The wrong company can make loneliness look like a luxury.

Time spent with people who diminish you is not company; it is a different and heavier kind of alone. Being by yourself has real costs and it does not require you to manage anyone, perform, or absorb their treatment of you. This is why solitude can feel like relief after certain rooms. The comparison is not an argument for isolation, only for being selective.

Notice how you feel in the hour after seeing certain people, since that is a more honest signal than what you tell yourself about them. Choose fewer, better hours. Then use the freed time to find company that is actually company.