As an introvert, I’ve come across a lot of situations that don’t seem to faze others and things that I do differently. Luckily, though, I’ve met and know of other introverts in the world. But we do tend to have habits that can confuse and irritate our extrovert and ambivert brothers and sisters. However, here’s a small look into introvert things.

1. Dreading having to talk to people on the phone

I hate having to call people with a passion. I will hand it off to people. I don’t even like to order food and I love food. The worst is scheduling appointments. I have to write down everything, yes everything, on a piece of paper, just so I don’t forget anything in my haste to get off the phone. Even then, I usually forget some important detail. I have no idea why it freaks me out and others I know, but we just struggle with it for some reason.

2. Hating crowds

The more people there are around, the more uncomfortable we feel. That means talking to people, trying to squeeze past people without drawing too much attention to yourself and having to do that awkward "excuse me" shuffle. If the crowd is a party, I stick to one person pretty much the whole time and don’t really talk too much because well, that’s the next topic. It’s too loud and I get lost with all the things that are going on. Sometimes, I don’t even stay very long to avoid the awkward conversations and feeling lost in the crowd.

3. Conversation isn’t our forte

Random topics are almost always gushing out of my mouth when I’m talking to people. It’s how my brain works, going on these random tangents that seem to have no connection. So, when I’m talking to people, I have to focus on staying on topic and making sense to other people. There’s just too much going on in my head that I can’t allow myself to process yet otherwise I’d start to tune who I’m talking with out. The opposite of too many thoughts though, is just as likely. All of a sudden, there’s nothing, I can’t think of anything interesting to talk about.

4. Getting lost in your thoughts much too often

I spend a lot of time, speaking to myself in my head and like I said, sometimes random topics pop up and I jump back between those two very different topics. I’ve gotten so deep into conversations with myself that I’ve completely missed things happening around me, like siblings walking into the house. I’m always in my head, so I’m always talking to myself about everything that’s going on around me, or has happened around me. I have full blown discussions with myself all the time. One time I was walking to class, fully engrossed with talking to myself about the difference between why you would use certain words rather than others (connotations verses denotations). I have no idea what else transpired on that walk.

5. Needing alone time

This seems to be the most misunderstood, I think. It has nothing to do with other people. I always feel like I need to come up with some excuse just to get away for a while and have some time just to myself, not having to converse with others, no expectations to communicate. I can just be for a while; I can just let my thoughts collect; I can dissect what happened in the day, what it meant to me, and what I thought about it all, or I can just sit and left my mind be silent for a while which isn’t as often as the former. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to hang out in the future. It’s just that I struggle to function with always talking to others. I’m a much more content person when I get some time to myself.

6. Wanting to be alone, but with someone (even though that makes no sense)

Sometimes though, I don’t like being alone, but I don’t really want to talk to anybody either. So, it’s honestly a weird feeling. I want someone to be there, but just be there, no requirements to talk. It’s comforting to be with someone.

Being an introvert doesn’t mean we don’t like to talk to others. In fact, it’s actually quite the opposite. Since being introverted means we project things inwards (aka into our thoughts, not out loud), we love to converse and get those thoughts out in the world. We just need some time to gather them up and completely know how we feel about something before getting into some hardcore discussions. Either way, we don’t enjoy talking as much as others, but we love thinking and being with others, just in different ways with some alone time sprinkled in.