To Recap: Two weeks ago I was attempting to meet new people via social anxiety internet forums. Did I find the support buddy I was looking for?
Short answer: No.
Across 7 or 8 different forums I had about 20+ replies welcoming me to their online communities, and I really appreciate it. However, the idea of meeting up 'in real life' wasn't a goal many others shared...
One forum member cynically suggested I'm wasting my time in attempting to be proactive and meet. He/she was probably right if my conclusion is anything to go by. I had an older lady offer to meet for a chat if she was ever in my area. That's great! Although can I relate to her? I couldn't help feel I'd probably have more in common with her teenage children! A few people said they might meet if they were closer, but that's not much good.
The Social Anxiety UK Forums proved the most promising. There was even a section devoted to UK meets! Frustratingly they mostly only sparked interest from members living in bigger cities like London, Manchester and Glasgow.
I contributed my interest to a meet up within my county of residence. There was only a few other replies offering to meet, but that was all I needed for now! Although obviously not everyone was as keen to make the meeting idea a reality as the thread is slowly sinking to the bottom of the pile with me as the last poster having done my best to arrange a time and place to make something happen.
In addition to forum replies, I received a few private messages (mainly on the SAUK forum)~ A few people could really relate to my situation and where I was coming from and it was great to find people wanting to chat to me despite not living around the corner like I'd hope for. I'm not sure if I will make any lasting internet buddies out of these PMs though. Despite several PM exchanges with 2 or 3 members, it's all gone a bit quiet and I'm yet to receive replies to the last messages I'd sent. Its a shame because we all seemed to have a lot in common and had our internet conversation continued for a few more weeks, I might have suggested I visit them. In such a scenario, we'd both get to meet which I'm sure would do us good plus I'd look at is as a mini weekend away with my own personal guide to show me the local sites :D Likewise I'd do the same for them if they wanted to visit near me.
Making friends is tough! I'm obviously going to need to put in even more effort. It's seems so odd, because the people I'd chat to have a lot in common with me and I'm always polite, friendly, try to be positive, try to be funny when I can AND all while doing all the standard "good email communication" tactics like volunteering info about myself for them to reply back to and asking 2-4 questions per email so they're never be stuck when it comes to thinking of something to write back with.
I really did give this approach my all and although I got a lot of positive feedback, I was ultimately unable to finish what I'd set out to do- to find like-minded, fellow anxiety or depression suffers on the net who also wanted to meet locally.
I'll give it a bit more time and perhaps someone new will read my posts and something pro-active will eventually materialize from this? Time will tell.
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