Truity's Personality and Careers Blog

A stranger walks into the elevator and starts chatting to you. A friend pops over for a surprise visit. The boss announces that you’re going to start the meeting with a “fun” icebreaker. If you’re an Introvert, all of these situations can make your blood run cold. 

We all know that being an Introvert doesn’t mean you don’t love people. It's just that sometimes, you wish you could love them from a distance. With that in mind, here are 12 nightmares that every Introvert will relate to – because they’re situations that put so much pressure on our precious energy reserves.

1. Someone sabotages your "me" time. 

Tonight, you’re staying in. You've picked a self-care routine to recharge your batteries. You’ve put your phone on silent. You’ve planned the perfect solitary evening but, as soon as you start to relax, someone you live with makes it impossible. Maybe they’re making too much noise so you can’t concentrate (yikes). Maybe they’re venting about their day (double yikes). Or maybe they’ve invited people over for a few drinks (excuse us while we lock ourselves in the bathroom). If that’s not nightmare enough, now you have to be polite with sympathy and chit-chat so you don’t come across as rude. Sigh.

2. The dreaded team work. 

If you’re an Introvert, being forced to engage in a teamwork exercise is your own personal hell. You try to be positive, but it’s like being stuck in quicksand. In these scenarios, you’ll either find yourself plastering on the fake enthusiasm and going along with everyone else’s ideas to get it over with as quickly as possible or, worse, agreeing to do the bulk of the work on your own. The main nightmare? It's a brand-new team and the boss has decided to kick things off with a few friendly icebreakers. Team building games are the worst.

3. You find out your relatives are coming to visit, back-to-back-to-back.  

Aunt Tanya and Uncle George are coming one week. You have a cousin stopping by the week after. And then there’s a small family reunion where a dozen or so people will loudly invade your living space with their chatter and hugs and jokes. How do you cope? Each of these events is already a nightmare on its own and now you’ve got all of them in one big bundle. The thought alone can make an Introvert cry.

4. Someone shows up at your doorstep unannounced.

Imagine you haven’t seen a friend in ages and the doorbell rings. “Oh, I was just passing through,” they say. Rationally, you’re happy to see them and you want to catch up. But you had no warning. Now you must be social, and you never had a chance to get your head in the buddy zone. Ugh.

5. You’re the center of attention in public.

It's your birthday, or you got a promotion, or you did something cool and everyone’s gathered to celebrate. Obviously, your partner, boss, friend, whoever wants to make a big scene. But you can feel the eyes on you, scanning your every move as if they expect something from you. All the pressure is about as much fun as being asked to perform a song in a karaoke bar. Hopefully it’s worth your favorite dessert as a reward.

6. You’re picked to talk in class or at work.

Excuse me, what? You haven’t prepared anything! And now you have to come up with something to say on the fly. You hope you sound like you know what you’re talking about, but you feel like you’re fumbling over your words and rambling because your brain is moving faster than your mouth. Introverts have literal nightmares about being put on the spot. It usually ends with them waking up howling.

7. You run into someone you know. 

Every Introvert has been there. You hope for a quick and peaceful store trip – get in, get the goods, get out – and the next thing you know, you’re face-to-face with someone you know on aisle 17. And now you're stuck talking about the weather and your job and their kids and their neighbor’s barking dog and how long it’s been since you’ve seen each other. How long before you can make your excuses and leave?

8. When you have to make two phone calls on the same day. 

It’s bad enough that you have to make one awkward phone call, but when you hear “I’m sorry, but we need a second phone call tomorrow” on the other end of the line… well, it’s like hearing a horror movie theme song playing in the background. It gets worse if you spend the bulk of the time making small talk with a customer service representative while they’re trying to track down an answer to your question.

9. Surprises.

Everyone likes surprises, right? Er...no. Not if you’re an Introvert. You don’t like surprises because they're out of your control and can easily make you uncomfortable. The worst kind of surprise? Surprise parties, surprise visitors, surprise partner up with the sweaty stranger next to you in your yoga class. Some of us will even read the last chapter of a book first to make sure we’re prepared ...

10. You’re stuck at a party and have no way home.

It doesn’t matter if you enjoyed the party and the conversation was great – it's hours past how long you planned to stay and all you can think about is how to escape. You can’t drive home because your ride's still partying like it's 1999 and you feel it’s rude to take an Uber. The horror.

11. The stranger beside you tries to make small talk. 

Why does this always happen on public transportation when there is literally no escape? All you want to do is mind your own business and get to where you’re going. But the person next to you has clearly been living under a rock because they don't seem to know the “space bubble” code that exists in these places – the one that says “leave me alone and do not make eye contact with me.” Or is that just an Introvert code?

12. You’ve overbooked yourself for the whole week and have zero downtime.

So imagine you’ve penciled in more than one social outing during your week, plus a copious workload, errands, chores and more. You’ve made it impossible to get a smidgen of alone time, and no one is to blame but you. And getting out of it means making tons of phone calls, scheduling changes and explaining yourself. If only you could go back to bed and start the week over....