How do y’all make friends?

Intellectually I know how to make friends and maintain friendships. But whenever I socialize, I mask way too well and I always end up making friends with people that I have to mirror for them to continue liking me. Like, how do you make friends, and at the same time make sure you’re actually being yourself while doing it? I guess the logical thing is to not mirror, but it happens automatically. I’m so sick of not being able to be myself. Since I was a kid, I’ve just detected and imitated the patterns of the people around me for survival kinda, and now I don’t know how to function as myself. There is a great gap between how I’ve learned how to function, and how my brain really functions in situations. People tell me that when I meet someone who I vibe with, I’ll just know. I suppose that might be true, but like I really can’t tell the difference between a real vibe or if it’s just them vibing hard to the reflection of themselves. Im so used to it, it usually takes some time until I realize if I am, and have been, mirroring the whole time or not. I feel like I’m wasting so much time and energy, and I get so tired and frustrated. Being alone would be nice, but as a human I have social needs, and I’ll get depressed if I self isolate too much.

I figured I really like to talk with other people about stuff Im interested in. I’ve tried it out on some occasions, but I always tend to accidentally talk too much about it if I start, and then their response is often negative and I feel like I’m doing something really bad and twisted and wrong. Therefore I don’t talk about my interests, and I suppose it makes sense why I’m not attracting people with common interests.

Does anyone have any tips on this or any experiences they want to share or advice or anything?