This is a great post and I sure can identify, except I was often alone growing up so I learnt to love being in my own company. Two key things that are expressed in your post which many people cannot grasp ... happiness comes from within not from external sources... and yes, being alone and being lonely are as different as night and day. Upvoted 100%.
Thank you for the 100%. I'm the same so it was not really such a big deal to be alone.
The love songs people grew up listening repeatedly and those romantic movies, so it is hard to unlearn the society's conditioning about happiness comes from within.