Trying to Connect

[stormdog]

I have such fear and anxiety about trying to join online communities that it's mostly kept me from trying my entire life. But I finally managed to not get past that fear, but at least sort of disassociate from it long enough to join a T4T Friends/dating Discord server. To get access to the rest of the channels, there's an introduction to fill out that includes age, and I would clearly be one of the oldest people there, if not the oldest. I'm scrolling past a few people in their 30s, but most people are between 18 and their early 20s. I feel like I'll either have no one interested in talking to me, or I'll just look like a creep. And this is exacerbating my fear that, by the time it's possible to significantly reduce Covid restrictions for in-person stuff, I'll be old enough that no one will be interested.

I'm not sure if I can manage to write an intro here.

ETA: I left the server. I could join again later if it seems like something I could do.

Comments

[sabotabby]

*hugs* I don't think it'll be too late. Other people are also older adults.

[stormdog]

Thank you. I know you're probably right, but it's hard to internalize or believe that sometimes.

[anais_pf]

I think younger people are quicker to join things like Discord than we older folks. Personally, I have been encouraged to join Discord for various reasons by various people and causes I do care about, but I resist. And, I know several trans people who are older than you are but none who are younger. It may have to do with my own age, which is considerable greater than yours. Anyway, don't be discouraged, and certainly you should not worry about looking like a creep.

[stormdog]

Thank you. And I know my fears are ageist and I feel bad about that. They're not even in keeping with my own experience: my sweetie Lisa is about 15 years older than me. It's hard to separate the isolation-loneliness from the fear sometimes.