I'm sixteen, to preface. I'm not annoying or anything, which I feel I unfortunately need to clarify. This year has been horrible for me. I got dropped from my college program for high school, I'm failing, I've developed intense social anxiety to the point where I'm on a "medical" leave from school for the rest of the year, my ex of 4 year cheated on me, and I've just been doing really badly.

I used to play Vrchat with my ex. Recently I became lonely so I wanted to try it again. After playing for a few weeks, I realized even in a fictional world I can't speak. I'm not a shy person, I try to put myself out there, and 'be at the right place' but I'm horrified of rejection or being rude. I don't know how to start. How do I began a conversation like "Hi, I have crippling social anxiety, nice avatar." That would be a horrible start. I hate how difficult this is becoming. It used to be easy. I just want to have people to hang out with who aren't creepy (2 bad encounters in and I'm not digging it) and aren't ridiculously younger than me.