You can mostly withstand being alone?

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When I'm alone, I don't feel lonely. When among people, I do.

I often find in my life that i'm either surrounded by too many people and the company is overwhelming or at times, i'm literally on my own a lot and feel alone to the extent, that I have to question my existence and overcome the feeling of isolation and feel like I don't matter to people.

I like being an introvert and being alone but theirs times where I would like at least one person to talk too but I find in my life that it's either a lot of people or no one at all.

Anyone else ever feel like this? I want company but don't want too much or too little of it?

I like to spend time with people, but I also like my alone time.
If I spend time 1:1 with friends or with my family, it doesn't drain me.
Large groups and busy places drain me.
Shopping drains me.

I like my alone time for doing projects or just thinking.
When I am alone, I don't feel weird for hyper-focusing on my work or daydreaming/philosophizing.
Alone time to me feels like some pressure has been taken off.

However, there was a time when I didn't like to be alone at all.
This was in high school and college, and even into the years when my kids were very young.
I had a tremendous amount of anxiety. Part of it was hormone-related after giving birth.
But most of it (especially in late HS/College) was due to some things that happened when I was in HS.
Being alone with anxiety is the WORST, at least the kind of anxiety I had.
When that anxiety finally went away, I could (and do) relish being alone.

I personally normally stay in my room if I'm not at work and only socialize over the internet with the exception of every Tuesday me and 2 friends meet up at a gamer cafe (normally rather quiet) but the cafe moved to a new location so I'm rather anxious about going again but Im going anyway cause I don't like being completely isolated

Most of the time, yes. I really love my alone time. I need it like I need air. But every once in a while, I need human contact as well.

I generally prefer being alone, but a large part of that is I'm very limited in whom I'm comfortable being around. But if I am comfortable with people I have no problem hanging out and socializing, though I still need to have a space where I can occasionally go away and decompress.

I once went a month and a half as an experiment not talking to anyone if I wasn't asked a direct question and it did start to have a negative effect on my psychology.

I went two months without touching anyone, even to shake hands or sitting close to someone on the couch, and that also had a negative effect and I just wanted someone to hug me, which I'm generally uncomfortable with.

Hello. I deal with being alone and loneliness frequently.

I have lived on my own since I was 18 and often with roommates or a girlfriend (or when I was married).

I was living with my last girlfriend for 8-Years. We were best friends and still are; I moved out of her apartment for only one reason - terrible, ongoing noise upstairs on our ceiling 24/7; wild children running and screaming constantly. I could not deal with that at all.

I was given an opportunity to move into the apartment where I currently live (that is another story altogether, this new place). Now, I am ALWAYS alone save for when I get to see my best friend, my ex-girlfriend, which is once a week at most.

I have no other friends. I have gotten used to it I guess but it eats away at me at times. I do realize that my lack of social interaction is unhealthy but I have no idea how to go about changing it.

Introvert-vs-extrovert (ie whether being alone or with people recharges or drains you) is a spectrum.
Need for social contact is a spectrum.
Enjoyment of social contact can be exceedingly context sensitive.
None of these necessarily have to correlate with the other two.

Although I can enjoy some social interaction of my choosing (duration, who with, where, etc) and although I have felt loneliness, in the main I positively THRIVE on being alone.

I've always been that way, even as a child. I can entertain myself, and I love my time being my own. I do badly and start to wither when I've had too much social interaction and too many people in my life.

If I were to be subjected to complete lack of contact with any other human (sole survivor somewhere, etc) I would be totally fine.

The only thing that would make me wither away is to have no contact with animals.

I'm actually there with you on that one.

Alone, I am able to be me without any pretend. Every day that I have to go out and engage people, I feel like Roy Schieder in "All That Jazz"...."It's showtime folks!". All performance and no substance.

If you've never seen the movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9By-b-lCWkw

at the 30 second mark......

The only real normalcy I have is calling my parents to check on them. Even that has a bit of ritual to it.
Check in with the kids less often as they are young and busy.
Check in only with Aunt who is really everything she could possibly be.

That's it. Other than my wife. I figured she was a given. And, even that taxes me a lot!!

I feel lonely at university because people there chat among themselves and ignore me. Coming back home is a great relief.

I like being left alone but I can't stand the thought being completely alone.

On most days, my job is enough social interaction for me. I might spend an afternoon on the weekend socializing, on occasion I might even extend that to a whole day.

I like the idea of having friends and not being alone, but I hate actually interacting with people. It's been about two years since I talked to someone outside of work or ordering food, but I still remember how horrible it was.