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

While walking through the halls in public buildings, I often stop and look at something on the wall to avoid saying hi to people.

When I am with new people and I am feeling tired of being near other humans I send a message that says "Pet Rock" to my best friend, who'll call me near crying telling me he made his gf pregnant and giving me a safe excuse to go back home.

We used to lock the door at my Work office so that solicitors couldn’t get in. I also would shut the blinds so they couldn’t see in (we never had clients come in and employees had keys). Well one day I saw a solicitor walking across the parking lot. The blinds weren’t closed so I quickly dived under my desk. Then he opened the door and I realized no one had locked the door. I debated staying under my desk but realized there was a chance he’d seen me so I slowly crawled out and made some excuse that I was fixing my computer. I don’t know if he believed me or not.

When I was in 6th grade I was one of the top students at my school. Coming up was an award ceremony. The day before the ceremony, all of my teachers kept telling me things like "Oh tomorrows the award ceremony! Make sure you come! *thumbs up*" Right away I was suspicious. First of all, I didn't hardly speak to my teachers. Secondly, I already suspected I would get some kind of award, but I could feel something else was going on. The next morning I told my mom that I couldn't go to school because I didn't want to participate in the award ceremony. Unfortunately I couldn't stay home all day, so my mom took me to school late. When I got to school, all the students were harassing me asking me for money and I was so confused. Plus I didn't want to talk to them anyway. Then my best friend told me that at the ceremony I won some kind of special award, a trophy, and like $60. And that the teachers kept calling my name to go accept it. I was so embarrassed. The entire day everyone kept talking to me and asking where I was. I figured later that if I would have just went, no one would have tried talking to me at all.

This isn't really about avoiding people:
There was a knock at the front door and the door has a window in it, but just tall enough to where I have to jump to look out. I jump and look and one of the two Mormon ladies at my door locked eyes with me for the split second I was jumping. This obviously meant I had to answer the door, since they knew someone was home.
Long story short I spent a half an hour bullshitting religious junk with these ladies (I'm Atheist, but I can't be rude and tell them I'm not interested).

I didn't have many friends in school. So on days that I was alone, I used to walk around pretending to look for one of my friends or hide in the loo just so people wouldn't pity me or ask why I'm alone.

I've always attended dance classes at the gym every weekends. During the short period breaks, I pretend I need to go to the bathroom. I'll stay in the cubicle until the class resumes so I could save myself from the awkwardness. Most of the attendees are close and know each other so could you imagine how idiot looking you get when they start chatting and you're the only silent person there.

I pay my sister to go buy me things so I don’t have to interact with the species we call people...

being an introvert, trust me if yo make a mistake everyone will stare into your soul. A nightmare for introverts. I had an experience where i won an award, however instead of going up the stairs, i instead went up the side where the microphone is by mistake. My apologies were echoing through the hall. Cant leave my mind..

I'm usually super extroverted, but there have been more times than I can count where I have avoided doing things just to avoid social interaction. Anyways, I had this essay I had to write in my history class that was based off of a worksheet we had already completed. I hadn't even so much as looked at the worksheet, so I didn't know what to write about at all. However, the teacher got up and started walking around during the time we had to write, and because I didn't want to get called out for not writing anything, I literally just wrote an entire essay about why I wasn't writing about the topic and explaining how I had not studied it and just profusely apologized for wasting his time and paper when he read it. I ended it by saying how I didn't want to be called out in class while literally everyone else was writing and that I didn't want to be asked about it at all in class, and asked for him to just forget about it because I really did NOT want to be confronted about it. So one day in class, he literally just pointed at me (we were doing classwork) and said "you" and then "you know what I'm talking about" I made a face and simply just said yeah, and that was the last I ever heard about it. he's a super understanding teacher, and this the 3rd year I've had him as a teacher so go him.

Piss in bottles to avoid roommates.

I work in the dark. Nine or ten hours a day. I'd be the only person there also having my lunch in the dark so as to avoid lunch with my colleagues.

People from the Arctic, I feel ya.

Jumped down half a flight of stairs and ran into the basement to avoid a teacher I didn't like. My class was on the third floor.

On my drive to/home from work, I usually see people walking beside the road and I feel so bad for them having to walk, but I cant bring myself to giving them a lift because I fear that I'd have to make small talk when they're in the car and I just don't have it in me to chat with random strangers at the start/end of my day.

I used to park my car a few blocks from my house (even though I had a parking space right at my house). Then, about a block away from my house, I would start walking backwards so my footprints in the snow looked like they were leaving my house, instead of going into my house. Home, safe and sound and in solitude.

Have had social anxiety all my life, it just got worse when I went to college. One day I just couldn't handle the idea of talking with people but was too much of a goody two shoes to skip class. My solution: Pretended I was sick and had lost my voice so I didn't have to talk and people left me alone.

I went out to eat soup for lunch, but I was really alkward to ask about it, so I spent an hour hanging in front of restaurants staring at the menu signs before finding one that actually says SOUP. Then I went to a bookstore and bought a book to read while eating. It took me 6 minutes to eat the soup and leave.

I was feeling brave, so I signed up for Comic-con. I joined a group of local people; I knew of them from the local comic shop. I sat alone on the coach. I tried (and failed) to attach myself to a group of people.

The con was mostly fun. I went to 4 panels (of things I didn't know about) and spent 3 hours in the toilets...

Volunteered at a BBQ to help a friend out. Didn`t really feel like being the one to do the cooking because of my anxiety so i alienated myself to somewhere nobody was. Had a person i knew come up and start a chat wondering what was wrong which made things worse. Didn`t really have anything to do to help with everything set up so I ended up eventually sitting on my own and not too long after felt a little too awkward so I took a walk around the block went to get food even though there was free food and drinks for everyone. Ended up going on a hike to the river for about 30 or 40 mintues, and running back because i forgot i had promised to help the friend out later in the evening.

Someone was talking to me at school and I was feeling really scared because I never know how to small talk. Instead of answering back after he was finished talking to me I said "I don't like talking so I would really appreciate it if you would let me sit in solitude." I then walked away and hid my face behind a book so no one else would talk to me.