which is more difficult?

[knowledgeofself]

do you find it easier to get talking to someone initially than establishing or maintaining a stronger friendship?

I find making a strong friendship ,keeping in contact or establishing something significant a lot more difficult than meeting various acquaintance's or casual friends ,passing associations.

or are both instances equally problematic for you?

 

[MNM322]

keeping friendships is my hardest thing. i always seem to scare people away

 

[kristina303]

Keeping friends is easy it's making friends that's the hard part.

 

[Labyrinthine]

Both aspects are hard for me, but maintaining friendships is by far the hardest aspect. I'm awful at keeping in contact. no clue why I'm like this, but I've successfully pushed away all of my friends, at different intervals.

 

[laure15]

1. meeting various acquaintance's or casual friends ,passing associations - hard

2. making a strong friendship ,keeping in contact or establishing something significant - harder

I don't hang out as much with people anymore. The only place where I truly feel safe and happy is at home.

 

[Hellhound]

Making friends is more difficult for me.

 

[dottie]

1. hard
2. harder

 

[Psychedelicious]

forever

Keeping friends is definitely a lot harder, although making friends isn't exactly easy itself. I haven't successfully done either one, but keeping up and in contact with people seems like the hardest thing.

 

[Starry]

Initial contact is a lot harder. Keeping friends is a lot easier...

 

[megalon]

Keeping in contact is more difficult. Even if I meet someone I get along with who has potential to become a real friend, I tend to think me sending them a message or requesting anything from them is just going to bother them. So they probably assume I don't care, and go on with their lives.

 

[razzle dazzle rose]

Maintaining friendships has always been very difficult for me. I've met many people in my life, but now don't talk to any. Meeting new people is hard too of course. I haven't had a chance to see if I can be better at keeping in touch since I haven't met anyone new in so long.

 

[lilmutegirl]

It's funny that you ask that, because a few years ago, I realized that it is easier for me to talk to someone I don't expect to see again than it is for me to establish or maintain relationships. The reason I figured this out is because of a guy I dated (we are now friends). When we met, I talked to him with ease, but after we started dating, I was afraid he'd think I was weird, so I clammed up (in retrospect, he may have thought I was strange for not talking. lol)

 

[hippiechild]

making friends is relatively easy for me. It's allowing the relationship to linger and become increasingly meaningful that really gets me. I can't stand having relationships with people who mean anything to me... far too stressful.

 

[cosmosis]

I love this question. For me its much harder to talk and meet new people. Once I've been around someone long enough, my confidence goes up and I get less scared. I guess I make pretty bad first impressions, but people seem to like me more and more as time goes on. Its much easier for me to maintain friendships and connections.

 

[truffleshuffle]

for me if I know the person fairly well I can be comfortable around them most times So it would have to be meeting new people.

 

[Bustn Justin]

I find it more difficult to keep freindships since I feel that I don't belong.

 

[lyricalliaisons]

Both are equally difficult for me.

 

[miserablecow]

I think maintaining friendships are the hardest for me, as well as making friends. I'm finding myself not keeping in contact with friends and sometimes they complain about this, but I don't know what to say.

Recently, I've been joining social groups and trying to attend events, to try (pushing myself more like) and make new friends etc. But again I'm finding myself not being able to talk to anyone, I just end up watching and listening.

 

[NamiraWilhelm]

Hmm... both are hard. Meeting someone new is rare, and usually I'll put them off by being shy and them interpreting that as a lack of interest. Even when i seemingly get on well with someone its hard to get to the point of like... hanging out. Meeting up separately. It seems like people already have their social groups and so dont care about increasing it...
Maintaining a friendship is proving hard, so many of the few friends i had are moving away And I'm left behind!

 

[Unspoken]

I can keep friends once I make them. I'm usually too stressed out while trying to make them to reach a stage where I need to talk to them regularly, get to know them better, etc.