Re: How do you fight loneliness?
Not having money makes me depressed.....period. So then I work, work, work and then I feel lonely. Then I let myself become isolated because I do enjoy time by myself working on projects and researching. But there has to be a balance.
So, I also second getting a pet. I have a toy dog and she helps me get outside and at least strike up conversations with people. She doesn't cost much to take care of because she is so tiny, everything is tiny about her (heehee, tiny poops). She is my lil pumpkin who lets me love on her anytime I need and she even snuggles well!
Also, you said you wanted your own company. Spend your time thinking about that and not a guy (WAY easier said than done, trust me I know!). But if you start taking action everyday towards the company you want, you will begin to shift and start focusing on you. Read many books/blogs on the subject, watch videos, listen to podcasts, find associations in the field to network with, start moving towards your goal, list the steps you have to achieve to get to your goal and start knocking them out. Do this EVERY SINGLE DAY. Everything you do, ask yourself, is this helping me reach my goal of owning my own company?
This will keep you focused, energized and before you know it you will be creating a name in your field.
And all great entrepreneurs take time to regenerate (balance!). Do you enjoy any outdoor activities? Any that you might like to try? You need physical activity and Vitamin D to ward off the depression that can come with isolation. Get a dog and walk it every day :-)
I hope that is helpful, it is working for me. I also swore off dating until I get my shit together and that is when I saw a huge change in my life and my perceptions. Every time I try to date I get derailed from my goals. Same as you, sitting around daydreaming, wondering if he was thinking about me, hoping he will come over.. blah blah.. all the while he is out having a life... I needed to get a life! There is a balance, but until I get a good momentum going, I cannot mess around with not putting myself first.
I no longer tell people about camming. It is what I do to pay my bills, it is not who I am. When people ask about my occupation, I try to bring up the future occupation I am gearing myself towards creating networking opportunities. I keep a 1099, 10-hr a week job to also help with isolation and also I do not have to lie when I am asked what I do for work. I am a freelance Admin/bookkeeper/manager. Being 1099, no one can tell you when/where you work so it works well with camming. I will go into the office once or twice a week. So I do not feel like I am living a double life, just choosing to keep some things private. I mean, we do not divulge everything about ourselves to people anyway, so why even bother bringing up camming -unless this is your career and you will retire after this, then YES promote the shit out of yourself.
I was lucky enough to have a cam girl here find me as we are in the same city. She has been a mental life-saver and I grateful for her.
Re: How do you fight loneliness?
talk to yourself and imagine a world that you have lots of friends and a man..lmao.. that's what I do!
Re: How do you fight loneliness?
I struggled a lot with this when I moved. When I started camming I was living with 1-5 roommates in a variety of different rental situations. After a while I moved to my own place and immediately found myself feeling really isolated. I struggle with peopleing at the best of times, but without forced roommate interaction I felt WAY more lonely than I expected. I have developed a few things that help me avoid spending 10 days in a row in my apartment only talking to people through my computer screen.
1. Working out: rather than just joining a gym where I put my headphones on and do my own workout and interact with nobody at all, I joined a women's only kickboxing circuit gym. It's not a ton of socializing, just chatting with people getting ready or before leaving while stretching, but being around a bunch of people doing the same thing and cheering each other on is really uplifting. Plus I am getting fit, which is a nice side effect.
2. Volunteering: because I don't have a car right now, I am super-limited on where I can volunteer on any kind of schedule (public transit here isn't the best). Instead, I have been volunteering for one-time special events like weekend sports tournaments. It doubles as a nice weekend off if you need a break from camming, and if the people are annoying or anything, it's only for a short period of time.
3. Cam friends: Participating in verified chat (once you qualify) can be a good way to meet some other camgirls you have stuff in common with, and then you can chat with them on Skype. It is nice having people to talk to about work, I never appreciated how important that was in my office jobs until suddenly I had no coworkers.
4. Non-cam friends: I recently reached out and re-connected with some friends I had fallen out of touch with from places I lived previously (I have moved a lot in the last few years). It's nice to have a Skype chat or phone call or emails or texts with people who do different jobs and such. Not all of them know what I do, but it hasn't been too much of an issue to avoid talking about it.
You can avoid feeling lonely. I don't think you should romanticize "alone time" as being something you should ultimately aspire to crave. Everyone is different. I am an insanely outgoing people person who needs time alone to recharge. My last roommate could not be on her own for more than a day before she started feeling depressed and lonely. There is nothing wrong with wanting or needing people around you nor with wanting to be on your own.
Re: How do you fight loneliness?
I'm pretty antisocial, but I'm learning that I need at least one close friendship in my life to not feel lonely. And roommates help. Boys make me insecure and unproductive, so I'm avoiding them at the moment, lol.
Camming and working vanilla at-home jobs works well for me because I get some socialization but not to the point where I'm too tired to go out with real-life friends. I never did well at normal 9-5 jobs because they tired me out... Working from home leaves me energized to do other things. I'm extremely grateful for that.
Owning your own business is easier when you have time and space to be productive, but it can also be good to network. And attending events to network can be a great way to socialize! Just a thought. :) I'm in the same boat, trying to get a business going, and a significant amout of socialization (online and offline) is required.
Re: How do you fight loneliness?
I decided to start attending language classes as soon as I move in in new flat. You ladies are right, I need to do something outside of my home. These few days were crazy for me, I had to earn more cash for moving in, stuff I need etc. On 1st April I'll be on my own in new place so I can start focus on important stuff. Yesterday I made myself bubble bath and got some weed, best thing I've done for myself in days. I need to treat myself better I know. Also, I want to print out some motivation words like this one "Do what's easy and your life will be hard, do what's hard and your life will be easy". I adore animals, both dogs and cats but I'm really afraid I couldn't take care for my pet, I need to be more stable with my earnings and place I live in, if I ever get a pet I need to be 100% sure I can take care of him, it would break my heart to mistreat poor creature :( but that might change. I'm considering telling my best girlfriend about camming... She is super smart and supportive but I lied her too about this "job" I "have", so I need to think how to tell her. I know she's also struggling for $$ and I don;t know but she's crazy like me and maybe she wants to cam too :D I had this idea for a long now, imagine that me and my BFF on cam :D But better to take those steps easy and slowly.