with women is not because you’re overly respectful.
Nope I don’t think any of those things. I’m just sad that there was nobody in my life to teach be that you shouldn’t base your happiness on the expectations you put on others.
I wish I would have realised that before reaching an age where it would be embarrassing to try to become a functioning person.
About learning to be a better person: you can either start now, or think about it for a couple of more years. I think, better start now!
Or, I can do nothing, stay “barely passing”, continue to mask the rest and deal with the mental consequences of that on my own time. The silver lining is that fortunately life and it’s bullshit are finite.
I get that change is hard, but masking and dealing with the mental consequences isn’t easy, either. It’s just what you’ve grown comfortable with.
Grown comfortable? Please… I have my 10.000 hours in, I am a master. Any effort for improvement has to compete with the effortless act of doing something by instinct.
There’s no point in becoming a better person for me. For whom even? I could be the nicest, smartest, most capable, most empathetic, most charismatic version of myself I’d still be blindly stepping around in a dark forest alone.
All my life I’ve missed every off-ramp, every warning sign, every speed bump, I flew through the dirt after the road has ended and now I am stuck in a ditch.
I’m somebody who need to be thrown into the water to learn how to swim instead I’ve been told not to step in it because there might be sharks.
But enough with the metaphors for now.
You could be satisfied with who you are, which has nothing to do with material conditions.
Actually, some girls have approached me after years of having this strategy! Two of them managed to get through my autistic filtering. However, venting time, both cases have followed this pattern: I’m not interested at first and try to keep distance. After some time I get warmed up enough to get interested back and then the other party loses interest. I can still keep in touch as their second therapist and comfort their suicidal thoughts. There was also a platonic internet friendship with one girl when I was a lonely teenager, but she cut contacts and is dead nowadays.
I’ve never made a first move and still don’t feel like start dating. Although, I’m kinda close with one woman, but if I try to touch her, she falls asleep. Also, if she doesn’t have enough clothes, she feels too cold and falls asleep. And we’re both kinda depressed bottoms so usually nothing happens anyway. Is this what a relationship should feel like? At least she doesn’t scream and scratch bloody wounds to her arms. Not sure if I should feel lucky having these experiences. Oops, this was a meme channel.
Edit: for the record, in case my vent tone suggests otherwise, I respect my friends and support them best I can. I just can’t help but feel that I might’ve always lacked a basic nourishing intimacy myself.
All of my best relationships started that way. I was just going about my life, and some girl decides to chase me down
In the words of my ex, “I saw you and decided I had to get to know you”
Hasn’t happened in a while, but I should probably get out more
You lucky sob. The only people chasing me down are handing out flyers about finding Jesus outside the door of the local supermarket.
I was a dumb idiot in college and I started talking to this girl over Facebook, we fell in love immediately but she lived 5 states away at the time and I was super hesitant to do long distance. 3 weeks into meeting each other, she kept begging me to be her boyfriend, and after about another week I caved.
After a month or so, she moved to my state, completely overhauled her life, started at the same college as me…
Now we’ve been together for 13 years and I can’t imagine my life without her. We’re excited to get old together.
It happens fellas, just don’t be an idiot like me.
Super happy for you that your partner took that chance for both of you. I was lucky enough to have my wife make it obvious I had a shot, and I took it, and we are also enjoying growing old together.
How did she make it obvious
Remarked about my kids with the phrase “good genes.” Some of them came from me!
The dream
That’s how I do it too!
Nothing so far, but I guess it’s just a matter of time.
Honestly kinda how i met my girlfriend/future wife.
If they’ve committed to being a future wife, they’re a fiancée.
deleted by creator
I’ve accepted my life as a hermit in the forest and have found peace with that.
Better hope they don’t turn that forest of yours into a local data center within our lifetimes
You could do worse
I found what works best for me is to flirt with people online, not on a dating app, but here for example. Then if they respond, become friends with them, learn about each other. If there is good chemistry, ask them out. If they accept, you now have a new person in your relationship, if they don’t, it’s still good because you have a friend :3
worked for me
RIP
Objectively, the funniest response.
Lol
That’s so much me that I’ve been questioning some things.
Oh wow, this is my first time seeing this meme in high def. Well done.
