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Struggle with introversion and socializing: Is it an INFP thing?

6836 Views 12 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  rebornintheglory
Hi!
I was wondering if this is an INFP trait/characteristic or maybe it's just me.
Right now, I'm caught in a horrible cycle which it seems is hard to get out. This is a bit long so I hope someone will bear with me. :-S

I have a hard time making new friends. I want to but somehow my fear is crippling me from initiating conversations instead of waiting for someone to actually approach me (which is sooo very rare...i even feel like there's an invisible force surrounding me that's preventing people from approaching me).

Anyway, I feel so conscious towards other how people think and look at me. I feel so alone in the work place. It's as if everyone has friends and I am left alone in my own cubicle. I feel so pathetic I can't make new friends and just stick to my old friends who are getting fewer as the days go by. I look like a loner which looks pathetic. I want to make friends but my fears are overcoming me. Whenever I attempt to initiate a conversation, it always backfires leaving me humiliated and rejected. It really sucks! *sigh* I know the solution but I'm too chicken to do it! T.T

I wonder if INFPs are introverts by nature or it's their choice or are they feeling a struggle just like the one I have right now? *sigh* :sad:
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I don't know, but that sounds like me. Still, somehow, sometimes people seem to be drawn to me, but they treat me as something fragile. I currently don't have any close friends. I don't know that I ever will again. Simply because I don't trust. :sad:
Hi!
I was wondering if this is an INFP trait/characteristic or maybe it's just me.
Right now, I'm caught in a horrible cycle which it seems is hard to get out. This is a bit long so I hope someone will bear with me. :-S

I have a hard time making new friends. I want to but somehow my fear is crippling me from initiating conversations instead of waiting for someone to actually approach me (which is sooo very rare...i even feel like there's an invisible force surrounding me that's preventing people from approaching me).

Anyway, I feel so conscious towards other how people think and look at me. I feel so alone in the work place. It's as if everyone has friends and I am left alone in my own cubicle. I feel so pathetic I can't make new friends and just stick to my old friends who are getting fewer as the days go by. I look like a loner which looks pathetic. I want to make friends but my fears are overcoming me. Whenever I attempt to initiate a conversation, it always backfires leaving me humiliated and rejected. It really sucks! *sigh* I know the solution but I'm too chicken to do it! T.T

I wonder if INFPs are introverts by nature or it's their choice or are they feeling a struggle just like the one I have right now? *sigh* :sad:
I totally relate. It's just like me. I am struggling to change it but it's not easy. I don't think it's strictly INFP, alot of the INxx types seem to have this struggle.
Hi!
I was wondering if this is an INFP trait/characteristic or maybe it's just me.
Right now, I'm caught in a horrible cycle which it seems is hard to get out. This is a bit long so I hope someone will bear with me. :-S

I have a hard time making new friends. I want to but somehow my fear is crippling me from initiating conversations instead of waiting for someone to actually approach me (which is sooo very rare...i even feel like there's an invisible force surrounding me that's preventing people from approaching me).

Anyway, I feel so conscious towards other how people think and look at me. I feel so alone in the work place. It's as if everyone has friends and I am left alone in my own cubicle. I feel so pathetic I can't make new friends and just stick to my old friends who are getting fewer as the days go by. I look like a loner which looks pathetic. I want to make friends but my fears are overcoming me. Whenever I attempt to initiate a conversation, it always backfires leaving me humiliated and rejected. It really sucks! *sigh* I know the solution but I'm too chicken to do it! T.T

I wonder if INFPs are introverts by nature or it's their choice or are they feeling a struggle just like the one I have right now? *sigh* :sad:
Yup. all that you described pretty much sums up my state too.
Hi!
I was wondering if this is an INFP trait/characteristic or maybe it's just me.
Right now, I'm caught in a horrible cycle which it seems is hard to get out. This is a bit long so I hope someone will bear with me. :-S

I have a hard time making new friends. I want to but somehow my fear is crippling me from initiating conversations instead of waiting for someone to actually approach me (which is sooo very rare...i even feel like there's an invisible force surrounding me that's preventing people from approaching me).

Anyway, I feel so conscious towards other how people think and look at me. I feel so alone in the work place. It's as if everyone has friends and I am left alone in my own cubicle. I feel so pathetic I can't make new friends and just stick to my old friends who are getting fewer as the days go by. I look like a loner which looks pathetic. I want to make friends but my fears are overcoming me. Whenever I attempt to initiate a conversation, it always backfires leaving me humiliated and rejected. It really sucks! *sigh* I know the solution but I'm too chicken to do it! T.T

I wonder if INFPs are introverts by nature or it's their choice or are they feeling a struggle just like the one I have right now? *sigh* :sad:
That struggle sounds all too familiar, I'm afraid. I want to be with people, but I'm so afraid to approach them or initiate a conversation. When I do push myself to do it, it usually just ends up feeling awkward. Even among my friends, I'm never the one to arrange anything -- I get too nervous about bothering people. Even with my boyfriend (who's an INTP, btw) I worry about being too clingy and driving him away (though apparently he sometimes has the same concerns…). Hopefully that'll wear away as the relationship goes on.

I don't know what advice I could give you, except maybe to push yourself to interact with people more every once in a while. I know it takes effort and it can be a little scary, but the only way to get better is to practice, right? The times I have pushed myself to suggest doing something with someone, it's almost always seemed to go well. So from time to time, be brave, and go for it! :happy:
rubystone, i feel exactly the same. i think it's definitely infp-ness,. for me it's like i want people, loads of them, i want friends but somehow i really don't know how to connect with people. i don't know how to befriend them and what exactly the term means. the few friends i have are very good at putting up with me not contacting them and not really being a good friend basically depending on them but not really giving much in return. except for conversations about their problems, that's interesting somtimes. but organizing activities, doing stuff, initiating stuff, talking to them day to day, smalltalking, arrrrgh. being a friend is somehow very Fe and that's hard for me. i like people, i think they're all fuzzy and nice but i really have no clue WHAT exactly to offer them. i just cannot give anything except for what i am and i guess that''s not much. another trouble is that i tend to like only weird people because even though others are nice and fuzzy, they're boring, mostly.
That struggle sounds all too familiar, I'm afraid. I want to be with people, but I'm so afraid to approach them or initiate a conversation. When I do push myself to do it, it usually just ends up feeling awkward. Even among my friends, I'm never the one to arrange anything -- I get too nervous about bothering people. Even with my boyfriend (who's an INTP, btw) I worry about being too clingy and driving him away
that is so spot on. not contacting people because you're too scared of appearing clingy but turning out to be downright avoidant. story of my life.
except for conversations about their problems, that's interesting somtimes. but organizing activities, doing stuff, initiating stuff, talking to them day to day, smalltalking, arrrrgh. being a friend is somehow very Fe and that's hard for me. i like people, i think they're all fuzzy and nice but i really have no clue WHAT exactly to offer them.
be yourself, talk about yourself. Make them feel important to you-- that last part can be scary if you are afraid of feeling clingy, but it's the single most powerful way to build close relationships.

It only appears as clingyness if you are expressing it constantly and act like you are unsure they feel the same, no matter how often they tell you otherwise.
Hi!
I was wondering if this is an INFP trait/characteristic or maybe it's just me.
Right now, I'm caught in a horrible cycle which it seems is hard to get out. This is a bit long so I hope someone will bear with me. :-S

I have a hard time making new friends. I want to but somehow my fear is crippling me from initiating conversations instead of waiting for someone to actually approach me (which is sooo very rare...i even feel like there's an invisible force surrounding me that's preventing people from approaching me).

Anyway, I feel so conscious towards other how people think and look at me. I feel so alone in the work place. It's as if everyone has friends and I am left alone in my own cubicle. I feel so pathetic I can't make new friends and just stick to my old friends who are getting fewer as the days go by. I look like a loner which looks pathetic. I want to make friends but my fears are overcoming me. Whenever I attempt to initiate a conversation, it always backfires leaving me humiliated and rejected. It really sucks! *sigh* I know the solution but I'm too chicken to do it! T.T

I wonder if INFPs are introverts by nature or it's their choice or are they feeling a struggle just like the one I have right now? *sigh* :sad:
I felt exactly the same until about two weeks ago when I took a chance and went out dancing with my friends. I was terrified at first too. But after some practice (and some drinks) I loosened up a bit and started to have fun.

Now, I'm not dissmissing your struggle, I've been through poop too. I have a severe case of social anxiety disorder, and that was my first social occasion in well over two years, and it felt like the best thing I ever did. I'm not claiming to be cured, but it was a major leap forwards for me. I suppose it just takes a kick up the backside to do, and I hope you give it a go as well.
i was very much like that for slong time. but right now i think of it like this:why should i care about the opinions of those who think only negativly of me? if they can't ring themselves to find something positive about me then i don't think they deserve to have a negative opinion. on the other han if my friends whom i like and heyl ike me cite fault in me it would mean something. i think by nature someof us are born E and some I where other still are starout in the middle. if we're born an I then our early experiences shape how introverted we will end up and the same for Es. but intorversion isn't a bad thing that we must "cure" ourselves of but rather osmething we msutlearn to use. yes it makes us socially concious,but i think that ALOT better than not caring about what people think at all, it pushes us to be better people and to behave appropiatly, but if we let that concern go to far and we jsut withdraw it's not good, be yourself and if that is not acceptd then it's society that's flawed not you.
I feel the saaaaaaaame way. It's like, I know how to socialize, I can do it, but a lot of the time, I just don't know what to say to people I don't really know.
For those of us in the UK, the US and most of western Europe and Australia being introvert is taken as a negative but it really isn't at all. It's just a different way of being. Being introvert is like a neurological and spiritual difference not better or worse than being extrovert it's just different. It really helps me to respect the fact that I am an introvert and not to try and push a square peg through a round hole.

I get to know people slowly and after a while I might make plans to visit and art gallery or cinema with them or have them to dinner but I keep the group really small like just two or three people at a time. This is really nice for me and I find it helps be to make a better connection with people.
Seek out other INs perhaps. I am hardly a brave conversationalist but when I see other possible INFPs (happens surprisingly not that rarely) also looking like they are having a hard time in social situations I feel kindly disposed towards them, and so am more accepting and encouraging of conversation albeit possibly awkward. Presumably, they feel the same way and the reason I don't have so many INFP friends has more to do the fact that I am a total jerk than that we find it impossible to talk. It's sort of like each taking a step on a bridge (a bridge of friendship!) to meet in the middle. It becomes less difficult to put a small foot forward when you know the other person is doing the same thing (and possibly even having just as hard a time). That's just my take on it anyway, I don't really do this a lot but I've always thought that was how making friends with other introverts went about.
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