What Is the Introvert Hangover? If you are an introvert, you already have a gut feeling and you’re feeling pretty thankful that there is a name for what you experience.
If you’re an introvert, you already know what I’m talking about because you have likely experienced it more than once. But if you aren’t, or you need help explaining the idea to extroverted friends, here’s an attempt at a description.
Introverts have a more limited ration of energy available for socializing, compared to our more extroverted counterparts. When we push past those reserves, we hit a tipping point where we go from being “fine” to “definitely not okay.” An introvert hangover is, simply put, a withdrawal into oneself brought on by overstimulation.
An introvert hangover is a pretty terrible thing to experience. It starts with an actual physical reaction to overstimulation. Your ears might ring, your eyes start to blur, and you feel like you’re going to hyperventilate. Maybe your palms sweat. And then your mind feels like it kind of shuts down, building barriers around itself as if you had been driving on a wide open road, and now you’re suddenly driving in a narrow tunnel. All you want is to be at home, alone, where it’s quiet.
And if you can’t get solitude when you need it, that’s when your inner voice starts. It can tell you terrible things about yourself. That you’re no fun. That you’re terrible at socializing. That everyone thinks you’re a bore or a snob. You look at the people around you who are laughing and having fun, and you wonder why you aren’t. Why can’t you just smile and join in? Why can’t you just be “normal”?
These feelings are only compounded when other people notice that you’ve stopped communicating and want to find out why. “Why so quiet?” they ask, meaning well. “Are you upset? Are you feeling okay?”
One part of you wants to answer them, another part of you is shouting to just snap out if it, but those parts most often lose out against the part of you that wants to retreat and be left alone. So you end up glowering at people or snapping at them or walking away, the whole time listening to your inner voice telling you what an awful person everyone thinks you are. The way you feel seems irrational, and you know it. But that doesn’t mean that you can suddenly stop feeling that way.
So its not an easy feeling guys.. if you have friends that's having this , we have to expand our understanding of their behaviour.
Nice article