I don't know if this would work for everyone else but I was super depressed not finding much joy in anything, and 99 times out of 100 I feel like I'll be happier staying single forever than trusting people (even my family) with my heart and feelings. But my little nephew (5) thinks I'm a rock star lol. He wants to hang out with me, share every cool thing he likes, etc. Tonight I'm staying at his place and he wanted to sleep in the same bed as me and make a fort lol. He always just wants to be around me and tells me I'm cool. But I didn't consciously do anything to "deserve" him feeling that way and favoring me over other family members (Other than he's an "Aspie" and he always comes to me when he seems stressed with other people cause I don't touch him a lot and help him chill). At first when he started being like this I was like, "okay, too much, nephew," but then I started thinking and just let go. It actually is really good training for when I'm around other people to have been around someone who thinks I'm really fucking awesome lol. I never caught on to my nephew's like for me until my family started pointing out how he always wanted to ride in the same car as me, sit by me, try to stay awake with me until I went to bed etc. For a long time I always got annoyed by it like I had to perform for him and was out of energy to do so. But tonight, I was like, "Hell yeah, buddy, let's make a SUPER FORT, better than any other fort ever." Cause tonight it was more like, "He'll love this, I would have killed for such an epic fort at his age." :-)

So even though this is messed up in a way, I feel like love, even the kind for family, is super related to attraction and sex. And I know it's weird cause he's a young boy but I've essentially "charmed" (seduction-sex=charm?) my cousin into thinking I'm cool. It all started cause people would mistreat him because of his condition so I wanted to be his go-to guy he didn't have to worry about being awkward around or whatever. But from me just wanting to be "whatever" about who he is, now he thinks I'm his favorite uncle and he has his my sister call me for him lol. Through giving him undivided "bro time" (he has two older brothers) and playing games like Minecraft with him and just him, having "deep" 5-year old conversations, buying him a toy or two, etc., just the two of us we've connected. He loves me. I'm his cool uncle and that's that. And I don't have to do or be anyone special other than just...me. I pay attention to him a bit more than others and I admit it. I treat him as special as I think he is, and the rest takes care of itself. But oddly and confusingly enough as a person who is terrified of the girl who comes on too strong my nephew has given me some legitimate, psychologically based "exposure therapy" to people who have an infatuation with me.

So my advice is to spend time around people who make you feel good and WANTED as much as possible if you're feeling ugly and unattractive. Yeah your mom thinks your handsome. Go with it. No joke ask her why she thinks you should be getting all these girls lol She's completely biased and her advice might suck lol. That's okay, the point is to realize that when you meet a girl and start connecting they will start pulling these "mom" and "nephew" bits on you and you'll start seeing people, even beautiful women "give up" on playing games with you and just start caring about you, calling you, asking about your day, etc.

Edit: Please don't take this the wrong way cause my cousin is so young. For me I've been hurt a LOT in my past and as it is the only people I have no problems trusting are younger kids and dogs lol. I can meet a girl who seems enfatuated and have sex and after it's all said and done feel like she faked the whole thing lol. So his approval of me in my natural state was what it took for me to see that other people are trying to do the same thing and not being creepy/desperate for anyone. It may not be a little nephew for you, but a clingy girl in school or a mom or even a male friend. Who knows.