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Line between introversion and social anxiety
EbbandFlow September 4th, 2015
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How do you tell when not wanting to go to something is a healthy part of just being an introvert, and when it's something you should push through because it's social anxiety holding you back?

The more confidence I'm building in loving who I am, and discovering my interests... The more difficulty I'm having in trying to figure out when I don't want to go to something, whether that is because I genuinely don't like a thing, or when I'm just scared. At the moment I ask one of my partners what he thinks when I am trying to decide, but I'd really like to develop the tools to pick it apart myself :(

4
Poorsarah September 4th, 2015
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Now I'm not a professional but in my opinion, social anxiety prevents you from doing things you actually WANT to do but are to afraid of getting embarrassed, talking to people, etc. Being an introvert means you genuinely just don't want to go out for reasons like you want to relax by yourself and things like that. You should also consider that the two things may overlap sometimes haha. I'm so proud of you for working on loving yourself and beating your anxiety! And I hope you figure everything out :)

AdVictoriam September 4th, 2015
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@EbbandFlow

GoodTherapy has a pretty nice article on this! ^-^

Introversion is feeling drained from interactions with others. You don't mind / dread going out, but it's tiring to you. At the end of the day you want to go back and relax by yourself :)

Social anxiety on the other hand is being fixated by the social interactions. It's more second-guessing and questioning and not being comfortable with interacting with others at all.

Hope that helps!

Clouder September 4th, 2015
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What a fantastic article, @AdVictoriam. Thanks for sharing!

EbbandFlow OP September 4th, 2015
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This is such a great article, thanks so much! That actually cleared that up really well for me :)

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