In my day to day life I have contact with my g/f who works from home, I'm unable to work. Apart from this a talk to one friend on the phone every now and then, and maybe visit him a few times a year. So I have a very limited range of contact with people. However, I do have contact with people online every now and then. For example I'm swapping messages on Facebook with an old friends sister at the moment. However, when in these types of communications I always put off sending replys for days and days, sometimes week and weeks or even months. And it plays on my mind that I should reply but it takes me so long to do so. I know that part of this is that I suffer from fatigue but I'm not so tried that I can't send simple messages. I really don't like doing this, I would like to be able to reply to people much quicker and it plays on my mind. Why do I do this?
Why you do it? Well to be honest I think you aren't the only one out there that has a limited number of friends or family they involve themselves with. The main problem is that it's a self-insulating pattern, if you don't go out and do things then you don't create the chance of meeting new people, which then in turn means you probably become more concerned about meeting new people because you are no longer sure how to act with them. If you want to defeat that concern of loneliness, then you've got to open yourself to trying new things. Sports, clubs, one off extravegant missions to events like art exhibits, museums etc. It can start even closer to home than that, when you buy things from a storeclerk, try some small talk, ask how they are doing, whether they like the current weather, perhaps query their position about a major news event. In any case you'll get use to a more positive response around people.
Would you consider yourself depressed? It is a characteristic of depressed people - part of the illness - that they cannot seem to muster the energy to do the things that will most likely break them out of the depression, and bring them some pleasure. If that is the case, I could offer you things to do to help yourself. The difficulty, though, is getting the motivation together to do them. Do you think you could force yourself into doing that which will help you?
How do you feel when you are writing a message and when you finish it? What thoughts go through your mind then?
Perhaps you really are not very interested in keeping up these contacts, but you just feel you should.
It looks like a textbook case of depression to me. You need more help than you're going to get from an internet forum. Go out and get some. Good luck!
Sorry I have not replied I moved house and I'm very tired. Will think over the comments lots of them make sense.
alexb123, If you're older than 23 years of age then there is nothing wrong with you. We currently live in a world of 24 hour news media and instant messages. Twitter and the like have caused a generation gap that some of us do not believe exists. We are from a different generation. There'll always be those that will be able to adapt but, leave the instant communication to the children. You'll be just fine once you can recognize this. A friend will always be a friend no matter how often you contact each other.
