Exactly - you can't just do it overnight - I told you a story about when I had finally cracked it - but it took me a good six months beforehand to get that far.
A good tip for me when trying to overcome it was to know that I could have an outlet when I was at home, talk to my wife, hash it out over WordPress. I would just let people shit on me constantly and say thank you for doing so - I had to, to make my project work. It was fucking tough! lol
The trick with friends, because at one point I stopped talking to a friend for years because of an argument we had - is to just be the person to come forward and apologise. Pick something truthful about the situation - "sorry I acted the way I did. You're my friend, I shouldn't be like that" and move on wards from there.
But on the other hand don't let friends shit on you! It's kinda weighing up whether it's a good thing if they are in your life or not.
Hope that helps! If only a little :)