People have always mistaken me as either a shy and afraid person who didn’t know how to be social or someone who didn’t like to socialize and hates people. Neither of these two is true, I’m just introverted, it took me a long time to understand this and before I did, I always thought there was something wrong with me. I never enjoyed being around a lot of people and always preferred to be alone so I’m writing this article now because I’m tired of being told something like “be more social” or “go out more” etc.
Who are introverts?
Simply we are normal people who like to be alone most of the time not because we’re afraid of people or because we hate them but because we just get so overwhelmed when in crowds and we reenergize and recharge ourselves by being alone reading a book, journaling, thinking, binge watching a favorite TV show…etc. And when I say ‘alone’ I really mean alone somewhere closed where I can’t see or hear anyone else, pets are welcome though 😄
4 Misunderstood Characteristics of Introverts:
1- First of which is needing lots of alone time which is why we are called introverts. For me personally I find that I need quite a lot of alone time especially that I am also an empath, someone who feels other peoples’ feelings without knowing sometimes, and I live in a noisy environment and so I’m always overstimulated. Most introverts are also empaths or at least highly sensitive which explains why we need a lot of time in solitude.
2- We don’t talk much, or at all because there is a tornado of ideas inside our brains and it just feels so hard to verbalize it sometimes. We also tend and sometimes prefer to keep our thoughts, opinions, and feelings to ourselves for fear that we hurt someone’s feelings if we say them; we really hold back a lot. But sometimes that is just us being selfish about our rich inner world that we just don’t want to share with you Haha.
3- We’re independent thinkers and somewhat rebelious and I know that just might annoy some people but we can’t help it, we just take decisions on our own without consulting with anyone and we don’t like when anyone tries to impose their ideal and what they think is best on us. Now, I know that sounds arrogant but because we spend so much time in our own brain, we know what we need and want and even if we make mistakes, everybody does mistakes; we like to see for ourselves rather than being told.
4- We don’t like to answer the phone, we just prefer written communication it gives us the time to choose our words and make sure we are not misunderstood if we respond without much thinking, and yes we neeeeeed to think before we respond. We also prefer to see the words rather than hear them because when we hear, some things tend to drop; written words allow us to reread and reread if we need to 😄
Are there any other characteristics that people misunderstand about you as an introvert that I missed? Let me know in the comments 😊
Comments