How do you people do it?

I’ve been socially isolated since 2010. Shut down my circle of friends after a drama that led to giving a girl a black eye. I’m a big dude, 250 pounds, 6’6”, and that incident really shoved my mortarboard to the ground. I got so nervous about not being the bad guy that I became super anxious to the point where I just stopped socializing. Completely.<br><br>I got a job, bounced around a couple companies, and generally just kept to myself. That was about 13 years ago. Now I’ve realized that I’m so isolated that I don’t have anybody to reach out to. No friends. My parents died 10 years ago; my siblings are all familial, but I don’t know them. I’m not even sure I’ve ever seen my niece. I had one hope; an old friend I went to high school with. Multiple attempts at reconnecting on Facebook failed. She’s married now, and posts all the time. I contacted her once a few months ago, and she said she’d give me a call. She never did. I just checked her page again and she’s expecting a child.<br><br>I’m entering my 40’s alone. I have no friends, no support network. I’ve just been so anxious about being a bad guy, I’ve been afraid to reach out to people. I don’t know how to talk to people anymore. I’ve so totally forgotten how to be a social person that it’s just so hard for me to be around other people. Do I just give up?