For a long time, I thought something was wrong with me. After a party or a day of meetings, I would feel like a wrung-out washcloth. I would beat myself up for not having the endless energy that my extroverted friends seemed to possess. I thought "shy" was a synonym for "broken."
It took me years to realize that my social battery isn't a defect; it’s just a different kind of hardware. It drains faster in high-stimulation environments, but it recharges in the quiet. And that’s okay.
Paradoxically, the nestee shy avoids parents to reduce friction, which increases awkwardness. Solve this with a fixed schedule. For example: "We watch Survivor together on Wednesdays at 8 PM." Knowing that social time is limited and scheduled allows the nestee shy to relax the rest of the week.
Anxiety among the nestee shy stems from a lack of trajectory. Place a whiteboard on the fridge (not in their room) listing three monthly goals:
