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[ENFP] ENFP's and anxiety

King sns

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I wonder if we are more prone to it, being feelers, and also having the potential to overthink what may or may not be. A few ENFP's on here, (myself included) have reported severe anxiety disorders.

(other types have, as well, of course. I don't know if it happens more/ or more severe than usual in the ENFP- and why or why not?)
 

Qlip

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It seems that we might be. I used to have very severe Social Anxiety when I was in middle school/high school, going to school every morning induced panic. Mostly I only have echos of those symptoms, but they're there. They seem to be triggered most when I feel like I m being judged by a group of people.

I go outside of my comfort zone often, and in some ways I'm used to it, but doing it has some very intense physical effects. My body goes in to fight or flight mode when I do something I feel nervous about, tunnel vision, numbness at the extremities. I don't know if that falls under the same umbrella as an anxiety disorder.
 

INTP

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Its the inferior Si combined with Fi
 

King sns

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Its the inferior Si combined with Fi

Can you elaborate?

I can kind of see it, (there is always some elusive "shoulds" in the back of my mind, exacerbated by Ne, that can create more stuff and incorporate more "shoulds" into the psyche and then they never happen and it makes me feel like I'm constantly doing something wrong- well, I don't know if that's function related or not, but seems like it could be.)
 

Stanton Moore

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Anxiety, including PTSD, are more likely in women and in people of either gender who are left-handed or mixed dominant. The relationship to personality is tangential at best.
 

INTP

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Can you elaborate?

Think this being what you perceive to be inside, your personal 'what is':

Inferior function The least differentiated of the four psychological functions. (Compare primary function.)

The inferior function is practically identical with the dark side of the human personality.["Concerning Rebirth," CW 9i, par. 222.]

In Jung’s model of typology, the inferior or fourth function is opposite to the superior or primary function. Whether it operates in an introverted or extraverted way, it behaves like an autonomous complex; its activation is marked by affect and it resists integration.

The inferior function secretly and mischievously influences the superior function most of all, just as the latter represses the former most strongly.["The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales," ibid., par. 431.]

Positive as well as negative occurrences can constellate the inferior counter-function. When this happens, sensitiveness appears. Sensi-tiveness is a sure sign of of the presence of inferiority. This provides the psychological basis for discord and misunderstanding, not only as between two people, but also in ourselves. The essence of the inferior function is autonomy: it is independent, it attacks, it fascinates and so spins us about that we are no longer masters of ourselves and can no longer rightly distinguish between ourselves and others["The Problem of the Attitude-Type," CW 7, par. 85.]

The inferior function is always of the same nature, rational or irrational, as the primary function: when thinking is most developed, the other rational function, feeling, is inferior; if sensation is dominant, then intuition, the other irrational function, is the fourth function, and so on. This accords with general experience: the thinker is tripped up by feeling values; the practical sensation type gets into a rut, blind to the possibilities seen by intuition; the feeling type is deaf to logical thinking; and the intuitive, at home in the inner world, runs afoul of concrete reality.

One may be aware of the perceptions or judgments associated with the inferior function, but these are generally over-ridden by the superior function. Thinking types, for example, do not give their feelings much weight. Sensation types have intuitions, but they are not motivated by them. Similarly, feeling types brush away disturbing thoughts and intuitives ignore what is right in front of them.

Although the inferior function may be conscious as a phenomenon its true significance nevertheless remains unrecognized. It behaves like many repressed or insufficiently appreciated contents, which are partly conscious and partly unconscious . . . . Thus in normal cases the inferior function remains conscious, at least in its effects; but in a neurosis it sinks wholly or in part into the unconscious. ["Definitions," CW 6, par. 764.]

To the extent that a person functions too one-sidedly, the inferior function becomes correspondingly primitive and troublesome. The overly dominant primary function takes energy away from the inferior function, which falls into the unconscious. There it is prone to be activated in an unnatural way, giving rise to infantile desires and other symptoms of imbalance. This is the situation in neurosis.

In order to extricate the inferior function from the unconscious by analysis, the unconscious fantasy formations that have now been activated must be brought to the surface. The conscious realization of these fantasies brings the inferior function to consciousness and makes further development possible.[Ibid., par. 764.]

When it becomes desirable or necessary to develop the inferior function, this can only happen gradually.

I have frequently observed how an analyst, confronted with a terrific thinking type, for instance, will do his utmost to develop the feeling function directly out of the unconscious. Such an attempt is foredoomed to failure, because it involves too great a violation of the conscious standpoint. Should the violation nevertheless be successful, a really compulsive dependence of the patient on the analyst ensues, a transference that can only be brutally terminated, because, having been left without a standpoint, the patient has made his standpoint the analyst. . . . [Therefore] in order to cushion the impact of the unconscious, an irrational type needs a stronger development of the rational auxiliary function present in consciousness [and vice versa].["General Description of the Types," ibid., par. 670.]

Attempts to assimilate the inferior function are usually accompanied by a deterioration in the primary function. The thinking type can’t write an essay, the sensation type gets lost and forgets appointments, the intuitive loses touch with possibilities, and the feeling type can’t decide what something’s worth.

And yet it is necessary for the development of character that we should allow the other side, the inferior function, to find expression. We cannot in the long run allow one part of our personality to be cared for symbiotically by another; for the moment when we might have need of the other function may come at any time and find us unprepared. ["The Problem of the Attitude-Type," CW 7, par. 86.]

Also think making decision wether you believe it of not based on Fi.

And Ne seeing all sorts of possibilities over time in the external world, and these possibilities being guided by the inferior.
 

Stanton Moore

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Women and men who are lefties/mixed-dominant have thicker corpus callosa, which is the band of tissue that joines the two hemispheres of the brain. It's composed of a couple million axons.
Why is this important? Because it's theorized that having more axonal connections between hemispheres caused more 'cross-talk', and hence more rumination and emotional investment in experiences, and this may lead to excitement in the HPA axis (hypothalmic/pauitary/adrenal), which is the bodies primary endocrine route dealing with stressful situations.
 

Flux

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In regards to social anxiety -- wanting to be liked by someone can be a powerful force. But, being a feeler, fueled by possibilities, and valuing the external world could contribute to anxiety.
 

sculpting

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when younger neurotically so, yes. Even as young as kindergarden, I was convinced other kids disliked me and would have extreme anxiety about being around them. I eventually, my teens, developed some ways to psychologically push past it, and by mid twenties was much less anxious-something about the workplace and college classes allowed more natural interaction patterns than forced confinement with a bunch of other kids who were bent on socially tormenting each other. Additionally I found more kids who were like me, so I didnt get called weird anymore-thank goodness for NTs.

Oddly, I did very well in public speaking-it was talking to a group, not a person.

I still will tend to become too emotionally wrapped up in issues and not be able to stop thinking about them...it creates a gnawing feeling in my gut. Often reading a good novel will help stop this as it allows my mind (fixated in an Si like way) to find something else to think about.

Now days I still deal with stress-
 
S

SingSmileShine

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Oh, boy. I have a very, very severe one! I'll have to keep this forum in the back of my mind - right now, I'm going out, but I'll be back to this thread to discuss!
 

animenagai

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I'm not really sure how this is an inferior Si thing. It seems like we should be talking more about the other side of the coin, the dominant Ne, paired with Fi. It makes for a lot of 'I wonder what they're thinking' moments. I've seen other ENFP's being told to stop 'living in their own world' and create problems in their own head. I'm only slowly starting to learn that.
 

31january

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hmm, i think the inferior Si could come in because despite all the Ne speculation, we don't have reliable sensing information to tell us that we're just being paranoid! :p
 

CzeCze

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I wonder if we are more prone to it, being feelers, and also having the potential to overthink what may or may not be. A few ENFP's on here, (myself included) have reported severe anxiety disorders.

(other types have, as well, of course. I don't know if it happens more/ or more severe than usual in the ENFP- and why or why not?)

Absolutely. THere are other tangential threads on this. Also unofficial data - all the confirmed ENFP females I know suffer from hyperactivity turned anxiety. Including anxiety attacks.

It's that motherflipping overactive Ne that keeps feeding into an oversensitive Fi filter. The Fi can't filter the Ne fast enough so all our data from Ne overloads us. Personally, I care way too much about how other people think and my 7w6 (the way our anxiety is directed) makes me want to be a people pleaser in many ways. I hate it. I think if I were an 8 or even a 9 I would be a lot less anxious. I naturally scan and gauge people's reactions. It's very exhausting of my personal/mental/psychic reserves and makes me anxious because my system naturally does this but there isn't really an end point or goal. I have vague but high expectations desires of myself that hinge on the approval/opinions of others but I don't understand intellectually/consciously what my body and mind are automatically doing. So it's just a system spinning wheels on high gear stuck on a gear going nowhere.

Does that resonate with anyone?

On an 'Ne note' ENTPs do NOT share the problem of "caring what people think [about them]" so there is no seed for anxiety.
 

Elisius

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We're just a bit more sensitive to our social surroundings. Ironically it's being more socially aware that makes us anxious in social situations. We can innately feel when we're being judged and it hurts us more than most.
That's why we'd be more prone to social anxiety, at least.
 

King sns

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Absolutely. THere are other tangential threads on this. Also unofficial data - all the confirmed ENFP females I know suffer from hyperactivity turned anxiety. Including anxiety attacks.

It's that motherflipping overactive Ne that keeps feeding into an oversensitive Fi filter. The Fi can't filter the Ne fast enough so all our data from Ne overloads us. Personally, I care way too much about how other people think and my 7w6 (the way our anxiety is directed) makes me want to be a people pleaser in many ways. I hate it. I think if I were an 8 or even a 9 I would be a lot less anxious. I naturally scan and gauge people's reactions. It's very exhausting of my personal/mental/psychic reserves and makes me anxious because my system naturally does this but there isn't really an end point or goal. I have vague but high expectations desires of myself that hinge on the approval/opinions of others but I don't understand intellectually/consciously what my body and mind are automatically doing. So it's just a system spinning wheels on high gear stuck on a gear going nowhere.

Does that resonate with anyone?

On an 'Ne note' ENTPs do NOT share the problem of "caring what people think [about them]" so there is no seed for anxiety.

This is true for me too for the most part, I just think myself off into disasters and I'm never going to be good enough to live up to my own expectations. I'm not so big on the people pleasing end, but I know it's there to some extent.
 

Betty Blue

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I'm not really sure how this is an inferior Si thing. It seems like we should be talking more about the other side of the coin, the dominant Ne, paired with Fi. It makes for a lot of 'I wonder what they're thinking' moments. I've seen other ENFP's being told to stop 'living in their own world' and create problems in their own head. I'm only slowly starting to learn that.

God i do that something chronic. Then i panic about all the imaginary situations i have created....
Must remember they are not really real.
 
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