I recently started going out again to try to meet people. I had been in a relationship for 10 years and didn't date for the two years after that, so I haven't been in the singles scene for 12 years. I have good friends but am very lonely in a romantic sense, and really feel the need to start dating.
However, I find it extremely difficult to meet people in, say, a bar or a club. It seems as if everyone just talks with their friends and never separate from their little group. I don't know if this is a New England or anglo thing; the only place where I have been able to meet anybody when going out on my own in the past six months has been in Mexico.
Here when I go out on my own, I have a drink or two all alone in the crowd, and come home feeling so profoundly lonely that I end up abusing prescription drugs just to make the pain stop. What is the trick to get people to talk to you in anglo culture? I am not bad-looking - in fact I am probably somewhat above average - so I don't think it can be that I repulse people, although these kinds of experiences are really starting to sap my feeling of self-worth. I am certainly shy, but I can have a good conversation once it gets started. I am not sure the problem is my shyness, but someone suggested beta blockers might help me be less inhibited. However, I don't respond well to alcohol (it makes me more quiet), which makes me doubt that beta blockers would help.