Recovering from an introvert hangover

The Powerful Purpose of Introverts (2020) by Holley Gerth may not be the best book for introverts — that might be Quiet by Susan Cain — but it will be helpful for many of those convinced there is something wrong with them.

She includes many useful points. For example, she quotes Dr. Debra Johnson as saying, "We're not slow thinkers; we're deep thinkers." I have often thought of myself as a slow thinker because I don't think of the right thing to say until after it's too late to say it.

Later she quotes a psychologist as saying that introverts would rather find meaning than bliss. In my own experience, meaning produces bliss.

Gerth gives words to feelings introverts know well. Introverts, she says, need to time alone to recover from peopling. She calls this an introvert hangover or being dopamine drunk. Being around other people, especially talkative people, for too long drains energy from introverts. Time alone or time with one special someone relieves this condition.

The author is fond of lists, tests, quizzes and diagrams, and a reader may get tired of checking boxes and filling in blanks. Yet some of these may prove revealing and worthwhile, so don't ignore them all.

In the end, Gerth makes the same points made by Cain and others: If you are an introvert, there is nothing wrong with you. Your mind just works differently than that of an extrovert. There are more of you than you think. You can do some things better than extroverts can. Many of the world's most successful people have been introverts.

One question remains, however. Why don't extroverts need books like this to make them feel better about themselves?