Alex's Answer

Hello, thank you for reaching out to Ask Alex. 

We appreciate you sharing your thoughts with us. You were wondering how to get your friends to include you more. 

Feeling included in a friend group is very important. They can be a source of support and joy as well as a way of increasing our sense of belonging and purpose. It’s understandable then that you want to explore ways you can better, and more often, connect with them.  

One of the ways you can approach this is to talk to your friends about how you’re feeling. Would you feel comfortable having a conversation with them around being more involved in what they do? Sometimes it’s easier to talk to a friend one-to-one rather than in a group. If this seems difficult right now, perhaps discussing it with a trusted adult might help. This could be a parent, caregiver, aunt/uncle, grandparent, older sibling or teacher. You might find some of the information on the Childline website useful as well. It has a separate section just on friends including this page that offers advice on ways you can make friends: https://www.childline.ie/do-you-struggle-to-make-friends-here-are-a-few-things-that-might-help/.  

Childline would love to talk to you more about your feelings and what is going on for you. How would you feel about giving us a call on 1800 66 66 66 or a text at 50101 or even web chat through www.childline.ie. One of the things we can do when you talk to us is allow you to practice having a conversation with your friends which might take away some of the nerves/fear around it. The services are free and confidential and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  

Thank you again for getting in touch and know that Childline is always here when you need to talk. 

Take care,   

Alex