Growing up and in high school I used to suffer from social awkwardness which in turn resulted in me not holding much social value amongst my peers. Over the past few years I have confronted my own social anxiety and learnt to not let it affect how I act in a conversation. I have taught myself to relax and say what comes to mind in conversation and allow my personality to shine through and as a result have made more friends in that period. I live in an incestuous social scene where everyone who attended the private schools in my city has remained friends with each other and so most of the people I currently know knew me as the socially introverted person that I used to be. Now after beating my social anxiety I have come to the stage where many people like me but are still fairly dismissive of me and I sense that they do not hold me at a high social value. I can't work out whether it is my previous social standing which affects me or some other part of my current character which is preventing me from adding social value to my game. I am not a high energy type but don't consider myself to be introverted. I show interest in other people and have opinions to contribute in conversation yet fail to garner the respect from peers that I feel I need to incorporate into my game.

Can anyone share a similar experience to this? Do I need to branch out more and start new? What can I do to build respect for myself amongst my peers?