Anxious Living

Typology and Social Anxiety: Part 2 - SAD and Introversion

September 19th, 2006 by Ryan Oelke

This is part 2 of a series of posts on typology and social anxiety. Part 1 explores the relationship between social anxiety and typology. Part 2 explores the particular connection between introversion and social anxiety. Part 3 provides methods for exploring typology and applying it to the path of overcoming social anxiety.

The best way that I can demonstrate the importance of typology in working with social anxiety is by using my own life as an example. I first learned that I was an introvert and embraced that fact long before I formally knew I experienced social anxiety. I remember feeling a huge sense of relief because I had long been resisting that part of me. Unfortunately, introversion is only recently being fully understood¹, and our society still reacts to it as “shyness” or something abnormal. Which brings me to an important point: SAD and introversion can be easily confused, especially by a person with SA, as I should know.
It is very easy for an introvert to see their natural and wonderful qualities of personality as being symptoms of SA, and as a result they are anxious about who they really are, which only makes things worse. To recognize and differentiate what are SA behaviors and tendencies, and what are our intrinsic and valuable qualities of our personalities is very important. If I think my introverted behaviors, thoughts, and feelings are manifestations of my SA, I will fight myself, in a sense devouring myself from the inside out. Exactly the opposite of what is helpful.

In the past I saw my introverted desires as being socially akward and defective, and so I would resist them seeing them as negative and try to be…someone else, an alter ego. All this is simply adding anxiety on top of anxiety. Much of this changed when 1. I understood what introversion is, that it’s normal and valuable, and 2. I recognized I was surrounded by people who valued extroversion over introversion, which tended to skew my self-perception. I believe this was key in my own path in overcoming SA. When I finally recognized SA tendencies and behaviors I already could, for the most part, recognize what was introversion and what was anxiety. I think I will always have to “check in” to see what is what. As I mentioned, the two are easy to confuse, and it’s easy for a self-aware introvert to cop out and claim their avoidance behaviors are introverted behaviors.

Overall, I have noticed that since realizing my introvert qualities and embracing them I am much more relaxed and comfortable in my own skin. So much of my energy used to go to trying not to be an introvert. Not only have I stopped creating as much anxiety as before and losing energy, I’ve gained energy by appreciating this part of who I am.

If you consider yourself an introvert, how does that factor into your experience of social anxiety? If you notice that you are more extroverted, what has your experience been? This could also be discussed in terms of countless other typology sets, so feel free to discuss those as well.

1. The Introvert Advantage is and excellent book on what introversion is and how introverts can take advantage of their own personality strengths, as well as how to live in an extrovert world [back]

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