sounds great.. books, gardening, computer, cats, carpentry., inner quality time.. what more can you want...
just not good for the other person in ones life I guess.. : )

It's nice to know that there isn't something horribly wrong with me. I always felt I want to be alone. I'm ok with being alone, I just worried if it was ok to feel that way. None of my family understands how I feel. They just don't get it! It made my day to know other people get it and are ok with it!

Reading your story Ray, I can say that I also was extroverted for most of my formative years and had friends and did stuff etc. I come from a family of 5 where 4 are extremely extroverted, and I wonder now if I learned how to be extraverted just to fit in?(though I think it' more likely that I am BOTH, with a preference for introversion??) All I know is that I was around 17-18 when I started smoking pot, which eventually made me feel like being on my own because I think I was pretty sensitive to this drug and would become unusually paranoid around other smokers, not just paranoid, but bored, really bored of their stoner predictable 'conversations, that I'd heard a thousand times before...beyond the 'normal' paranoia that sometimes comes with the territory! I felt like I didn't want to be around people, and the more time I spent on my own, in my room, the happier I felt, and wanted to consciously challenge the ideas I'd been fed growing up that being alone is the worst possible thing in the world! Why? What's so scary about being alone? I can say now...nothing...I revel in it!
At the time though it took some getting used to, and it was scary, and felt wierd, after having been used to going out and doing things with friends, chatting etc. to all of a sudden find all those activities not only annoying but, at times, unbearable to be around such 'chatters'! I don't think it was all the pot, though that is what started it off initially...I think being alone allows us time to really think and enter our Rich inner worlds in such an intimate way, that we can't help but be naturally more thoughtful, of others, of the environment and the planet, of our actions and consequences. If extroverts could overcome their FEAR of being alone , we might actually be able to co-exist in some sort of saner way! But then, I just finished watching another stupid misrepresentation on t.v of "an Introverted Loner Psychopath" who manipulated and preyed on his girlfriend and strangled her, and I think...yeah, well, there are a few loopy ones who probably shouldn't spend so much time alone, who give the rest of us a bad rep, and it reinforces that stereotype out there in society, in the minds of the masses of fear ridden sheep...I guess all we can do is stick together on forums like this, and bugger the rest of them! Can't control what people think (unless you're the media that is) It amazes me though, as, if people really researched it, most of the really bad serial killers were SOCIAL types, with outstanding service to the community and other image boosting personas.
There's another good book,if anyone is interested, by Anneli Rufus called Party of One...it 's like a self-esteem boost and focuses on all the wonders and positives of introversion, whilst placing us along side some pretty famous introverts who have contributed majorly to the world in various arenas.
I also worked at overcoming shyness by deciding to talk to strangers on buses, just about anything, I would try to direct the conversation to the other person so they could do most of the talking, as I am pretty good at listening, and it would help me gain confidence in feeling comfortable, and making OTHERS feel comfortable too...and this was so immensely gratifying at the time that I felt I could overcome it alltogether...but then I just lost all desire to WANT to talk, or hear others talk shit to me. Going out seemed stupid and I'd done it enough, parties seemed void of any interest and actually the superficialness of the people at them made me physically unable to be around them. And have pretty much been that way ever since, and copped plenty of abuse which has, no doubt, made me even more so disinclined to want to interact with extroverted people.
It's interesting to think of all the variations in personal histories of introverted individuals that made us how we are...are there any who NEVER wanted to be around people, who always prefered their own company, I wonder??