Protip: if you live in a city, get involved in your local community. It will benefit your mental health significantly
One really easy way to get started with this is to just look up [city] [thing you enjoy] club and go to the next meeting. If nothing else, it's a good way to get out of the house and talk to people with similar interests. If you hate it, you have no obligation to go back and can just find something else to do with your time
The resources to find people with similar interests exist, for example, the Seattle library has a list of local writing groups
Connect with local organizations and continuing education programs offering writing classes and networking opportunities.
Another good way to get involved is to look at flyers and posters in local businesses, they are often promoting events and clubs, you can always go to those, they want people to come
Or if you know a local shop with kind old owners, just take some time to stop by their shop and say hello and see how their day is going. You don't have to buy anything, just stop by and say hello
And it's not illegal to start conversations with the cute boy on the bus if you have no other way to meet people
Also take time out of your day to meet your neighbors, you may not like then after you met them, but you might also make a new friend who could introduce you to people or have a cat you can pet
Someone else said this but also, go to local music shows, it helps local artists and the music is probably going to be better anyways
Nonprofits and other local organizations that do helpful work of varying sorts are always in need of volunteers! If there's a cause you are interested in check out what organizations in your area are working to support that cause and see if they could use some help! You'll meet a ton of amazing people and get to feel like you're doing some good in the world as a bonus. I've done volunteer stuff that ranges from giving tours at a local museum, ushering at local theater events, working evening shift serving dinner and helping unhoused folks get set up for the night at winter shelters, packing up food boxes and sorting donations at food banks, helping put together print materials for fundraising campaigns, reading to school kids at schools and libraries, and being a conversation practice partner for folks wanting to learn English...to like, hosting munches and teaching intro to BDSM classes to new people in the local kink community lol My point being that whatever you are passionate about there's probably some way you can find a way to do a little volunteer work in support of it, esp if you live in/near a bigger city that has more organizations operating there. You don't even have to commit to doing it all the time, even just once in a while is more help than they otherwise would've had and you make a lot of friends with a pre-built-in common interest. Also good if you are me and are poor as fuck and feel bad about not being able to donate monetarily very often. Every year they calculate how much an hour of volunteer work is worth and it's currently at $33.49 for 2024.
@colourlightcomet
Here is the how, also you have neighbors in your apartment, you can talk to other people in your building, additionally there are disability support groups in many cities that you can go to and talk to other disabled people if you are worried that disability may prevent you from forming community with people
