Is Quarantine a Feast for Introverts? | Right away

Extroverts live from a lot of contact. Introverts like to be on their own. Does this mean that the people in the last group now have the time of their lives, or is it more complicated?

“Before the corona, I was rarely alone,” says primary school teacher Richelle van der Mijden, 29. For her work she is surrounded every day with children and in her free time she meets constantly with friends and organizes all kinds of events. “I really get energy from a lot of people around me.”

The fact that she now sits alone at home is a bit of a habit for Van der Mijden. “I experience a lot of ups and downs,” she says. “Normally I’m looking for contact to feel better, I can’t do that now.”

Van der Mijden is a typical extrovert. “Extroverts tend to turn off their energy,” explains the GZ psychologist of iPractice Nine Gramberg.

“This has to do with the fact that it has a relatively lower voltage in the brain. That’s why they need more incentives.”

More introverted people, on the other hand, have a higher level of tension in the brain. Gramberg: “You experience stimuli quickly as too much.”

After a festival, a week’s work

Freedom coach Kim Schollema (37) can talk about this. “I don’t get into a lot of crowds and crowds,” she says. “When I go to a festival for a weekend, I have to add a week.”

She doesn’t find much time alone as a problem. A few years ago, she swapped her busy job for a life as a freelancer. “I wanted to organize my own time because I felt I couldn’t keep up with the pace of society.” She actually likes the fact that the world has come to a standstill for a while. “It feels like everything is now more adapted to my pace.”

According to Gramberg, however, it cannot be said that all extroverts are now fighting and all the introverts have the time of their lives. “First of all, no one is 100 percent extroverted or introverted,” she says. “Whether we exhibit introverts or extroverts depends on situation to situation.”

An extroverted society

Moreover, according to Gramberg, there is less and less space for our introverted site today. “We live in an extroverted society,” she says. “You have to be able to stand out all the time. It’s a very extroverted property.”

But that does not mean that the need to bear oneself has not disappeared. “Everyone has often more or less introverted,” Explains Gramberg. Now that we are more on our own, there is more room for it. There is a good chance that people who thought they were particularly extroverted will now discover their introverted side and find that sometimes they like to be alone.”

Although she has little contact, so does Van der Mijden. “I experience more peace in my head.” Conversely, it also occurs. Gramberg: “Some people who thought they wanted to be alone now find out that their need for contact is greater than they thought.”