The Guilt and Struggles of Asociality

Anonymous
The Guilt and Struggles of Asociality

I'm gonna start this out by explaining the difference between asociality and introversion. Introverts do need social interaction. They desire friendships and close relationships with others. They enjoy spending time with others, but it tires them out. They need plenty of alone time, though if they don't have enough social interaction they'll feel lonely or unloved.

Asocial people have no or very little desire for close relationships. They don't really need to spend time with others. They don't often feel unloved or lonely. Asociality is almost always paired with a decent amount of apathy.

Asociality isn't really a positive or normal trait, so it comes with a bit of struggle and guilt.

Severe lack of social skills

Since they have no desire to interact with people they have almost zero social skills. When they do need to talk to someone they're often very awkward or socially unaware. Though, asocial people don't really have a desire to improve social skills, as they don't really need them, most of the time. The times when they do need them are a struggle.

Wanting friends, but also not wanting them

Humans are social creature. Very rarely does someone have absolutely no desire for social interaction. That's also a sign of a mental illness.

Asocial people do want friends. They do want to have loved ones. They want to have social experiences. They just don't want them enough to deal with the consequences of having them. They want someone to text, but they don't want to deal with being forced to have a text conversation that lasts more than 15 minutes. They want to have someone to hang out with, but they don't want to hang out with someone more than twice a month. It's tricky finding friends that are willing to have this little social interaction with you. This also makes having close friends practically impossible.

People believing you're completely apathetic or a psychopath

Most people feel upset after losing someone in their life, whether this be through a break-up, death or simply growing apart.

Asocial don't form relationships as quickly or easily. They also don't value relationships as much as most people do. This means they're a lot less upset after a relationship is lost or broken. Some asocial are completely apathetic about their relation. This is usually a result of a mental illness. Though, most asocial do feel sad or upset after losing a relationship, just not nearly as much as other people. This raises guilt in the asocial person, and they may feel abnormal, broken and like a complete outsider. They may get upset about the fact that they don't feel as sad or as torn apart as other people. This does all depend on the person, though. Some are completely apathetic towards their apathy. Some aren't. It's a spectrum.

The guilt of not caring about someone as much as they care about you

I always feel guilt when I see posts like "I cared about you with all my heart...but you barely cared at all" because I rarely ever care about people as much as they care about me. As mentioned above, asocial people don't easily form relationships and they don't value them as much as other people. I know the people who care about me deeply would be crushed to hear how little I care about them. I want to be able to care about them. I want the fear of losing them to be horrible, but it's not. I've lost friends that I had for years, yet felt barely anything.

Asocial people don't love a lot of people. Some may not love anyone at all. They don't enjoy hurting people. They don't want to hurt anyone.

The general feeling of being 'strange'

Asocial people typically aren't common. Asociality is almost always a side effect of some mental illness or trauma. This makes the person feel even more like an outsider. They may feel like they're less than other people. They may feel like a horrible person or a monster. They may feel like a bad friend.

Thanks for reading! Anyway, do remember that asociality is a spectrum. Some may be more social and emotional, some may be more apathetic and reserved. Also feel free to correct me, question me or point out typos/grammatical errors. It'd be a huge help!

The Guilt and Struggles of Asociality
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