Friendship Feelers on Forums

How do I go from having few friends and  feeling socially isolated to feeling socially abundant and comfortable with a cool group of people who accept my current shortcomings and want to hook up with someone similar?

I decided to put out a few feelers on depression and social anxiety based forums as that's where I'm at right now and perhaps there would be others there who want to join me in a combined mission to improve our lives? I posted the following Thread:

Attempting to turn my life around for the better

I'm a 29 year old guy living in the sunny old south east of England. I'm a bright, considerate, nice guy who's been seriously held back in life by bouts of depression and social anxiety.
I've read a lot of stories on this forum and can totally relate. I often feel totally consumed by negative thoughts and I'm determined to turn that around and work towards developing positive thinking habits. I appreciate that's easier said than done, but have at times experienced short-lived positive thoughts, so at least know it is possible to feel good! I realize I desperately need to develop a strategy and physical habits to change my mind set.

At this moment in time I'm very isolated; jobless and have been for most of my life and without a parter or friends I can call on. My ambition is to eventually be successful in my work life and relationships and realize this process will take years of effort. One big thing I realize I need is social contact- people to talk to discuss problems but also want to work towards solutions.
I've always thought it would be great to meet up with similar people who are fed up with living a depressing life and being stuck in a rut and want to work on turning things around. If there's anyone here who'd like to hook up, potentially develop a friendship and give each other support to achieving success in our lives or can suggest groups I could join to find like-minded people that would be really appreciated.

Thanks for reading :)

I wonder if it's quite a cold, desperate way of going about the process of trying to cultivate relationships with other people, so my objective might not work. But then again, just maybe there will be someone who's been waiting for a forum member to take the initiative to post up such a request? I don't want to sit on my butt waiting several months, or even years to begin cultivating friendships!

I could try posting this on personal development or self improvement forums next as I suspect most people on a typical depression or anxiety forum are too caught up in their own misery and worries to put themselves forward. I've been there and unfortunately might even go back there myself in the future, so I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking I'm intruding in their world.

I realize the 'normal' route to meeting people would be dating sites, sports clubs or hobby classes, although those things can be a pretty big strain for me as I'd feel the need to act confident and assertive from the offset, when instead I'd rather hook up with someone like me who is also starting off at the bottom and wants to give and be given support in pushing themselves to be assertive and act confident in new situations.

To sum up: I am hoping to find a transformation support buddy from this!


[Note: it took 5 hours to sign up to 8 forums and post my thread! I thought it'd only take an hour]