I felt, and feel, drained in social interactions where my social anxiety becomes an issue. Where it's not an issue, social interactions are great and non-drain

I felt, and feel, drained in social interactions where my social anxiety becomes an issue. Where it's not an issue, social interactions are great and non-draining. For instance, I'm really looking forward to spending this weekend at a music festival where I'll be floating around with a thousand other people on a river watching some bands play and I know I'm going to have a great time meeting tons of random people. I also know that nearly every single extrovert attending that festival is going to be just as drained as I am on Sunday morning - empirical proof is the fact that pretty much everybody leaves these things at the same time (even though the gates usually close much later, and the bands are still playing). In fact, I don't know ANY extroverts who don't eventually need time to themselves, either, so I find your definition to also be lacking. These observations lead me to again question what "introversion" and "extroversion" really is. It seems very difficult to know what's really going on: EITHER 1. "introverts" are really just e.g. socially anxious people who subconsciously use "introversion" as an excuse to avoid social situations where their anxiety causes them to feel drained and exhausted; they aren't aware that it's social anxiety causing these issues. It took me YEARS of CONSCIOUS effort to reduce my social anxiety, nevermind the years it took to recognize what it was. I have to wonder how many people have HONESTLY made a similar effort before resorting to claiming they are "introverted" and that's just how they are. OR 2. people like myself are really just "extroverts" at heart with a love & approval addiction, and therefore place high value on social situations, which they find draining to the extent they lack self-confidence because that lack of self-confidence reduces the perceived love & approval they receive in those social situations; this would explain why extroverts fear public speaking so much - their outward focus makes them more susceptible to fears of social rejection How does one begin to test which of these theories is correct? If you think they're both realistic, I really don't see much of an in-born difference between "introverts" and "extroverts". As far as I can tell they might just be very narrow labels describing the symptoms (social anxiety, low self-esteem, etc.) of a set of dysfunctional beliefs.