Hi, I'm giving this a shot out of the blue. I'm a 22 year old male university student in my final year, and everything just looks incredibly glum. My freshman year was great - I had a lot of friends and my grades were pretty good, though I was still extremely shy. During my sophomore year my dad got cancer so I ended up taking time off from school (a year).

Since then, I've made no attempt to make new friends, but I desperately want to (I know that's self-defeating). I stopped talking to my old friends from freshman year, and I only keep in touch with a girl from highschool who calls me once every few weeks. On weekends I hide in my apartment and don't go out, usually read or watch a movie and sleep early.

I feel incredibly lonely and insecure, and every day I pretend I'm fine, but I'm not. I end up wasting time anyways, and my grades suffer because of it. I feel like a loser, though I think I am pretty attractive, witty, and fun to be around. I just never make the effort and I don't know why.

I used to think I could live like this without any problems, but movies just aren't fun to watch alone, eating is just depressing, and schoolwork seems so pointless.

I'm sorry if this post seems disoriented - I guess that's the way I am right now. I could use any help/encouragement, thanks so much! I'm incredibly scared of the future...

(I think the suggestions will be along the lines of "you have to make an effort," I just don't know where to start)