introverts unite. at home. on our own.

I feel like my introversion really holds me back at times.

It prevents me from meeting new people and holding conversations at events like The New Work on Monday night (I escaped at the first possible opportunity); it makes it harder to maintain connections with people virtually and professionally (just ask my friends!); it holds me back from putting myself out there.

It manifests itself in lots of ways — I find conversations incredibly difficult, i avoid social situations, spending big chunks of solid time with people is exhausting for me and i need to hide away on my own to reboot, and it has a real impact on my mental health which has been a tumultuous journey over the past decade to say the least — so I’m very mindful of not putting myself in situations where i’m at risk.

Mostly I’m okay with it — but now i’m deeper into working as an indy, i don’t have others around me to handle the more extroverted tasks, so it gets much harder to avoid; and as I’m starting to move into “get the Manual of Me out there” mode, it seems like it is a real barrier to me doing more things, or nurturing relationships which would be really valuable — not for my own benefit, but to benefit the people who Manual of Me might be able to support.

Who else in my network deals with this challenge?