Firstly, welcome to the forum Jakalyndee.
Relating to people, and trying to be a part of the world again.
This is easier than you may think... takes a little work, but its actually not to difficult to achieve.
All of this is achieved through exposure therapy. Set yourself tasks, very small ones, and accomplish them.
Mission: Trying to be part of the world again.
Aim: To communicate with people and become sociable within the world again.
Method: What do I do already, but instead of talking with people, I shy away and keep to myself? Grocery shopping! (could be anything relevant to your life)
Task: Next time I go shopping, I am going to identify something I know about, or question something I don't know about.
This could entail, raising a spur of the moment discussion with somone picking carrots, and asking them how to know which ones are good and which ones are bad.
You could compliment a stranger in line on a perfume, ask them where they get their hair or nails done, as you like the look, etc.
There are are myriad of minor small ways you can achieve this. You can go hop onto public transport, a bus, train, etc, really going nowhere, but specifically just to sit near a stranger and spark a conversation.
The best conversations are things you know about, and things you identify you know about or want to know about that the person has or states. Going to a football game as an example, you can easily identify and assume someone wearing team colours go for that team. If you know the history of that team, then spark up a conversation with them about the team, this seasons events, games, etc.
Outcome: It only has to be small, it only has to be seconds to begin with, then progress to minutes and even into lengthy conversations with perfect strangers. The point is, you reaffirm to yourself each time, you accomplished the task, nothing bad happened by talking with a person, and if it did, was that their fault or mine? Don't take blame for things you do not own. Even when you fail, try try again, because you will succeed. Use that success to then motivate yourself to improve further... progressively improving your social skills, join a social group that interests you, go help out for an hour to two at a local nursing home, as aged people love to have a good chat with someone who wants to talk and listen, all whilst doing something good for someone else, being companionship, which you also happen to be seeking.
Motivation and just getting yourself past the first step to take a form of action.
I am trying to get the courage to take college courses to give me a chance to be independant. I am trying to make a decision on WHAT courses to take, for cryin out loud. Making choices is a horrible struggle for me. And being 56 in a class full of 18-20 year olds is intimidating.
They are just as intimidated often as you are. You would be quite surprised these days just how many aged people are back at school, part-time, full-time and external correspondence. I am one of them myself, back in study at just about 40 years of age.
Again, use the above process, pickup the phone, make a call, ask questions, get a package sent out, make enquiries, visit a campus, see what external delivery is available, etc etc. Stop thinking and just do.
Talking about doing achieves nothing, actually doing is what provides us our self confidence and self worth to continue doing.
Five and half years ago, I talked about running a forum about PTSD to help people globally... and then I did it. Think, plan, execute. Without the execution part, the rest is useless. Failure is part of life, just don't dwell on it, use it as experience to improve the next attempt.
Your age would provide you greater wisdom and life experience than I have... you're just falling down in self confidence and esteem.
