Decades of practice. What comes naturally to the neurotypicals at age 14, may take until middle age for a geek to learn by trial and painful error. Unfortunat

Decades of practice. What comes naturally to the neurotypicals at age 14, may take until middle age for a geek to learn by trial and painful error. Unfortunately where interaction with the attractive gender is concerned, awkwardness and painful error may be judged very harshly indeed, these days. Accepting yourself as you are is required. Get over thinking you need to turn yourself into someone different. It took until about age 30 for me to fully accept who I am. An occasional change of environment does help, since you can leave all that rejection - judged as the geek outsider - baggage behind and can start with a clean slate at your current social skill level. A little bit of alcohol in social interactions can also help. I was strictly a nondrinker, but at one neurotypical type party I took the hint and had a few drinks. Not enough to get drunk, but enough to get comfortable. On the other hand, if none of the above really apply, and you're just an introvert, then learn to live with it. You'll never turn yourself into an extrovert and you'll never really enjoy "working" an unfamiliar crowd to make new insta-friends. That's OK.