The Care and Feeding of Your Extrovert
from this really REALLY wonderful blog here
- 1. Human contact is a need for us. It’s not as intense as food or water; it’s more like the need for sleep. We won’t necessarily die outright if we don’t get it on a regular basis, but we’ll be unfocused, unhappy, and emotionally unstable. If I go too long without substantive human contact, without touch or conversation or genuine interaction, I get listless, then depressed. If it goes on even longer, my form of depression can turn suicidal.
- Other possibilities are the development of severe social anxiety because we are so dependent on being welcome in a social group, and a whole range of socially inappropriate acting out. Years ago another extrovert friend suggested going to the mall when it started to get bad, and that works somewhat because it’s a lot of low-stakes interactions in a short time. It’s like eating fast food when you really want a home-grilled steak, but it keeps the worst of it at bay.
