There are few things I resent more than the dismissive and misguided idea that introversion is some sort of problem that needs to be fixed.

And not least because I think that, if anything, exactly the opposite is true - that introversion is a sign of a healthy mind and extroversion is an essentially parasitic aberration - a stopgap for people who are unable to generate emotional energy on their own.

Consider the acoustics

Many introverts take the scraping of chair legs across a cafe floor extremely personally. We’re sensitive to loud, unscheduled noises (at kids’ parties, balloons were a nightmare for me), so venues with the acoustics of a concrete cube are best avoided lest we fritz our synapses. For anyone with sensory processing issues or simply of an irritable nature, a table of six people talking at once sounds like a beer hall during Oktoberfest. Worse, there’s probably going to be cross-talk, where more than one conversation is competing for our brain’s attention. In these social gatherings I often fall silent. People must think I have the consumptive constitution of a 19th-century muse.

If it’s just you and a friend, you could likely get away with suggesting a venue change because you’re dying to hang on to their every word but can’t hear them. If it’s a larger group you could try wearable tech – the fancy term for earplugs. Brands such as Happy Ears, Earjobs or Loop earplugs reduce background noise while still allowing conversation to cut through.

This is major for me. I can’t stand loud, noisy, discombobulated spaces. I don’t mind loud music at a concert because there’s order. But multiple conversations competing with each other, whether at a party or in an open office plan, makes my anxiety rise to the point that I want to shout shut up, shut up, shut up!