this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2026
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Mental Health
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You are missing the OP's point. You can be born introverted and with severe social anxiety and still force yourself out of it. Yes there are those where it is serious enough that they can't . But that is extraordinarily rare.
In high school it was so bad for me that when I had to speak in French class I literally went blank. The teacher took pity on me and let me go to my desk and then read with my head down from my paper rather than in front of the class. No one else in my class of 30 had this problem.
10 years later I got a job where I had to teach TCP/IP across the county. That forced me into public speaking. So I learned to suck it up for 4 hours a day and then went back to my default. Then I started my own company which forced me to be continuously up beat and social. I used Data from TnG as my model where he adopted a command personality when it was needed. But after many years it became my personality.
I'm the one who calls friends now. I'm the one that hosts parties.
It sounds like you had a perspective that allowed growth and learning, as opposed to the one in my quote.
Im talking more about the harm labels like introvert can have. It feels nice in the short term to have an explanation and a group to belong to (ironically), but its ultimately harmful as it does not match reality.