Is it reasonable to be antisocial?

Being antisocial can be a lonely and challenging experience, as those with this personality type have trouble connecting with others and following social norms. I don’t know if you know someone whose behavior is different from yours. Or maybe you think that you have a different behavior than others and don’t feel part of your group of friends or classmates, and sometimes you want to be in a group. You try, but you feel anxious when you want to try, so, in my opinion, you may be anti-social or a little anti-social. I remember that I had a friend who was so antisocial. She didn't like to spend time with her classmates, and nobody in the school wanted to talk with her; she just talked to me, so she didn’t get a chance to make new friends. In this essay, first, I will explain how it feels to be antisocial; second, I will tell you the causes of being antisocial; and finally, I will tell you how being antisocial affects your life.

Being antisocial here in Guatemala is hard because in Latin America it’s normal to be outgoing. But if you are shy, you don't like to talk a lot, and you don’t like to share time with your classmates and your point of view that’s normal, some people think that you are weird. When I was 12 years old, I didn’t like to be in a big group of friends or talk so loudly. When I needed to talk with someone, I felt so anxious and felt tachycardia. Really, to be antisocial is hard because you overthink everything, you feel nervous about everything, and you take actions that are normal for someone else but are difficult for you.

I remember that I read an article about why people could be antisocial. The article said that depending on the environment in which they grow up, sometimes when a child lives with parents who are strict or overprotect them, the child would be antisocial. They don’t want to spend time with friends or meet new people. In my case, I grew up with parents who overprotected me and were strict with me; they didn’t allow me to hang out with my friends; they always told me that it wasn’t necessary to hang out with my friends or just go out alone in the street; that’s why, when I was 16 years old, I was so afraid to walk alone on the street or just go to the market alone.

In my experience, being antisocial affects a lot in your life in different ways. For me, it was complicated to have friends because my personality was so shut-in that I couldn’t talk with new people. That's why I don’t have a lot of friends now. I understand that I need to be outgoing. I remember that before all, I had an interview, my interview was so disastrous, I couldn’t express my ideas or my opinions because I was afraid to express myself at that moment. Likewise, I felt that they would make fun of my ideas. If you want to have a job, you need to be so cheerful in the interview. For me, it was so difficult to end those limitations, but I practice a lot to be more outgoing.

As has been demonstrated in this essay, being antisocial is horrible. Because of the way, you can find people who think you are a social problem or maybe think that being antisocial is not a problem, and you do not suffer anything from this problem. So, I give you some advice if you know someone who is antisocial: be patient and don’t “judge them” because you don’t understand the issues that they have. They really don’t want to be like that, but they try hard to change their personalities.