I've read Neil Strauss's the game and it seems that a common theme across nearly all successful PUA's is that deep down they were lonely people.

My question to the successful pickup artists in this community is that after you became more successful with women (and groups in general), can you honestly say you are more happy?

Or do your successes merely translate into 'social highs' that eventually wear off and you try to seek even bigger thrills to feel that same level of social acceptance/love.

From my experience with this community I've become much more openly extroverted, most of the time people enjoy my company and I enjoy theres. But as soon as the interaction ends I still feel just as lonely as I did before I met them. So I sink down into a valley of mild depression, rebound with some "I am awesome" reaffirmation, and seek the next social high. (I am naturally very introverted and have to force myself to switch into a mode of extroversion; aka getting in state).

However when I go long periods without a social high I'll sit down at my desk and write terrible stories about loneliness and depression that forms a terrible negative feedback with myself. Whenever I hit this point occasionally the only thing that gives me a mental reboot is going out to the clubs in my city, getting shit-faced, and dancing my ass off with a bunch of girls, being loud and awesome, and stealing kisses from unsuspecting girls (point to cheek & turn your head last second). It's like alcohol and club music turns me into a totally different person and I love this person who I have become, because this is the kind of person who I want to be, exciting. And when I finally go home, the afterglow is enough to keep socially satiated for the next couple days.

Now just to clarify I don't feel the need for social validation/respect my peers. I never do something out of my own expense just to make someone like me better.

Does anyone go through anything similar?

Update: I really want to thank everyone here for their honest insight. This subreddit gets a bad rap over the Internet for no good reason. The advice I got here I don't think I could have gotten anywhere else. I've read most of the comments and plan on reading all of them this weekend but *I have learned 2 incredibly valuable lessons. *

  1. Have the courage to be myself, the social fallout that may happen will actually benefit me because these are the type of relationships that are literally toxic and detrimental to what I want to become. (This reminds of an article about the 5 biggest regrets of people on their deathbeds. I think #3 was regretting being what was expected of them instead of what they wanted). By doing this I will lose relationships I hate but find ones that I really like.

  2. Try to separate myself from my ego entirely. I think my need for a connection is just my desire to find someone to fix me or at least let me know that I'm not alone in my thoughts, beliefs, and philosophies of life. Which is really a backwards an wrong way to go about being. The point of this subreddit is to learn how to add value, not how to use people to cope with your own eccentricities. If I can just be comfortable and happy with what I am and where I am going things should work themselves out.

With all this being said I think what I'm going to do in lieu of doing shrooms is travel alone across east Asia. I'm in Korea right now in university and we have a 2 week break coming up. It would be nice to completely detach myself from everyone and the Internet to meet new people and learn what I'm really capable of.