I (18M) graduated high school last spring and have since been living with my mom and sister while working from home. All of this time isolated and solely around my family has given me some time to evaluate my closest relationships, and they're all beginning to feel as though they're strangling me. I've always been very introverted at school and largely introverted around my family.

In fact, the times that I'm able to open up the most are when I'm put in an odd and temporary situation (ex. I went on a trip across the country with my classmates for a few weeks last year, and they felt like the most care-free weeks of my life. I could be open about expressing myself and my feelings). But every long-term relationship of any kind that I have, including the ones with my family, feels so incredibly manufactured. I've known this about my friendships since I was very young, but I just recently began to realize that my own mom doesn't even really know me.

I tend to come across as very straight-faced and shy, this much I know, but when I smile at something my mom looks at me like I've done something wrong and asks if something happened; and if I'm ok. It's almost like she didn't know I could feel actually happy about anything. When my face lit up after finding out my good friend got into his dream college, she asked me what was wrong. The other day we were talking and I opened up a bit about a romantic situation that I had in high school and mentioned briefly how much I just love the feeling of loving someone- that oftentimes my friends pass through my mind and I can't help but feel this overwhelming joy at their existence (this sense of feeling so much love that I could explode has become very normal to me). She acted so surprised that I could care SO much.

Do any other INFJs (or more specifically INFJ-Ts) feel as though no one in their life really understands how they feel about the world around them? I just LOVE people, and in my head, it's a defining characteristic that shapes the way that I interact with my friends, family, and the entire world.