I don't feel like it's possible to really connect with other people though. Actually tbh, realizing that humans can only ever really know notions of other people, ideas existing within and exclusive to one individual, never mutually shared, and never actually knowing or understanding others as they truly are, well it was quite a liberating revelation for me. I don't need to fool myself into projecting an idea, or an idealized concept onto another person to be happy, as the other individual isn't the important bit, at least not as far as you're concerned anyway. It's how you feel about them, and how you perceive them that results in the feeling of fulfillment. Both of these are things constructed solely by you, it's just that having another individual physically present makes such things easier to attain and accept.
Connection is only as "real" as you perceive it to be, and loneliness, the feeling of being alone, well it's just another arbitrary perception. It's possible to change this perception if you have the willingness to do so.