It isn't about facing discomfort. Imagine it was the social norm to go for 36h between sleeps, but for some reason you struggle to stay awake after the first 20h. People tell you to knuckle down and stop being rude, just stay awake like a normal person. You've now been awake for 30h, because your work expects it of you. But after work your friends want to go play soccer. Would it be rude to turn them down? Or would it be more rude to fall asleep while you are playing, or snap at them while you are playing due to the discomfort of pushing yourself well beyond what you are capable of?
This is what being introverted is like, without a sort of social-sleep away from people it is impossible to keep the social part of your brain active in people's presence. You are constantly trying to walk a fine line between offending people by not showing up (which allows you to recharge) and offending people by being socially disfunctional in their presence (which just leaves you more depleted). I don't know if perhaps the introvert phenomenon is maybe something on the very mild end of the autism spectrum, but I do know that, at least without years of experience in dealing with an introvert they care about, extroverts cannot comprehend it without pathologising it in some way.
This is what being introverted is like, without a sort of social-sleep away from people it is impossible to keep the social part of your brain active in people's presence. You are constantly trying to walk a fine line between offending people by not showing up (which allows you to recharge) and offending people by being socially disfunctional in their presence (which just leaves you more depleted). I don't know if perhaps the introvert phenomenon is maybe something on the very mild end of the autism spectrum, but I do know that, at least without years of experience in dealing with an introvert they care about, extroverts cannot comprehend it without pathologising it in some way.