Do Introverts Need To Extrovert? – A Pandemic Experiment

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the interweb is overflown with jokes, memes, and articles about introverts having the time of their life. As an introvert, I can attest we did. As a lifetime questioner, I met with a chance to dig deeper into this phenomenon. Do the precious minds of introverts push them to extrovert when the time comes? Let’s put ourselves under the microscope.

Anyone who knows me well, knows I am a recluse, a hermit. I thrive indoors. In the past five months, I’ve only been outside for groceries and doctor/dentist appointments (except for one bookstore visit to support my neighborhood business). The only people I’ve met are my three close friends. Just twice. I can stay for months inside the four walls, contented and happy. This is why the pandemic lockdowns had been incredibly easy on me than it has been on a lot of people. In fact, after I returned home from India in September, I peaked! November 2020 was the best phase of my life- personally, creatively, professionally, and health-wise. I was the happiest, not knowing they were the after-effects of spending seven whole months with people I love.

But life throws unexpected events at you. That’s basically its full-time job.

I was enjoying this blessing in disguise until 2021 began. I started seeing the parts of me that weren’t okay. Something had just turned off inside me, like a switch. I felt like the 24-year-old me. She would work 13-15 hours a day, come back to a lonely apartment, barely change into pajamas, and before sleeping would gulp down a dry meal without its scent in her nose, its taste on her tongue, or its warmth down her throat. I was nowhere close to feeling that exhausted physically but I started feeling like that mentally. I even lost all my motivation to write, which is a litmus test to know the state of my mind.

To combat that feeling, I tried all hacks. I even made a rough list of things I wanted to do when things get back to normal (it’s funny how even all these outdoorsy things are pretty solitary).

It’s not that this list was hard to fulfill. Almost all the things are local. But due to our hospitals’ ICU unavailability, the state of California was under a stay-at-home order from the first week of December until a week and a half ago. It was easy to disobey it because it wasn’t enforced and a huge number of people broke the order anyway. But I felt that if I broke it too, I didn’t deserve the right to complain about the pandemic or mention the ever-rising cases in the US or talk about thousands of innocent deaths. Plus, I prefer maintaining control over my own actions than be among people whose actions I don’t trust. So I stayed home.

But I also had to find out why that switch turned off

Humans are social animals. It doesn’t matter how dear isolation feels, even the most introverted introverts need people, need the outdoors. Research has shown that being in isolation damages people both neurologically and psychologically. In a study carried out by Dr. Heidbreder, they found that breeding rats in isolation caused them to have increased hyperactivity, startle response, and food hoarding behavior. Neurologically, these rats experienced decreased dopamine and serotonin. Because of isolation, these rats were chronically stressed. Not much is different with humans. Even though we are not aware, or in my case, even when I don’t really feel the need to be outdoors or among people, these factors impact the mind and well-being.

Extroverts gain energy from people and the outdoors. Introverts gain it from staying alone inside their minds. But if our mind is not strong enough to keep the charging station running, it’s not going to energize us. It’s going to operate like tires without air.

Now the cases in our state are going down and the stay-at-home order, which I hope is the last one, has finally been lifted. I hope I see the difference enough to allow myself to enjoy these simple pleasures and fulfill this checklist. I can still easily stay six more months at home without complaining or meeting people. But I don’t want to. No one should.

Every introvert needs to extrovert when the inside switch turns off

But COVID isn’t going to go away if we use this as an excuse to stop taking precautions. We have to take care of our mental health, do what soothes us. At the same time, have to avoid large gatherings, wear masks, wash hands, maintain social distance, and take vaccines so that we can all get out of this and start living normal lives. So that, in my case, I can continue spending more time indoors knowing I have the freedom to go out whenever I want, meet whoever I want, among any number of people I want.

There is a high chance you already know what I’ve been talking about. It’s not a wild revelation. But this is my method to convince myself and other hermits like me, to accept this. To listen to our bodies, when our minds refuse to communicate. As for socializing, having a choice is better than compulsion. Not wanting to hang out with people is always better than not being able to.