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Comment by scarmig | Hacker News Reader

Not saying this is the best approach and it won't be a popular opinion, but drugs--particularly alcohol--were key to me breaking out of my shell.

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Psychedelics did it for me, I was looking for fun but as an unintended consequence I became much more extrovert.

Of course, don't actually do hard drugs without medical supervision. You are more likely to end up worse off. A counter anecdote, a friend of mine who was really extroverted is now pretty shy and nervous in social interactions after suffering a few psychotic episodes during one of our drug binges.

I’m curious how did psychedelics made you more extroverted? i.e was it less internal monologue, more energy, etc

After the experience I was more open to interacting to people. The difference between avoiding eye contact and just saying hi to someone can be huge. Instead of just passing by someone I'd stop and talk to them--sometimes for hours. At first I was still pretty awkward but after time and just talking to people I'm one of the most sociable people in my circle. And it is a wide circle.

So in short my first reaction to meeting someone wasn't avoidance but instead to interact with them.

I'd agree that this helped me a lot, but I'm still paying for it.

Alcohol in particular is a really nasty drug. Psychedelics are something I love to do every now and then, but they're really not for everyone and should be approached with caution.

A small dose of MDMA though. A little goes a long way, not a bad shout if you're open to it.

i already had a problem. but i took it to the dive bars and learned quite a bit about how to be human. of course eventually I had to quit everything, and while i know how to hang out with people now...i kind of don't want to anymore

For alcohol at least, I don't think that's actually too unpopular an opinion. Drinking is a fairly universal social activity, and it's allowed me to meet and befriend a lot of people I probably wouldn't have otherwise.

Certainly interesting seeing the swings of upvotes and downvotes, though, hah. (That's neither a complaint nor unexpected.)

I remain convinced that weed helped me a lot here. I also basically apprenticed myself to a couple of very charming extroverted people and learned what I could from them.

For me, a little alcohol helps a bit, but if I have too much I end up talking plenty - but it's absolute bollocks that just makes me seem even weirder... :(

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