Why won't the psychiatric and therapeutic community wake up to this need?

Barb, I was a clerical assistant (spelled s-l-a-v-e ;-).

Needto, yeah, a little wine or vodka once in a while can calm the nerves but lotsa calories if you go that route.

Isn't the "medication" for that called alcohol?

Office, what did you do for a living, if I could ask?

I realize a medication won't help form friendships. Want I want the med. for is to help me deal with the fact that I am lonely & get used to it. (You'd think I would've gotten used to it about over 60 yrs of trying *everything* to make friends but most things get worse as you get older, not better.) If you look into it--the UK seems to have really noticed, more than the US for some reason--most of the elderly are lonely. And the fact that I am very unlike almost all the gals in my age group around here--childless-by-choice, feminist, liberal/progressive, atheist, UNarts&craftsy, hate the outdoors, only hobby is reading--makes it even tougher. And while I appreciate the effort & good thoughts, I think it's a dangerous road to start down describing what I think would be a good friendship; that could easily lead to fantasizing about it & that way lies madness. (I was chatting on a loneliness site with a younger gal who said she had given up trying to make friends & had "made up" a friend to tell her mother about on the phone so the mother wouldn't worry about her so much. Broke my heart to see that; lying about stuff like that, even when it's to ease someone else's worry, is starting down the path to the mental ward.) Some of the latest brain research has shown that the part of the brain involved in making friends peaks at the age of 8 & then goes downhill. So guess it's true what I always heard old folks saying when I was a kid, "You'll never make any friends later in life--if you make any--that are as good as the friends you make when you're a kid; old friends are the best." And since practically nobody gets a chance anymore to stay where they lived as a kid, our society (espec. here in the too-spread-out US) is set up for loneliness. Moving closer to an urban area would probably put me in contact with old women more like me but my husband refuses to move, loves it here (and we can't afford to anyway). You know, cartoonist (Dilbert) Scott Adams--who I don't like but do agree with on this point--said something along the lines of "Marijuana & some other recr. drugs should be legalized for the elderly since being old is so awful."

Rip, your post isn't boring at all! How about describing what kind of friend you would like to have? What kind of friend would you like to be? Maybe describing a good friendship might give us ideas to help you develop some. I agree with Sue that a magical pill is a non-starter.

Officerripley,
There's no information on your profile. You mention that you're older and lonely. The groups and organizations you've joined haven't ended in forming friendships.

Medications aren't helpful in forming friendships. There won't be any "magic" pill. It takes giving of yourself and letting others into your life.

So, why don't you tell us about yourself? :)