You might not be introverted you might be inferior
Hello! Therapist here! One of the foundational researchers on human development, Erik Erikson (real name, I promise), identified different stages of life with different conflicting challenges.
Ages 5-13 is where we have this internal battle of industry versus inferiority. If you think about your negative thoughts you had about yourself in elementary school, many times they were likely in this category. "Am I good student?", "I'll never be as good at basketball as Johnny", etc. There were also core defining positive thoughts at this age, "I'm the best at science in my class", or even more group related ones of "(your gender) is faster than (other gender)".
Ages 13-21 we get identity versus role confusion. This is the era where we're trying to figure out who we are. Personality has long since formed at this point (usually by age 6), but identity is still very much changing. It's where we see the concept of the goth phase and the high school clique, but also we find online or cultural communities we connect with. Church youth groups, discords on a specific topic, or creating a persona as the one person in the school who is the expert on all of the lore of Dragon Ball Z.
When we have a lot of inferiority taking over that 5-13 developmental year, that inferiority can color and direct where a lot of our identity goes once we shift into adolescence and early adulthood. If we take this belief of inferiority and it becomes part of our identity (which is often more common than people realize), it can make interactions with others be directly related to this. Good alternative paradigm to bring to the discussion here zen @zen '
Hello! Therapist here! One of the foundational researchers on human development, Erik Erikson (real name, I promise), identified different stages of life with different conflicting challenges.
Ages 5-13 is where we have this internal battle of industry versus inferiority. If you think about your negative thoughts you had about yourself in elementary school, many times they were likely in this category. "Am I good student?", "I'll never be as good at basketball as Johnny", etc. There were also core defining positive thoughts at this age, "I'm the best at science in my class", or even more group related ones of "(your gender) is faster than (other gender)".
Ages 13-21 we get identity versus role confusion. This is the era where we're trying to figure out who we are. Personality has long since formed at this point (usually by age 6), but identity is still very much changing. It's where we see the concept of the goth phase and the high school clique, but also we find online or cultural communities we connect with. Church youth groups, discords on a specific topic, or creating a persona as the one person in the school who is the expert on all of the lore of Dragon Ball Z.
When we have a lot of inferiority taking over that 5-13 developmental year, that inferiority can color and direct where a lot of our identity goes once we shift into adolescence and early adulthood. If we take this belief of inferiority and it becomes part of our identity (which is often more common than people realize), it can make interactions with others be directly related to this. Good alternative paradigm to bring to the discussion here zen @zen '