I had an active social life, but I’d convinced myself my friendships weren’t enough. I wanted a boyfriend: someone who’d never look at my message and think, ‘I’ll reply to that tomorrow’ as I, ironically, did all the time. On dark, cold Sunday nights, I’d curl up in my armchair with my phone, ignoring my friends’ WhatsApps and redownloading Hinge on autopilot.

I couldn’t shake the idea that if I just had a boyfriend, I’d never feel lonely again. Even if my boyfriend and I weren’t in the same place geographically, I’d still never feel alone, I reasoned. I’d know he was there on the other end of the phone; that somewhere in the world walked a person who saw me as their priority. That would be enough for me.

I’m not the only one who has felt this way. “We receive a lot of inaccurate and unhelpful messaging in society about relationships,” says chartered psychologist and couples therapist Dr Sheena Kumar. “This messaging takes on a fantastical lens that romantic relationships are the answer to all our problems. It goes on and on through movies, advertising, novels, and without realising, we internalise this message that a romantic partner will meet our core needs.”

Obviously, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Ignoring my friends’ funny, thoughtful messages – messages that burst at the seams with love, if I could have just seen it – in favour of Hinge only ever made me feel (shock!) worse. I was pushing the people who actually cared about me to the periphery of my mental world in favour of countless strangers, which inevitably made me feel more lonely.

“I thought I’d never feel lonely again if I had a boyfriend. I was wrong”