Self-reliance should reduce fear, not increase suspicion of others.

There is a form of self-reliance that grows out of trust in yourself, and it makes you calmer around other people because you are not braced for disappointment. There is another that grows out of having been let down, and it keeps score. The behaviours look identical from outside, and only the first one actually reduces the fear.

Check the feeling underneath your independence. If it involves a low hum of expecting people to fail you, the capability is not doing what it was supposed to. Try depending on someone in a small, low-risk way and let the result be information rather than confirmation.