here’s the thing: everyone complains about late capitalism and how alienated and isolated we all are. everyone acknowledges this, and reassures each other of this, alone.
you need to get out of yourself, and your head, and your small bubble of one, and you need to go see old friends, or former friends, or people in your social circle who are just meh, or your annoying roommates, or your co-workers, or your former co-workers, or your lame family members, or your lame and bigoted family members, or strangers at a bar, or whomever, and party. meeting people is praxis, strengthening relationships is praxis, making yourself seen and vulnerable to another is praxis. please, guys, go out.
this, here, now, is a facsimile, mediated through a thousand screens. go kiss, go get kissed, go reject a kiss, go be denied a kiss. go out.
Sorry, my neurosis has convinced me that I am a burden on everyone around me and that I actively make their day worse when we see each other. I’m not going to ruin someone else’s evening by forcing them to deal with me.
If you acknowledge that it’s caused by a neurosis, then obviously you can’t just shrug it off and probably shouldn’t meet with old friends right this second, but it seems like that means the answer is still “working towards being able to talk to people” by whatever means are appropriate to your situation (therapy, medication, making friends online, etc.)