Brain health · Sanctum

Drained by people

Time with people costs you, even people you love. You can be warm and good company in the moment, and then need hours, or days, alone afterwards to recover. The wanting of connection and the emptying by it sit side by side.

This is not simple introversion or not liking people. For some brains socialising takes active processing, reading, adapting, masking, that runs the battery down faster than it does for others. The drain is real, and it builds whether or not you enjoyed yourself.

Because you show up and seem fine, the cost is invisible, and the need to withdraw afterwards gets read as being aloof, flaky or hard to pin down. People do not see that the recovery is not a preference but a necessity.

We pay attention to what socialising costs you, not just whether you can do it, because that tells us how your system actually works. None of this is a diagnosis. It is what we explore with you.

Written by Dr Asad RaffiConsultant Psychiatrist · Founder & Medical Director