In addition to therapist, as others state, I'd also suggest just being more open with your friends (I also get that it can be intimidating to see a therapist and it's easy to justify not going, especially if you're in a good mood). Maybe grab some beers or something to create a scapegoat/plausible deniability if needed. I've long suffered from depression and this has been one of the most impactful moves for me, especially around identifying latent issues that appear more ethereal. It can be hard, especially in our general gender norms (I'm male) where some people will think it is a weakness (men and women), but to me strength is doing the hard things. YMMV, but I think it is important to have friends and/or partner(s) that you can be open with and just have the ability to vent. Fuck, sometimes I don't even know what I'm upset about until I let off a little steam first, and often just an outside opinion helps.
I can also suggest small internet communities as these can be places to form friendships while having some PII type of anonymity and at least for me helped me be more open before I was ready to open up to friends. Places like HN and reddit are probably too large, but hey, I'll put this out in general to anyone, feel free to reach out over email[0]. You can also get something similar by just talking to random people at a bar.
Whatever works best for you, but it all is a noisy process. But at the end of the day I think what's most critical is that you find some means of just opening up. You don't have to stick to one group either, and if you need to start at one place to build up to another, there's no problem with that. Take it as a journey, not a destination. But I will say having at least a one or two core friends (and ideally a partner) is going to be one of the most helpful things you can do for your mental health. A therapist will never be enough but you should think of them as a very useful and different tool (because you do want advice not coming from those who want to protect you. Outside opinions are invaluable and a good therapist will do their best, but consider they can only work with the context you give and what they can get from you).
[0] In my profile. And if anyone has a suggestion for a better anonymous email, let me know. I'm kinda annoyed at proton's ads.
I can also suggest small internet communities as these can be places to form friendships while having some PII type of anonymity and at least for me helped me be more open before I was ready to open up to friends. Places like HN and reddit are probably too large, but hey, I'll put this out in general to anyone, feel free to reach out over email[0]. You can also get something similar by just talking to random people at a bar.
Whatever works best for you, but it all is a noisy process. But at the end of the day I think what's most critical is that you find some means of just opening up. You don't have to stick to one group either, and if you need to start at one place to build up to another, there's no problem with that. Take it as a journey, not a destination. But I will say having at least a one or two core friends (and ideally a partner) is going to be one of the most helpful things you can do for your mental health. A therapist will never be enough but you should think of them as a very useful and different tool (because you do want advice not coming from those who want to protect you. Outside opinions are invaluable and a good therapist will do their best, but consider they can only work with the context you give and what they can get from you).
[0] In my profile. And if anyone has a suggestion for a better anonymous email, let me know. I'm kinda annoyed at proton's ads.