[PlasmaHam]

I totally get your feeling here. I am a very private and borderline anti-social person in the real world. Sure I can put on a facade of an open and personable person, but that isn't my true nature. I only really open-up to people once I get to know them, and that itself can that a decent amount of time. So we are in the same boat.

It does annoy me sometimes when people assume there is something wrong with me simply because I don't talk alot. I've been called autistic before, which quite peevs me. I have nothing against autistic people, don't take me wrong, but it is humiliating when someone accuses you of a mental disorder you clearly don't have. And like you I have had people who have intended to "help" me by constant pestering to go speak to someone.

My suggestion? Just ignore them but don't blame them. They have their heart in the right place, there is just a social stigma that anyone who isn't a social butterfly is somehow less advantaged than those who are. There are pros and cons to any level of social interaction. Certain extremes, like being against all human interaction or being so social that you become annoying, are bad and are need of reform, but being an introvert is not a mental disorder, it is simply who you are.