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How to Succeed in Mental Health Treatment as an Introvert

by Guest
April 6th, 2019

therapyMental health challenges can affect anyone regardless of their personality type. Introverts and extroverts alike can succeed in therapy, but their communication and recharging methods differ in critical ways. Introverts must understand how to navigate treatment that requires them to recharge in a new environment or open up more than they want to. If you are an introvert new to mental health treatment or therapy, consider these tips to help you tailor your social interactions and make the most of your recovery.

Opening Up in Treatment

If you are nervous about therapy or attending a treatment center as an introvert, you have healthy options for respecting your own needs. Therapists are well versed in introvert preferences and are happy to support you if you communicate what helps you open up best. The same goes for inpatient treatment centers, which offer both group support and plenty of privacy for those wishing to receive treatment in peace. Regardless of your reason for receiving help, use these methods of opening up if you are an introvert:

  • Journal and share with your therapist
  • Ask to be connected with a support partner
  • Communicate if you feel overwhelmed or need a break
  • Ask for guided meditations
Introverts and extroverts alike can succeed in therapy, but their communication and recharging methods differ in critical ways. Click To Tweet

Recharging Alone

Some introverts are social, but all introverts need to recharge themselves at the end of it. Having privacy to reflect is especially important during a mental health treatment program so you can fully absorb what you learn without the social energy distracting you. Regardless of whether you live at home or temporarily at a center, make the effort to organize your home environment to make you feel relaxed. Work on developing these habits to improve your mental health and allow yourself to retreat into your space after a day of treatment comfortably:

  • Listen to calming music before bed
  • Disconnect from devices to reflect on your interactions
  • Journal your emotions
  • Stretch and focus on deep breathing
  • Cook or ask for foods that make you feel recharged

Making Connections

Introverts have no problem connecting with others, it is the quality and method of these connections that differs from extroverts. This matters in mental health treatment since you may be asked to connect with a therapist, support groups, staff at treatment centers, or to rethink relationships in your personal life. If this is the case, be sure to facilitate your connections in your own way (and at your own pace). Here are some introvert-friendly ways to focus on the quality of your connections in treatment:

  • Begin by sharing exactly what you’d like from an interaction
  • Don’t force it, you are free to take a step back and recharge
  • Take your time getting to heavy topics with small talk
  • Connect with others alongside activities

Try these ideas if you are an introvert new to mental health treatment. If you communicate your needs and recover in a way that supports your strengths, succeeding in treatment as an introvert is completely possible.

Adam Durnham

 

Adam Durnham is an introvert and freelance blogger who specializes in mental health and addiction recovery. You can find a lot of his work at Willow Springs Recovery.

 

Photo © photographee.eu / depositphotos

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Categories Social Anxiety & Shyness
Tags : introversion, re-energize
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Party Survival Tips

by Chris
November 24th, 2012

The holidays loom on the horizon. Holidays are great but many are also party days. Too many parties in a row can be a challenge for an introvert.

Susan over at Quietly Fabulous has eight great ideas for party survival:

  1. Plan ahead.
  2. Find another introvert.
  3. Hide.
  4. Escape plan.
  5. Be patient.
  6. Say No.
  7. Have a sense of humor.
  8. Be yourself.

For more details and additional resources, read 8 Tips For Introverts To Survive The Holidays.

What do you do when you find your energy flagging at a party?

Have you found ways to leave a party briefly, to recharge and return?

 

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Categories General, Introverts at Work, Social Anxiety & Shyness
Tags : cocktails, crowds, party, re-energize, survival
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Lost In Extravert Land

by Chris
August 21st, 2011

Our siblings.  They resemble us just enough to make all their differences confusing, and no matter what we choose to make of this, we are cast in relation to them our whole lives long. ~Susan Scarf Merrell

I shouldn’t keep falling for this. Mom wants a happy family and we, her four kids (um, make that adults), keep trying to pretend that we are. For the most part, that is true – we get along very well.

Except that we are three introverts and one extravert. The extravert doesn’t understand the problem. I’ve heard that extraverts never do and if I think about it, that might be true. After all, if an extravert reaches “outside” for the answers, then he would (and he does) think there’s something wrong with us. We three introverts, on the other hand, look inside ourselves and see a no-fault difference. We need a bit of quiet to energize, and our extravert sibling needs people and action to energize.

Sometimes I visit my extravert sibling for the weekend (to please Mom). Nothing goes smoothly, because we are opposites. At night, Bro tells me – and this always surprises me – about our schedule for the next morning (remember this is Saturday). I am to take my shower at 7am and he is to take his shower fifteen minutes later. Do you see how differently we perceive that? I, the introvert, want to sit quietly with a cup of coffee and eventually have a leisurely shower. Bro, on the other hand, wants to fling himself in the shower and out into the world as fast as possible. He wants to have breakfast in public, preferably at sidewalk tables, with people yammering and traffic whizzing back and forth. I’ll do it, but I really want breakfast in bed with a good book.

Speaking of reading, I’ve noticed that my extravert brother reads books the way I exercise – twenty minutes, three times a week, and thank heaven it’s over. I think the twenty minutes of solitude must be agony for him, the way that twenty minutes of a crowded gym is agony for me.

It takes me a week of re-energizing quiet time to recover from an exhausting action-packed weekend with my extravert brother.

But it makes Mom so happy.

 

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Categories General, Relationships
Tags : breakfast, family, Mom, re-energize, sibling
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