Ambiverts or Freaks?

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Often when they ask what my personality type is, my response is candid, “I am an Ambivert”. The biggest surprise for me is to know most of them muddle ambivertness with dual personality disorder and curiously ask me, “So you mean you have a dual personality disorder?”

After coming across this response several times, I started wondering, is it absolute to be only on one end of personality continuum (extroversion or introversion). 

The distinction between extroversion and introversion always leave me detested because I believe people can never be on their single mood extreme all the times and a middle ground does exist which directs our behavior.  For instance, on filling the personality type questionnaire, I am always unsure how to answer, “will you prefer reading a book or going to a party? All I think is “well depends on my mood, or the book of interest, or the group of people who threw that party”. A lot of you can relate with this I believe. Hearing and reading about the term “ambiversion” provided me clarity and a sigh of relief too on this disconcert. There is a little written about ambiversion, but as far as I have read, Ambiverts are those individuals who posses traits of introverts and extroverts at varying degrees.  However, dual personality disorder is characterized by more than one distinct personalities taking control of an individual. The unity of consciousness by which people identify themselves does not exist in dual personality disorder.

On the spectrum of social relationships, Ambiverts enjoy conversations with people, but at one point, they get tired of being gregarious. They try to have a balance between their social and personal time smartly. In contrast to extroverts, the Ambiverts seek time and space to make sense of information instead of fully relying on people. When observed in the perspective of job and person fit, Ambiverts can be ideal choice for the recruiters. The HR personnel have always been in search of the right personality types who are thoughtful, pleasant and gregarious yet self understanding, and all of it together lies under ambiversion.

People who know me well are aware I am the very definition of Ambivert. I enjoy all the hubbub and partying as long as it does not make my head pound and if it does, all I want is to be left alone to hum, read or to create imaginary characters in my head (yes I do). I feel comfortable talking to strangers but at the caution of not giving away too much of myself. I had been both sporty and a loner during play time at school, and sometimes what excited me most about play times was a chance to sit back and write short stories. All of this does not make me a dual personality freak. Does it?

And now some common sense?

There is no such thing as a pure introvert or extrovert. Such a person would be in the lunatic asylum-Carl G Jung. After all Carl Jung was not a lunatic to say so!