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[quote=Anonymous]I am the sole introvert in my small, nuclear family. While throughout my life I've always had at least a few friends and present as a "friendly" person I'm someone who really needs and values time to myself to re-charge. I just don't have the energy or desire for a lot of social activities with a ton of people particularly because I have a job where I'm around and interacting with people all day. I prefer getting together with friends on a 1:1 basis or in small groups.

I know intellectually this is fine and just how I'm wired but my parents and sister are big extroverts and my entire life I have been judged by them. My sister was the favorite and my parents openly compared me negatively to her throughout my entire childhood. In spite of lots of therapy I still struggle with feeling like a loser in comparison. My sister is a high achiever and has more money and a more prestigious job than I do while also having a "the perfect family"-a husband who is also in a high prestige position and a boy and girl who are also high achieving extroverts.

I like my quiet life-I have a good marriage, a decent job, a daughter who I love dearly and friends (not a ton but some) but I'm not my sister and as much as I try I feel bad about myself because of that. My sister has made joking passive aggressive comments to me regarding me being a loner-I have called her out on this and she apologized but being around her is hard. My parents are both very elderly at this point-I confronted them years ago regarding the negative comparisons throughout childhood and to make a long story short it was not helpful.

Anyone else in a similar situation? Just looking for thoughts and perspectives. I see my family about every other month and afterwards I feel really down about myself and drained. They are very status-oriented people in addition to being huge extroverts and I know they look down on me. My daughter gets along fine with them thankfully-it's important for me that she have relationships with her cousins, aunt, grandparents, etc. but honestly I don't feel connected to them and dread family events.

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