this problem is one we all share but I wonder whether you are in the right place to find answers that can actually help you? for me any help comes only from my faith in God which is no use to you at all.
one way I went wrong back gradually through my forties (I am guessing you are way younger than that) is to try to fill the gap where your yf once was with pictures. pictures (especially still ones on the internet) can really affect people emotionally: somehow sucking life out and taking away all opportunity for doing really human stuff like TALKING and LAUGHING and CRYING and everything that makes us 'who we are'.
People and people and maybe (if you are a lonely person) films and even good tv are a way of staying in touch with 'who you really are'. Reading books is even better than films and walking is a way of staying in touch with the rest of the world you belong to . . . you might think all that sucks not sure but the two really dangerous things are:
isolation and internet.
Hobbies are no good in themselves but you meet people that way (unless you take up something solitary like bird-watching!!).
Keeping a journal is a good way of staying in touch with where you're at if you live alone . . . or a blog maybe?
just a few ideas . .
just one thought: you said "old barriers that were holding me back have started to come down".
What barriers were they and why are they coming down?