When most people think of introverts and extroverts they immediately think of the extremes in both cases. Take a second and think of an introvert. What did you see? I'm going to go ahead and guess that you pictured someone ignoring their ringing phone whilst binge watching Netflix in a blanket burrito that they share with at least one of their many cats. You see someone who secludes themselves. Okay, now go ahead and think of an extrovert. Did you think of people who enjoy going out and partying or hanging out with friends on a regular basis and generally feed of off the energy of others? Yeah? Most people do, but this is not always the case.
So you thought of what each of these tropes looked like to you, but where do you fit in? Are you exactly like the people you pictured when you thought of introverts and extroverts separately? No, probably not. Everyone is different, and very many people are a mix of both introvert and extrovert!
These people have some aspects of introverts and some aspects of extroverts. For example, someone could enjoy the company of others but at the same time not want to leave the comfort of their own homes. This leaves these people in a difficult situation, and they sometimes end up feeling disparagingly lonely. These people are always stuck in a predicament of whether or not to feed into their introverted side or their extroverted side when either one doesn't necessarily give them what they desire.
If they feed into the Introverted side of them they tend to feel secluded from society. They might feel anxious about going out with friends but still having the urge to go out, or they feel that they are being annoying when they think that they are always the one to initiate plans to go and hang out with other people and because of this they feel that they are annoying everyone around them. Another way that this can manifest is that they tend to always cancel plans due to feeling anxious about it or just in the mood to be alone.
On the other side, if they feed into the extroverted side of themselves they may feel that when they go out with friends that they are always worrying about something or that they tend to be wanting to be back at home with a book. Other times they do want to be out and about but others they just feel very awkward about the situation this doesn't have anything to do with who they are with for the most part it just is a part of who they are as a person.
Now, overall, these people really do enjoy going out and having fun just like the rest of us. They also enjoy staying in and enjoying quality time by themselves. It just so happens that they don't necessarily fit into the categories of either an introvert or an extrovert. So the next time one of your friends seems to be feeling awkward when they're out, cancels at the last minute or just doesn't respond in regards to plans of going out it may just be that they don't necessarily feel comfortable with the situation.
