It’s lonely being an adult

  • @JoeTheSane
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    111 year ago

    My wife is absolutely my best friend and everything I do is better if she is there.

    I am, however, just starting to come off the effects of the pandemic. I have acute social anxiety and thought I had weathered the lockdown well because not being able to go out and do things is my comfort zone. However, as things became less dangerous and restricted, I found that my social anxiety had way worsened (like two extra medications worsened) and it was difficult for me to even do some of the social things I had been used to pre-pandemic.

    I was able to ignore it because of my strong relationship with my wife until my only other nearby friends moved to Illinois. That’s when I realized that I had no friends except for my wife, and I was in danger of using her as a replacement for my own social life. I didn’t want to force that unfair responsibility on her, so I decided to try to get back in touch with a friend that drifted, and started going to a local game store to play MTG.

    I’m now far outside of my comfort zone, but having a good time netting new people and playing a game that I kinda missed.

    I guess the point I’m making is that, yes, it’s easy to fall into that trap of using a significant other as your social outlet, but it’s unfair to them and you should do everything in your power to avoid it.