Dating apps are shit because they force you to choose labels to describe yourself which can only describe so much and always ends up with a pedantic conversation involving terms that we only came up with recently. The way I’ve tried to go about it is instead of trying to foster a romantic (or aromantic) relationship directly just go out and try to make friends. Making friends is like dating in that you learn about other people a little at a time but without the giant elephant in the room that being Ace can be. Once you know people a bit better then making the next move of trying to date each other is way easier because you have an understanding and know how to talk to each other.

But keep this in mind too you are you and you are amazing without the need for someone else. Good luck friend

I’ll give you one piece of advice that helped me when my social anxiety was at its worst.

Volunteer. You’ll be around good people. Probably ain’t going to find your soul mate but it’s a good first step to getting comfortable around other and maybe building a social network.

I did work for a outdoor theater event myself. Even my gaint, awkward, and potenally autistic self enjoyed it. And the confidence I gained from it helped a lot in my career even now over a decade later.

It also help me in dating, I had the confidence to at least get dates. Though I didn’t know being ace was a thing I was allowed to be. so I never really got past date one. But at least I got to try out a lot of restaurants.

Well, the bigger question should be “do you need to date?”. Sure, as ace, you might not be aromantic, but to be fair, I feel the thing you might want to do is to “let ot happen if it happens”, rather than building up a stress from needing to find someone to date, as mostly the people seem to date in order to find a compatible match for sexual relief, rather than a deep relationship. And judging by the community, I guess that is not your aim.

None the less, if you feel your fear of social interactions is indering YOU in life, then that might require active work. One solution being drama classes, or as they call it in my native language “expression skill” classes. Also, you might do well to remember that people who are in to extreme sports put loads and loads of money to feel fear, and you could easily get the same experience by just socialising with people, so instead if letting fear hold you back, learn to enjoy it (that’s what I did).

And for finding meaningful relationships, nothing is more effective than expressing your passions; if you’re in to pottery for example, let it show, and other people interested about the subject are more likely to initiate converstations with you. Eventually statistics dictate that you will find people you like to be around with. As dreadfull as it sounds, you just got toput yourself out there.

Anything beyond that advice, I’d say people would need to know you more personally, as there is no set pattern of behaviour that would provide 100% sure results.