Is this social anxiety or introversion?

[GoodLife]

Before I start, this will be a long ranty post. Enjoy

I have always been a quiet person who didn't like to be noticed by others and loved to "blend into the crowd". I often purposefully answered thins wrong on tests so I wouldn't get singled out by the teacher for having the best score. I also always am terrified that I will say something offensive to someone and they will get a bad image of me. I often find myself saying potential answers to a question under my breath when someone asks me something. I will create scenarios in my mind ever since I was a kid. It is always simple things like asking if a friend could play or if I could have dessert. I would then imagine how I thought it would play out. Often I ended up not asking because if the fear of what would happen. This might have stemmed from the fact that I have 4 siblings and my parents were always stressed so sometimes the simplest question would make them very angry. (ex. asking for dessert or to watch tv.). I also have a fear of closing my eyes in the shower, looking behind partial open doors, and walking in the dark. I have weird rituals such as tapping the emergency release on the garage door. I will randomly get twitches and very shaky hands. I'm just confused as to what is wrong with me. Also, sorry this has probably a lot of useless information.

 

[Vincent]

It sounds like social anxiety. Introversion simply means that being social drains your energy, whereas being alone recharges your energy (extroverts are the opposite). Introverts can still talk to people and generally wouldn't go do something like purposely answering test questions wrong to avoid being recognized publicly. Social anxiety is more about fear of imagined consequences of doing something wrong in a social situation.

The fear of looking behind doors, tapping the emergency release, etc. could be OCD.

You should get a proper diagnosis. Sometimes these kinds of things might look like a certain condition, but could be actually be a facet of a broader, more general condition. That makes a difference in terms of how you should address your mental health.

 

[GoodLife]

Thanks Vincent!

 

[Joshua1]

Break out of those insecurities as i did, and believe in yourself.