I'm pretty much truly alone. I'm 44 years old, no wife or family of my own. My dad and 2 siblings live 300 miles away so I don't get to interact with them very often. I don't really have any good friends. I have a few buddies that I'm able to do stuff with a couple of times a month, but that's it. They're all married and have kids so they don't have time to spend with me. Unless I need to go to the store or something, I'm pretty much home, by myself. Once summer gets here it'll be nice because at least I'll be able to go fishing after work and on weekends.

Another problem is that I'm a high functioning autistic person. Most people probably wouldn't notice anything odd about me once they get to know me, but it definitely makes this area of life very hard. It's extremely difficult to meet people as my social norms are backward. I need to already know someone before I want to talk to them. I usually do this by interacting with them in some kind of activity and I learn whether or not they're someone I want to know better which makes me want to talk to them and gives me something to talk to them about. If someone's a complete stranger, I have no idea what to talk to them about. For me, unless I'm talking to someone I already care about in some way, the purpose of talking is the exchange of information. If I don't know someone, I don't know if they know anything I need to ask them about, nor do I know if I know something I should inform them about which makes talking pointless.

I remember someone suggesting I should ask someone what kind of work they do as a conversation starter. For most people, this is probably a good opener, but the way my brain works, it's not. If this person is a stranger, why do I want to know where they work? How will that information be useful for anything in and of itself? Interrupting someone to ask them for a useless, meaningless bit of information is just . . . . . . . . I can't even describe how wrong and stressful that is. My church doesn't have any kind of social activities so there's no viable way for me to meet anyone.

Now if it's a person I know and care about in some way, it's completely different. I just need to find a way to get to know something about them before actually trying to converse with them.

Someone above mentioned prayer and while I do pray (probably not as often as I should), it doesn't help at all. If anything, it makes me feel worse as it will lead me to believe that God may help and when nothing changes or even gets worse, I obviously feel worse than before. Praying feels like calling someone you consider a friend who never answers their phone anymore. You leave them a voicemail and they never call you back.

There’s more people than you know in the same boat.  I’m also by myself, have one living family member, not Catholic, and some distant relatives that I have no idea of where or who they are.  (They cut themselves off in a feud over a will about which my parents refused to take sides. Or maybe they cut my parents off, probably closer to the truth. I was only five years old when this happened.)  I live in a very small refurbished hunting camp with my dogs and a cat.  It’s in the middle of nowhere, which is very nice, on one hand, but not on the other.  I landed here due to losing my job, my apartment, and most of my stuff for refusing the jab offer.  It certainly beats living in my car in a big city, which is what I did for two months. 
I also don’t have regular Mass or Sacraments, although I’m better that way than the last two years when I had nothing.  Try your best to establish a rule of life.  Keep it simple as you aren’t a monk or an official hermit.  Prayer, however brief, morning, noon, night, plus Rosary or Stations of the Cross on Wednesdays and Fridays for Lent.  There’s a very concise, rhyming version in the back of the Fr. Stedman Sunday Missal that I like to use.  Weather permitting, try going for a walk while praying the Rosary.  Pray under your breath or think the words in your head if you’re around others and don’t want to raise the ire of a crazy person or have others dismiss you as insane.
Try getting a pet.  If a dog or cat isn’t realistic, what about a bird or turtle?  Lizard, snake, small rodent, or a tank with a few goldfish?  My sister kept two newts found in a campground in New Hampshire.  One of them lived his full lifecycle, emerging from the water and changing from dark green to bright orange.  Try keeping land snails or hermit crabs.  If you’re not squeamish, a scorpion or tarantula might keep your interest…or an ant farm!  Plants can also lift the mood.  They freshen the air and require at least a little care, some more than others. A carnivorous plant is interesting, or anything flowering.
Resist having a pity-party.  The only one who will come to it is the devil, and be assured, he’s the death of the party. 
As to prayer, don’t beat yourself up. If you forget or are feeling to low, remind yourself to just pray anyway.  Read a prayer or recite from memory.  Mary will fill in the “feeling” aspect if that’s even needed.  There are many things we do devoid of any feelings, just because they are right or necessary.  I don’t like hauling trash to the county environmental center (dump!), but I do it as needed or I’d have a dump surrounding my home.  I really dislike laundromats, but I have to go or wear dirty clothes and sleep in a soiled bed.  Prayer said just because…is better than no prayer. 
There are many people on the autistic spectrum, lots more since someone decided to call it a spectrum!  I’m 64 and was “diagnosed” at age 58.  In retrospect, yes, I was always the kid who didn’t fit in, who had some slightly odd behavior patterns, whose interests and ways of looking at the world were unusual, or who was sometimes deemed “not normal.”  Well, who cares?  I’m normal for me because I’ve always been as I am.  If God wanted me otherwise, He’d have made someone else.  It’s not sin we’re talking about.  I even got hired once for replying, “What you see is what you get!”  The interviewer questioned the fact that I was wearing Birkenstock shoes!  (Maybe I was a tree-hugging, fag-loving, communist liberal?)  No, nothing of the sort!  I wear only orthopedically healthy shoes.  Everyone in my family had foot problems, women especially, from cramming naturally wide feet into stylish shoes.  When young, my father wisely made we kids wear properly fitting shoes, stylish or not.  He had bad feet himself from poverty, having to wear shoes that were too small. My feet are pain free and flexible as ever.  I’ve never been to a podiatrist in my life!  If I go to Mass and all the other women are wearing pumps, high heels, pointed toes, and I’m wearing Birkenstocks, too bad.  You’re not supposed to be looking at people’s feet during Mass, anyhow! 
Here’s a great way to get started.  Post a large print Morning and Evening Offering Prayer to your bed or wall.  Say the prayers as soon as you awake and before you sleep.  Make a list of people to pray for, include souls in Purgatory, family, friends, acquaintances, world leaders, whomever… Whichever time is better, morning or evening, say one prayer for one on the list.  Cross them and move on.  Pray before meals.  If others don’t join you, take 30 seconds to bless yourself, bow your head, pray silently, and cross yourself.  Ignore others while doing so, even if they take no notice or deliberately keep talking, etc.  When done, join as if nothing were unusual, because thanks to you, it isn’t.  If need be, say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite hear your question/comment.”  After awhile, they’ll either respect you, or they’ll go on as before, in either case, God has been thanked.  If someone bullies, mocks, gaslights, ghosts, humiliates you in front of others, remove yourself from that person.  Confront him or her kindly, but firmly once.  Tell how exactly you expect to be treated.  If you’re ignored, remove yourself from this person in as much as possible. 
One more thing, friends needn’t be talking all the time.  Just walking, working, eating, sharing tea, reading, playing a game of chess, paint or sketch, whittle, or whatever, doesn’t require constant chatter. 

 

Our parish priest always taught that prayer does not change God’s will for us ....
God has nothing to change, if He did, He would be imperfect.