I have friends but I still feel completely alone

I'm not a loner. I have friends and I'm around people all the time. But I still feel really lonely and I don't know how to explain it. I can be in a room full of people and feel completely invisible. Like nobody actually knows me, they just know the version of me I put out there. I don't know how to let people actually in and honestly I don't know if I even want to. It's been feeling really heavy lately. I started thinking about the difference between being around people and actually feeling connected to them. I realized I'd gotten really good at being present on the surface without ever really showing up as myself. I also thought about why I keep people at a distance and whether that was protecting me or just keeping me stuck. I realized that the version of me people know is one I carefully put together so nothing could really hurt me. But it also means nothing can really reach me either. The loneliness isn't about not having people around. It's about not letting anyone actually see me. I decided to try being a little more honest with one person I already trust. Not a big conversation, just saying something real instead of something safe next time it came up. That felt like a small enough step that I could actually do it without it being overwhelming.