The curious case of ‘shelldom’

You thought I was referring to Sheldon from TBBT and did a typo? Nah! I actually meant ‘shelldom’; there isn’t a word yet, I just framed it. 

Shelldom: noun The state of going into one’s shell. 

”If you ask him a lot of questions, he embraces shelldom“

For all these years I had no clue what it means to get into one’s shell. Of course I had a lot of friends who primarily were introverts, but I hadn’t experienced this state whilst at college or work. There are a lot of theories surrounding shelldom, but today I want to share what it feels when you are BFF with folks who believe or rather find solace in shelldom. 

When you meet them, you wouldn’t know. 

When you hang around with them, you wouldn’t know. 

When you cross that line is when you’ll know. It has been a huge concern to me off late; because I am left clueless when it happens. They are not responsive (my panic begins) they avoid every part of communication (my panic rises) and when there is almost no information about them (anxiety attacks happen) It starts with, am I the cause of concern, to how do I even help them; it is never about fixing them but about fixing the situation. No communication is the worst thing to happen to the mankind and especially for an extrovert, fiery arian (read me)

I’ve realised that is how creative people work; I am glad they do but when it is smeared with a layer of ‘there is an issue’ is when I find it extremely difficult to cope up with shelldom. Folks who follow shelldom never make you feel they are introverts, or their behaviour of extrovertism is played extremely well. They make believe them and how; so when the reality hits, it breaks the dreamy wall pretty hard. 

Their pre-phase of entering shelldom will be hard too, you will have to take sarcasm, blunt words and the most famous line ‘I was like this all the time, just that you did not know about it’. And when they arrive out of that phase, you’ve got to be normal, act normal and not dare talk about it, at all. I am going through this phase of someone dear to me embracing shelldom; I’am left clueless and while I am that, I chose to write. Because writing is my way of communicating, telling the person and the world how it is to be around them. 

Do you think consistent and continuous one-on-one’s with shelldom will make me follow it too? Or should I just go by, this too shall pass?