11 Things People Don’t Realize You’re Doing Because You’re An Introvert With Anxiety

1. You choose your friends carefully.

You are incredibly selective with who you spend your time with. Since you don’t spend a ton of time going out, you choose friends who are great listeners and who are immensely loyal. You’ve never been the type of person to become ‘bffs’ with everyone you meet.

2. You’re often labeled as stuck up.

People like to immediately assume you are snotty and don’t care about anyone but yourself because you spend so much time on your own. In reality, you are incredibly sensitive and empathetic. You just don’t choose to be an over-sharer with your time and with your life.

3. You quickly shut down when you don’t know anyone at a gathering or party.

Going somewhere where you don’t know anyone is your worst nightmare. You like to go over future conversations in your head, but always forget them when you show up. These types of gathering give you so much anxiety, that you usually choose to skip out all together (even if it’s something that you’ve been looking forward to).

4. You easily feel incredibly overwhelmed.

You’re easily sweaty, nervous and overwhelmed by too much stimulation. Loud concerts, huge crowded parties, and even small get togethers can launch you into a panic attack. You never know when your anxiety is going to strike, which makes you more eager to not go to any situation that you think might be triggering for you.

5. You say no to invitations more than you say yes.

For the sake of your mental health and to ensure you don’t freak out anyone else, you say no to a lot of requests and invitations. Saying no for you is extremely hard because you’re definitely a people pleaser, but in your mind it’s better to not let people see the side of you that is unpleasant in your eyes.

6. You’re ideal night is spent with yourself or a close friend, having intellectual stimulating conversations.

Your perfect night is either just with yourself or with one or two best friends. You’re not a wild, party child. You hate trying new things like clubbing or going to a new bar down the street. You ultimately enjoy the simple things in life like good conversations and quiet nights that don’t stress you out to the max.

7. You can’t do any type of drugs or over drink alcohol.

You hate feeling like you’re out of control in any circumstance in your life. When you drink too much, you can easily loose your cool and start to panic much more easily than if you’re sober. You usually refuse to go past your limit because it causes too much distress.

8. You find yourself having FOMO constantly.

Even though you say no a lot and you don’t get out much, when you see your friends enjoying time together, you are filled up with jealousy and envy. As much as you try to be more extroverted and carefree like they are, you simply can’t change how your brain is wired.

9. The ‘unknown’ terrifies you to the point of self-destruction.

Thinking about your future and the unknown is something that will send you until a full on frenzy. You can’t even think about tomorrow, never mind where you see yourself in five years. You despise when people ask you what your plan is for the next few years, and it can cause damage to your health.

10. If you don’t have a ‘play by play’ of the day ahead of you, you are likely to give up.

You love knowing what is going to happen at all times. If something goes not according to plan, or not according to what you anticipated, it’s easy for you to stop what you’re doing and go home. You feel defeated easily if something doesn’t go as plan, and this includes dates and conversations as well.

11. You don’t have too many friends, but the friends that you do have mean the world to you.

Your friends make your world go from dark to light, and they understand you in ways that not many people do. They always know when something is triggering your anxiety, and do whatever they can to calm down. They don’t judge you for canceling plans either, because they care about your mental health more than a dumb party. There are a lot of people out there who have more friends than you do, but your friends are the real deal and you wouldn’t want to have it any other way.