Have you considered going along to a couple of meetups around the sort of technology you're interested in working with? There are a lot of wordpress meetups around the world, for example. Or maybe even going along to a hackathon, if you'd like to try something a bit more deep tech? Those are both pretty low risk ways of meeting some other people who are into programming, see if you feel comfortable with the sort of work that gets done? It's also a good way of getting yourself known (leading to possible job offers).
