hi! i'm a noob emerging from a long depression, but getting some intoxicating momentum. I'm just doing what i know is said to work: tons of meditation, exercise, nofap, choosing healthy self care / fun activities, going out a ton, unstifling myself with ballsy acts of weirdness, opening every day etc.

I'm FINALLY starting to get out of my own way, and I am seeing attraction on almost all my opens, which is very exciting. I am getting pretty consistently stuck shortly after the open though. It's starting to go well, ive got her and her friends all laughing, her wide eyes are darting back and forth on mine etc. But... then the momentum kind of dies, and i can feel this awkwardness of me standing there with this mounting climate of anxiety, and i start to see her and her friends as "tolerating" me, and i become aware of my (especially female) friends watching the awkwardness of it all, and i eject myself. What are the common sticking points with midgame? am i just leaving the set too soon? I'm not getting great results with number closing as soon as that either because not enough attraction has built.