Is there hope or should I just give up?

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^That's terrible! Is there some way I can help?

I used to be extremely depressed for many years, but now I'm one of the most cheerful people on this forum! If I can pull myself free, so can you!

^^No, it's because my attitude towards the world gradually changed to become positive.

Find a cave, move into it, and never come out. I'm way past that point right now.

^^I would start with just seeing the beauty in little things [sunsets, rainbows, kittens]. No one can make you upset without your consent. It took me a long time to learn that lesson, and I'm still learning it.

Suppose you do give up... just hypothetically. Here's the thing: giving up isn't permanent. Sometimes we're just not in a place in our lives where we can achieve all our goals, and some of them need to be set aside to work on others. It doesn't mean you can't continue with them later when the situation changes.

If this is really important to you, then no; don't give up. If there are other things that are also important to you though, and they could use some more attention... maybe you could try devoting more time and energy to those in the meantime. Who knows? You might meet someone in the process.

You need to decide what's best for you right now, and what moves you to a place in your life where you'd like to be.

On top of that I'd add that for a lot of us on the spectrum, it can seem like everyone's got this great love life and there's happy NT couples everywhere. There's not much perspective to suggest otherwise. It's not like that, though. People have all sorts of different experiences with these things and there's a lot of unhappy couples out there, a lot of people who are struggling to make a difficult relationship work... there's people who can't even get a stable relationship despite being charming and extroverted, and as NT as you could imagine. So it probably seems like everyone around you has it great, but in all likelihood things are a lot more nuanced and what you're after is not as far out of your reach as it appears... nor is it as easy for others at it seems.

Perspective is healthy, here.

Everyone is not coupled so try to keep perspective even if it seems like that, there are quite a few single people. Also though having a girlfriend wont get rid of depression, the aspect that they'd be a supportive person in your life certainly helps though. But yeah you still have to be aware if you have depression and fight depressive thoughts going in the direction of not being good enough for the other person or dragging them down or whatever or it can effect the relationship.

I thought t-shirts were casual, when you wore them did any express interests of yours? I don't know if you're more comfortable with t-shirts that might be better to wear...I personally prefer those to button up shirts on guys. Also you don't have to be muscular and slim to have any hope, my boyfriend is more chubby and doesn't really work out...but he's not lazy either either way I like how he looks the way he is I am not secretly hoping gets slim and muscular.

Church and bible study do not seem like very good places to meet anyone, I mean maybe if you're a devout christian and finding someone of the same faith or whatever is important. And college really is hit or miss especially if you don't fit with the norm or don't have some familiar group to hang out with. It might be better to figure out what you interests/hobbies are and see if there are any places to meet people with similar interests. Or if you made an online dating profile put your interests and hobbies and such so then girls with similar interests might respond to messages or message you. But yeah I don't think all hope has to be lost

First off Sweetleaf makes a lot of very good points.
Depression will not be attractive to anyone. Does it attract you?
Focus on your positive traits. If you can't think of any then please clear your head and find a reason to love yourself. What do you offer? Can you cook? Give a great back rub? Fix a bike?
Dress in a way that expresses who you are. It kind of sounds like you are trying to fit into some universal mold and once you squeeze yourself into that mold supposedly miracles will happen. That is not true. If you look closely at people who are coupled they are not all dressed a certain way nor are they all muscular or slender. They probably had one thing in common and that was that they were enjoying life as a single person before they became a couple. Happiness attracts happiness.
Join/Do/Enjoy activities that you truly like to do, however, if all of those happen to be solo activities than you should try and try and try again to find at least two group or people interacting activities that you really like to do. If you like animals, then find a way to volunteer at an animal shelter. There is always a flow of different people through a shelter.
People enjoy people that improve their life and that does not have to mean monetarily.
Everyone likes to tell their story. Ask questions but then actually listen. Your second question should be related to the other person's response to your first question. Don't focus on yourself. I think that is a much easier task than someone telling you to live in the moment but accomplishes the same thing.
Everyone likes to be appreciated and/or admired.
Smile. I'm hoping you find some happiness.

@Sweetleaf:

I know it won't fix everything in my life since even my older cousin and his girlfriend have tiffs every now and then but atleast I'd feel less lonely and I would have someone special to share things with. I do realize my depression does need to be managed but I wish I had more positive vibes in my life. Most people I know or encounter in public are very negative and stuck in future thought mode.

If you were asking about people expressing interest in me if I wore a t-shirt, I would sometimes get told 'Cool shirt' but it never led to a date or anything. When I would ask or look up dating advice, clothing style was often brought up. Some as*hole told me to 'clean yourself up' and posted links to men's polo and button up shirts. Someone was also telling aspie guys to dress up more fashionably and blah blah blah. My mother also would make me wear button up shirts to work because she was so paranoid I would get judged by my fashion style (Just simply t-shirts and jeans). I had a co-worker who wore heavy metal t-shirts and grew his hair long who was well liked and advanced to other positions at that job. Me? I got bitched at for stupid things and I am still in the same position I've had for almost ten years now. I realized how wrong my mom was and I now wear whatever I want for my own reasons.

The exercise thing came from being shamed by my mother for being overweight (She's really judgemental) and dating advice that was actually punishment in disguise. I also live in the Bible Belt and men are expected to be iron pumping jerks or they are not 'real men'. The culture here is very mentally unstable.

I agree that church and bible study were dead ends for me. The people there tend to already have company with them and I was again forced by my mother to go. I did grew up going to church (I live in the Bible Belt after all) but my faith fell apart when the depression really kicked in. The guys in the Bible Study I couldn't connect with because all they cared about was sports and there were hardly any girls in the group. I didn't fit in at college either but it's a long story and it brings up a lot of painful memories so I don't want to go there. I also find it hard finding others with similar interests because most of the culture in the Bible Belt revolves around football fanaticism, country music, hardcore drinking, hardcore smoking, reckless driving, and being a jerk in general. I am the complete opposite of those things. I tried dating websites but I never got any messages.

@beady

I wish I learned how to cook but the oppressive culture around me considers cooking a women's job and men who do it are 'gay'. My older brother especially taunted me by calling me gay and he did a good job ruining my self-esteem to where I don't know what my positive traits are. What is with homophobic men's obsession with what is 'gay'? It's so bizarre! I fortunately stopped trying to fit the mold a long time ago.

I think it is much better to move away from the state of self pity, and use our unfortunate circumstances in life as a motivation rather than a drawback. When we simply focus on our lives current status, which occasionally is unpleasant and confrontational, we lose sight of reversing our depressed state and future goals. Time is a river that is unidirectional; you can not reverse the course of time, but you can swim the other way.

My term for the Bible Belt is 'Vile Belt'. It is truly vile living here on so many levels. The air stinks from people constantly speeding their vehicles everywhere, littering is rampant, roadkill is common, Wal-Mart is considered Shangri-La, rock music of any sort is 'devil's music' but country music is God's gift to man, gays are considered sub-human animals that need to be destroyed despite proclaiming how peaceful and loving Christianity is, evolution is just a "feery", and football is God's other gift to man (In fact, I see more people get excited about the weekend football game than they are about going to church).

I did send messages, especially at ones where the girls listed common interests, but I never got a single response from them.