Your post made me smile – I hope you don’t mind. Yup, the path leads to a lonely mountaintop. Enlightenment makes you weird. Did they neglect to mention that when you set out?

I don’t think you need to let go of your society and family (although traditionalists may beg to differ!) but of the longing to be more like them. You tried that. You worked hard to get away. Now rest, knowing that your work has made you different.

It sounds like you could do with some fellow travellers and friends who pursue the same kind of ego death or enlightenment you have been seeking. A sanga, in other words. Is there a way you can spend more time with people like that?