No parties, no problem: Introverts don’t mind sheltering at home
CALIFORNIA: With her painting, baking and near-constant gardening, Stephanie Hollowell kept busy at home even before efforts to stem the coronavirus pandemic meant she had to stay inside the Dallas, Texas house she calls her little kingdom. She didn’t invite people to come taste her prize winning cookies, or sample the sweet ground cherries that she grows. A proud introvert, public health orders to stay put suited her just fine.
“So many people are experiencing the painful aspects of this,” said Hollowell, an air traffic controller who took early retirement five years ago, when she was 50. “But basically my life has not changed one single bit”.
In the weeks since millions of people worldwide have been ordered to stay at home except for essential errands, the number of calls to psychiatrists has gone up as depression and anxiety wrack patients who lack social contact, and cannot even come in for an in-person therapy session. But for those who are more used to solitary pursuits, the time alone can be rejuvenating - and a relief from the distress brought on by news of the coronavirus and its ravages.
Cynthia Burrell, a massage therapist whose home-based Seattle business has been shuttered, said despite the loss of work she has enjoyed the quieter time with her husband. The couple, avid birders, miss their outings with the local Audubon group, but have been amazed to watch a Bewick’s wren gather up their cat’s fur to line its nest. They have seen blackcapped chickadees at one neighbour’s house, she said, and chestnut-backed chickadees at another.
Gardening, sketching and watching birds in her yard has eased the nearcrippling anxiety she had felt about coronavirus in the weeks leading up to her state’s shelter-at-home order. “It is almost like an introvert’s dream”, said Burrell, 52. “You can’t have a social life. You have to stay home on a Friday or Saturday night. It’s honestly a huge relief to have less to do”.
SCI-FI AND NETFLIX The American Psychological Association defines introversion as a personality trait in which people are more inwardly than outwardly focused, and relatively more reserved. The trait dwells along a continuum that culminates with extroversion, an outwardly oriented approach that includes people who are more outgoing and gregarious.
Because introverts tend to have fewer social interactions during the regular course of their days than extroverts, they may be better positioned to weather enforced time at home than extroverts - at least initially, said Matthias Mehl, a research psychologist at the University of Arizona, Tucson.