Comment Re:No such thing. (Score 1) 105
My hypothesis is, that there is no such thing as an "introvert"..
And that it is a mentally damaged individual in any case.
You seem to equate being introverted with being shy, asocial, uncomfortable in public. It isn't that at all, and it's a mistake often made.
Being an introvert is about the way the brain processes information. Introverts process everything much more deeply and unfiltered, and this causes their brains to overload in situations that generate a lot of input. They will listen intently to your conversation, taking in every word, but at the end will feel "assaulted" because they can't filter out any of it.
Extroverts are the opposite. Their processing is more shallow and filtered, and this causes them to crave input, so they seek out social situations with lots of people and lots of activity.
A lot (but not all) of introverts are also HSP (highly sensitive person), meaning their nerves are more sensitive to sound, light, pain, cold, heat. All these things can cause sensory overload, so they tend to avoid situations with loud noises and flashy lights, as you might find in a lot of social gatherings.
People with autism are introverted from birth, their brains are wired differently too. But not all introverts are autistic, the large majority are not. Autistic people are also often HSP, and usually to an even higher degree, having problems with going near things like TL because the perceived flickering and buzzing. It's like all their senses are amped up to 11, which sounds like a great superpower, until you live it.
So it's not a social anxiety that you can fix, or caused by childhood trauma, or not enough parental affection. All these things can cause similar "symptoms", but they are not the same as introversion. When introverts are asocial, it's just because being among people is just too draining, and they'd rather not deal with that all the time.
Extroverts often see introverts as inferior and broken because of all this, and try to "fix" them, and make them more social. While in truth there is nothing to fix, they just perceive the world differently. And there are benefits too: introverts often are better thinkers, strategists, writers, programmers, artists, scientists,
As for damaged: since extroverts see introverts as inferior and different, they often pick on them, bully them, abuse them. So many introverts end up psychologically damaged. But the damage is not the cause of their introversion.
Disclaimer, I'm an introvert, I was born as one, and it's as much a part of me as for example my gender is.