Why do I struggle to form close relationships? I can get along fine with most people and have had friends, but never any close ones. It's all very surface-level stuff.

I'm not autistic or anything like that, but I find animals easier to bond with than other humans.

Where the fuck do people hang out, where? I just turned 31, and I've spent the last decade working and trying to build a social circle. Well, every place I go to hang out, barren and empty. That's the story of my life; go out hoping to meet people and make friends, but there's no one at any of the traditional social spots, so I end up frustrated, and back home playing video games or wasting time on the internet instead to cope with how lonely I am. I've been depressed since my early teens because of this, but no matter what I do or where I go, nothing changes.

Was I just born in the wrong time period for strong offline social circles?

Why do I struggle to form close relationships? I can get along fine with most people and have had friends, but never any close ones. It's all very surface-level stuff.

How do I get people to start treating me like a normal person? All my life, people have treated me like I'm "weird", or "different", and I don't get it. I'm not ugly. I'm not fat. I can drive. I can hold a job. I'm not autistic or neurodivergent in any way. I'm kind, polite, and outgoing.

Yet I still got bullied in school, and even at 31, people still treat me like I'm a child. Even once the bullying died down in high school, I still never really felt like I "belonged".

I have a good diet and exercise regularly, I'm not overweight, don't smoke, drink or do drugs, but I'm still depressed, suffer from constant pain and inflammation, and can't sleep. I'm 31 and that's been the case since my mid-teens. What can I do to cure it? I've been to the doctor and they couldn't find anything wrong with me physically that could be causing these ailments.