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People Still Don’t Understand Introversion

Just because I like being alone doesn’t mean I have “social anxiety”.

Citizen Reader
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Picture of a lit matchstick, bent to look like a stick person sitting on a ledge, against a dark background.
Photo by Sebastian Sørensen: https://www.pexels.com/photo/lighted-matchstick-on-brown-wooden-surface-750225/

This week I checked my medical records, and found a short phrase that gave me pause, because it wasn’t one I had used when describing myself to my doctor.

The phrase was “patient has some social anxiety.”

Ten points if you can guess the word I did use to describe myself, and that the doctor turned into “social anxiety.” Hint: The word appears in the title of this article.

In which I overshare with my doctor

Last fall, I gave in and made an appointment with my primary care provider to talk about my blood pressure. It’s been high for a couple of years, and I am not having success lowering it by myself, so I finally admitted I might need to start some kind of medication.

When I visited the doctor, she took my blood pressure, which was high (I also have white-coat syndrome and have never had a regular blood pressure reading in the doctor’s office). She asked me all the standard questions about whether I smoked or drank, whether I exercised, whether I was in perimenopause, how my sleeping was, and whether or not I had any stress.

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