> Some part of me wants to just live in solitude with little or no social interaction at all, but I deliberately avoid it since my rational side tells me I'll end up depressed.

Yep! That's the struggle.

This guy has a pretty nice intro, with a quick 10 minute or so practice you can do: https://youtu.be/3Uqoxo_jPXQ?t=3m33s

Then there's this book which works pretty well as an intro because it's a collection of diverse perspectives, from different people, on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Meditation-Inspiration...

Alan Watts is also generally pretty good—can find talks from him on youtube, and he's written many books.

I've also been treating RSI in the framework of Mindbody Prescription. I'm still just starting with meditation, but it seems like the main skill it teaches (this post describes it well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8670184) is precisely what's good for getting over the RSI(like) problem: the main thing is to understand the 'sensations' aren't something that you need to deal with when they arise, it's okay if they arise—just let them pass. I'd gotten into a way of thinking that if the sensations were there it meant things were going poorly, if not they were going well; while what seems better is, things are okay either way. You don't want to stop the sensations, you want to understand they aren't harmful. I've done a decent survey of meditation literature, and I think a good overview from a number of perspectives would be this one: http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Meditation-Inspiration...

Also, I thought this book was better than any of Sarno's for TMS stuff http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Recovery-Back-Neck-Pain-ebook/dp...

Lemme know if you have other questions or anything.