50 Introverts Reveal The Incredible Lengths They've Gone To Avoid People

My parents once had their friends over and I was trying to hide because I knew they would want me to play with their kid who was really spoiled. I ran to my parents room and tucked myself into a ball on the dog bed my mom has behind her laundry bin for our dogs and buried myself in a pile of dresses. Emerged two hours later after reading all the tags in the clothes hiding me.

Once I worked at a retail job where we printed custom T-shirts. This job had a little program going with a school where if the child read so many books they could bring a certificate to get a free T-shirt. Well, Saturdays were usually a super busy/annoying day because customers would come into the store, spend forever having me explain things, then leave without buying anything. (I hate pointlessly talking) We closed early on Saturday at 1pm. Now I had just about had it with customers for the day and it was closing time. No customers were in the store so I shut everything down. At 12:59 I was locking the front door when I see it. A little girl and her mom walking to the door with her certificate in hand. They were getting very close to the front of the store which happened to be one giant window. The lights were out but it's possible they could have seen inside. I RAN as fast as I could to the back of the store and dove in the back. Didn't even have a chance to turn the back light off when I heard them pull on the door. They knocked a few times then left. I really hope they didn't see my mad dash away from them. I just didn't want to talk anymore.

I go to the grocery store as soon as it opens at 7am...no one else is shopping and I have the store pretty much to myself...

use my bf like 50 times already as an excuse to not go out with people. I try to explain that I'm introverted and have social anxiety and don't want to go out. After a while people do not understand it and I'm tired of explaining. Instead of having to tell them a whole big lie about why I don't want to go out at 11 o clock at night or really ever because I'm introverted and on very few days social and extroverted I use my boyfriend as an excuse and say ... oh his family is coming over or oh I have to be home at this time were having dinner to friends kinda works I guess. I have a very small group of friends but for the most part my boyfriend and I love doing everything together and since I love him it doesn't matter to me it just makes me happy which again people do not understand how I could do everything with one person and not get board. In addition, I hate initiating conversations and parties are the worst. When people ask me to go I always make up excuses because I will end up being the girl in the corner who desperately wants to leave.

I dont know how or where people meet/make friends. Iam 25y female living at my parents sometimes going to the supermarkt is exhausting enough. I just wish i had a friend. Not everything is googlable. Even if i talk (read text and chat) with people they stop after a bit. I just dont know what iam doing wrong and why people dont like me. I always try to make everybody happy.

hid in my wardrobe for two hours with my duvet and laptop to avoid my housemates asking me if I want to go out to a bar with them.

I have a bad food allergy but I'm not entirely sure what causes it even after testing. If I'm at a dinner or my girlfriend has people over I don't feel like talking to or anything I can fake the reaction and get out of it.

I work in a grocery store and every time I go to lunch, there is always customers sitting in the lunchroom(we don't have a break room). So instead of just sitting inside on a chair, I instead walk out and sit in the cold in 40 degree weather in late fall to eat some salad and a chocolate bar.

At school 15 min before school ends I excuse myself to "go to the washroom" in reality I just pack up early because I hate talking to people. My last period teacher sent me to the nurse because she is worried about the amount of time it takes me to pee...

Any time I go to church fellowship parties and do not want to be there, I spend just long enough time there to say hello to people and to eat...hey, free food is free food.
-
Once I have had enough of it all and want to pull my hair out, I just tell people I have to go because I have lots of homework to do. I am in a PhD program right now so no one questions me and I can leave whenever I want. Not sure what I will do once I hopefully finish it in 2 years. Better keep taking classes until I die I guess...

I would just chill in the bathroom during lunch all throughout like eighth grade

I didn't order pizza, even though I was hungry. I would rather go without eating than to talk to someone about a medium sausage pizza

I'm doing a PhD, so its basically a readymade excuse anytime I need it - I just tell people that I can't go out to [insert social event] because my supervisor is on my back (she never really is), and so I have to stay in all weekend and write.

I try to use my work gym at a time when I know no one else will be there. One day, I get there and it's totally empty (bliss). So I joyfully get changed in the locker room, come out and start exercising. 20 minutes into my treadmill routine, somebody knocks at the gym door. It was obviously another employee who had lost or forgot their key card. I heard them knocking but pretended I couldn't hear them with my headphones on. I know they could see I was in there because there is a peep-hole in the door. They knocked for a couple minutes and finally went away. No one else showed up. It was a perfect day.

One time a car pulled up at my work 2-5 min after closing. With a mix of being done acting like someone who doesn’t have social anxiety, and the annoyance of having to open the store and dig out change from the money bag locked up already, and turning all the machines on etc. I decided to hide from the customer. They decide to use the drop box, and I kid you not, they took 5 minutes to get their drop box bag in, and it was just a bunch of hangers, no clothes! Then I had to strategically walk around the store to avoid them seeing me as they left, since there were full windows on the front and right side of the store. By the time this was all over, I was leaving very late.
With social anxiety, I overall found college traumatic and stressful. I couldn’t even walk to class without thinking everyone was judging me, and that everyone could just see my struggles with my mental health from being alone in the city. I spent the entire first semester trying desperately to make friends, and being rejected 100%. I spent the second semester never leaving my room except for work, or after midnight for food. I was actually happy when the college kicked me out, because I no longer had to try and explain to my very extroverted family how miserable I was. It no longer was an option.

I know EXACTLY when I became an introvert. When I was 14, I started to spread my wings by going out with the guys. It was a lot of fun and I looked forward to doing it more. But the next morning, I found out that my beloved cocker spaniel had passed away during the night. After that, I never went out again and was introverted for life. I'm elderly now and still haven't gotten over the loss of my Taffy (heart...sobbing).

Bluetooth earphone's are an Introverts best friend. When someone approaches start mumbling to your self and point at your phone then walk off. No one gets offended and you avoid the small talk

When I'm walking down the street I purposefully look far ahead of me and if I see someone I know but don't really want to talk to, I pretend to be looking at other things and appear not to see them, so that when I come close to them I can just smile and keep walking, instead of having that awkward period of walking towards someone you don't intend to talk to and having awkward eye contact.

I have cameras aimed at both of our doors that play pre recorded messages. My favorites are "can I help you" and "we're not interested". Any time a neighbor or someone with a clipboard shows up I can reject them from the couch.

When someone sat next to me and try to open up a conversation I immediately stand up and walk away or try to avoid them. It's rude, yeah... but I don't want to talk to them. I just want to be alone cause I feel better and more comfortable. I'm a loner but I love who am I today. I'm a loner cause I'm hard to trust anyone around me