There is one meetup in my area. It's for people new to the area. I've lived here for 9 years.
This summer, I did a search for recreational activities. All that was offered was cards, martial arts and yoga for babies. I live in a city of 28 000. It's pathitic. My hometown has 3 000 and they have a TON going on... photography classes, swim classes, shopping trips to the city, knitting for beginners, etc.
I'm in biology society and joined girl guides because the bowling alley closed
🙁. I can take on weekend activities, but not any more evenings. I might go back to volunteering at the SPCA on Saturdays.
I have seen a counsellor on and off until last spring. Back then I had horrible anxiety and stopped seeing her when my schedule filled up. I'm happier when I'm busy. All she did anyway was a take a family history, tell me to join more extracurriculars, and keep a journal. I've been having loneliness issues since my dad started leaving on work trips when I was 2. I've had trouble dealing with loneliness, social anxiety and I think I was depressed in high school. Instead of getting me help, my parents just mocked me. "I never had that many friends growing up. You don't need friends to be happy, so grow up." I was in a ton of extracurriculars, volunteer activities and worked part time. I was still depressed when I was home and only managed to find a couple of aquaintances.
I thought it would change in university but it hasn't. I'll have a period when I'm happy, then people will blow me off and I'll go back to being anxious and lonely. Then something new comes into the picture and I'm fine. It's not me. I'm fun, enthusiastic, I like trying new things and I love helping people. The only people who know about my anxiety are my friend, the boyfriend and my honours supervisor. I talk to people all of the time but when I say "Hey, are you going to this event?" or "Hey, do you want to study with me for this class?" I get fuzzy answers or blown off. For every decent person, there are 20 that are rotton.
Also, the program at my school is very cliquey... if I had known about this, I would have went to a more traditional university. Basically I don't fit in because I'm the only person in my year who didn't grow up in the area. I'm an honours student. There are 8 of us. All of them grew up together and they do EVERYTHING together. I try to get involved in what they're involved with, but they basically blew me off last weekend because I didn't have a car :S
My time will come... I'm just sick and tired of waiting.