The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober: Discovering a happy, healthy, wealthy alcohol-free life

by Catherine Gray

So, I was an introvert now. Huh. I started researching it. Turns out it’s all about blood flow in our brains. Extrovert brain blood flow is directed to the regions of the brain concerned with interpreting sensory data – making sense of the outside world. Whereas introvert brain blood flow is more pronounced to the frontal lobe, which deals with the internal processes of decision-making, memory, solving problems – our inner landscape. Introverts often appear to be daydreaming, but that’s because their internal landscape is a buzzy metropolis, which takes up a lot of their energy. They’re not zoned out, they’re just attending to their inner landscape. Introverts turn inwards, while extroverts point outwards. Another study found that extroverts’ brains get a buzz from human faces, whereas in comparison, introverts’ brains are indifferent to them. Introverts like looking at flowers as much as faces. Basically, introverts can pretty much live without people. They’re happy to sit in a field with some daisies. They’ve already got a hive of activity in their head to attend to. Which is why masses of external stimuli, say a packed train station, can give an introvert ‘Overwhelm’.