If you found yourself nodding along to any of these questions, you may have some tendencies towards introversion.

And if that’s the case, my article today is a veritable love letter to you, my dear fellow introvert.

In it, I talk about what introversion is, how you can assess if you are an introvert, the unique challenges and needs you as an introvert may have in this modern world, and I pose some prompts and questions to help you uncover and unpack any lingering embarrassment, resistance, or stories you may have around identifying as such.

And, at the end of the article, I also share a list of my very favorite introvert-affirming resources with you.

Note: If you don’t identify as an introvert but possibly know one (maybe your spouse, child, someone you supervise at work), this article may prove valuable to you, too!

So whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, keep reading.

What exactly is an introvert?

Introversion is a core personality trait that, along with extraversion, exists on a spectrum within each of us.

It’s a central tenant that exists within most personality typology systems, perhaps most famously the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (based off the work of Carl Jung) that illustrates what an individual’s dominant behavioral inclinations are.

Introversion essentially posits that those of us who fall more heavily on the introverted side of the spectrum tend to have an inner-focused orientation to life while extroverts tend to have a more outer-world focused orientation.

There’s informally a third category, too, that I personally appreciate: ambiversion, which accounts for the fact that some of us may fall squarely in the middle of that spectrum.

And, in my opinion as a therapist, I don’t think where we fall on this spectrum is rigid and set across age or circumstance.

In other words, we may shift and slide along the spectrum at different life stages and in different circumstances, feeling more or less introverted or extroverted in response to life.

However, generally speaking, those of us who self-identify as introverts at one point or another are:

• Usually concerned with and deeply reflective of the richness of our inner mental and emotional worlds;
• We get more energized by time spent alone versus in crowds or with others;
• We may prefer to have a smaller group of very close friends over a larger group of acquaintances;
• We can be very self-aware;
• Networking, small-talk, and meeting new people at parties/events can feel very challenging to us;
• And too much stimulation may overwhelm us and make us feel crabby, tired, scattered, and prompt us to “shut down.”

Of course, these are only a few of the characteristics of introverts and, like with everything else in life, how introversion shows up in you personally will be subjective.