Dove
Well-known member
I feel like ranting.
It wasn't long ago that I came to a realization about myself. When it happened, I felt like I'd found myself. It first came about when I tried the Myers-Briggs test online and the result was that I was an INFP. At that time, I thought being introverted was a bad thing, so I was a little offended at first, but I couldn't help reading about my INFP personality and introversion in itself and feeling like it fitted me perfectly.
Since then I have read books on introversion and sensitiveness (Not sensitive as in not being able to take jokes etc but sensitive-intuitive) and they comforted me with this one simple resounding fact: There is nothing wrong with me.
Nevertheless, even with my new-found self-understanding, the extroverted people I knew still regarded me as quiet and unfriendly, and even when I tried explaining my introversion and how I am perfectly happy sitting quietly, listening to others without having much to say, they just couldn't grasp it. It's like they automatically assumed that if you were soft-spoken, liked relaxing, liked silence, you were (In their eyes) shy and antisocial. And, you can probably imagine how that made me feel: Being alone/not talking seemed even more of a pleasing idea when people thought of me like that... And so the viscious cycle continues.
I don't want to have to make extra effort with extroverts, because it makes me feel uncomfortable - Like I'm a fake. I just want to be accepted for who I am by them, but we are both so confused by each other, it's like we're different species.
*sigh* I think I'll finish there, I feel a little better getting it out.
I'd like to know how other people fare with extroverts... do you have as much trouble as I do when trying to get them to understand you?
It wasn't long ago that I came to a realization about myself. When it happened, I felt like I'd found myself. It first came about when I tried the Myers-Briggs test online and the result was that I was an INFP. At that time, I thought being introverted was a bad thing, so I was a little offended at first, but I couldn't help reading about my INFP personality and introversion in itself and feeling like it fitted me perfectly.
Since then I have read books on introversion and sensitiveness (Not sensitive as in not being able to take jokes etc but sensitive-intuitive) and they comforted me with this one simple resounding fact: There is nothing wrong with me.
Nevertheless, even with my new-found self-understanding, the extroverted people I knew still regarded me as quiet and unfriendly, and even when I tried explaining my introversion and how I am perfectly happy sitting quietly, listening to others without having much to say, they just couldn't grasp it. It's like they automatically assumed that if you were soft-spoken, liked relaxing, liked silence, you were (In their eyes) shy and antisocial. And, you can probably imagine how that made me feel: Being alone/not talking seemed even more of a pleasing idea when people thought of me like that... And so the viscious cycle continues.
I don't want to have to make extra effort with extroverts, because it makes me feel uncomfortable - Like I'm a fake. I just want to be accepted for who I am by them, but we are both so confused by each other, it's like we're different species.
*sigh* I think I'll finish there, I feel a little better getting it out.
I'd like to know how other people fare with extroverts... do you have as much trouble as I do when trying to get them to understand you?