I would try joining groups (of any kind) and taking some kind of community public speaking course. I dealt with what you are dealing now (maybe to a lesser degr

I would try joining groups (of any kind) and taking some kind of community public speaking course. I dealt with what you are dealing now (maybe to a lesser degree) and threw myself into a professional position that required constant meetings and presentations. Then I started doing public speaking events and some lecturing on the side. It helped a lot. I've suggested these activities because they're all structured. You may be stressed out by the unpredictability of social encounters. As scary as public speaking is, I found the structure (I'm the speaker, you're the audience, this is the topic, we have 45 minutes) much easier to deal with than even the simplest chat with someone.