How about finding people with things in common? I wasn't able to make a lot of friends in my area so I started a meetup group and met wonderful friends who I can relate to and are like second family to me now just within a year I made great connections. Not sure what country you are in but meetup.com has a lot of different groups. Also you need to be in a positive frame of mind as most people don't want to hang out with a downer. As for your friend, have you thought about talking to your friend and communicating what is wrong and what can improve the situation? Hope this helps.