Social anxiety and introversion are often mistakenly considered the same thing and used interchangeably. As someone who struggled with social anxiety disorder in the past, and did a lot of research on the subject in the efforts to overcome it, I’d like to clear up a few misconceptions about social anxiety and introversion.
They might seem to have a lot in common on the surface, but their root cause is very different.
Introversion is a personality trait which, in itself, doesn’t make the person suffer and can’t be changed much throughout life, while social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a mental health disorder that can be very distressing and can be overcome with the right self-help approach and/or therapy.
Let’s see why they might seem like the same thing, and the root causes behind each one of them, showing how they are actually two very different states.
1. A socially anxious person and an introvert both tend to avoid socializing.
Introverts recharge their batteries when they are alone, while socializing drains the energy out of them. That doesn’t mean they……..
