You have a constant need for external validation because you lack self-esteem.

My answer may sound corny, but try to take up some hobby. A hobby can be called anything that brings you pleasure (4chan is also a hobby) Honestly, physical exercise helped me in difficult moments. After playing sports, my thoughts became free, and I began to like myself.

>>33641199
>Why does my happiness depend on whether I have a romantic obsession or not
Perhaps it is because you prefer it.

Happiness may or may not be able to be derived from a multitude of sources; some of them from the unlikely, some lurking where you have already previously checked such as items you may have deemed to be well beneath.

>how do I stop needing them to reciprocate my feelings when I'm clearly delusional
Do you really?

>>33641199
>Why does my happiness depend on whether I have a romantic obsession or not
You're a toy with no battery, a car with no gas - you get your energy solely from the efforts that other people put into you as opposed to having any kind of self-sustaining emotional mechanisms. When people are praising you and loving you then you feel great. When nobody is praising you and loving you then you feel worthless. That's how it goes when you need other people's validation to make you feel good about yourself.

>how do I stop needing them to reciprocate my feelings when I'm clearly delusional
You want them to reciprocate not because you have any genuine romantic interest in them as a person but because their validation is your fuel. You can't survive without it. That's why their participation in this emotional dynamic with you isn't necessary. They might as well not even exist. For your mind, they're just a battery - an energy source you can consume to stave off your depression. You're the only one who can answer this question of no longer needing them. Something or series of things happened to you in your life to stifle your emotional growth and make you incapable of building your own sense of self. I can't possibly know what that is. Maybe sit down with someone and figure it out.

>>33641199
You live in a world of nonconformity and uniqueness so when someone who is simple and honest like myself appears complimenting you, you assume from your nonconformist mindset I'm bullshitting you, because in your world everyone who is trying to do the right thing and good thing are lying trying to cover up a lie. You reinforce that belief when your mother yells at you to get off the Xbox yelling at her that she is a fascist. When in reality all of us who is of this system is seeing a guy who we want to help, but can not do anything about it, because he thinks digging himself further and further in a hole is what keeps him away from the world. This world you believe no one is good in. You assume churches are a part of the KKK, you assume schools are turning children submissive, you believe your parents are blind to your pain, you believe every conservative politician out there is only got up there due to influencing the rich, and you think soldiers are savage beasts who fight in wars only to savor a sick sociopathic pleasure.

Anon when you live your life like this, people who you see passing by your day are going to be genuine, and in your head because they don't fit your complication like the friends you smoke pot with after feeling like the world isolates you when really you are gonna be okay; anyway these genuine people are going to show they care about you. There is no need to act all cool and tough. Drop your guard. Throw away the bullshit detector that you use everytime you feel a kid who you feel is not at your intellectual level is. Because most certainly you and your pothead friends get the world and the common man doesn't.

Anyway, just drop the bullshit detector. Okay, yeah me and a lot of people are too mainstream for you, but we care about you and want what is best. If you can't see that oh well at least we're giving you your freedom you wanted.