[INTP] I hate being INTP

[JayPLac]

I don't hate myself. I don't hate my gift. I said what I said because if you're trying to gain understanding into the mind of an INTP, that sums it up. If anything, I feel the isolation which is typical of INTPs. We feel the isolation because, well, we're isolated. It's a hard row to hoe when you live far from the pack. Too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, too dumb, or too smart. Outliers are in a zone of their own.

 

[Sacrophagus]

I don't hate myself. I don't hate my gift. I said what I said because if you're trying to gain understanding into the mind of an INTP, that sums it up. If anything, I feel the isolation which is typical of INTPs. We feel the isolation because, well, we're isolated. It's a hard row to hoe when you live far from the pack. Too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, too dumb, or too smart. Outliers are in a zone of their own.

I was replying to the original poster, but nonetheless, there is something true about your claim.
I love working, talking, or relating to INTPs in general. For example, there is this INTP in my team who has marvelous ideas, but all of the others look at it as if it is devoid of context. Most of them need A to B to C to D to E, to understand the logical succession of thoughts and contextual significance, but this friend of ours, jumps right into X, and they're all confused as they can't process the relationship between his assertions and the present setting or problem at hand. Here, I come in as the leader, and reword his ideas into a more practical fashion to accustom their level of understanding, and I do that with excitement and glee. Some can't really follow up with the consequent state of affairs and feel as though they have skipped many episodes and have to accept the death of the protagonist without previous spoiler alerts.

That isolation you perceive, I see it as something of worth. You're living inside a place where greater things emerge. A fountain of ambrosial ideas, which is not commonly consumed by any mortal but by those who are meritorious.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Take Adderall.

 

[anticlimatic]

I had very big questions without any easily accessible answers when I was younger that caused me a lot of frustration and malcontent. My Te-happy peers were perfectly fine with all the curiosities that academia could satisfy, while I got stuck playing every role in the scientific process from theory rendering to researcher to test subject to test administrator to verifier to text book author on the subject and back again. Took fucking forever but I was able to satisfy my curiosities, and after that there's nothing but sunshine and rainbows. My advice to any young INTP is to keep at it and do your own research. The '100 cups of coffee fry mode' is coming.

 

[Peter Deadpan]

I'm sure it's not really easy being an INTP, but plenty of underdog types like you guys. You just have to find comfort in being accepted into an elite club of minorities.

 

[CitizenErased]

Talking about being misunderstood, I think it comes in hanady to have some other INTPs nearby. In my experience, the misunderstanding is due to, mostly, 4 issues:

a) isolating oneself -> not having activities/information in common with other people, which leads to more isolation,

b) not having a linear "train of thought" -> jumping to conclusions people don't follow so they think you're weird,

c) having your own Ti-dom way of systematizing ideas/concepts/general knowledge in a fashion that is unknown to most people,

d) (optional) understanding normal behaviour as a concept but bein unable to be an example of it (e.g. understanding one has to be nice to pregnant ladies, trying to be nice to them by making an abortion joke because it's topic-related).

So when it comes to people I show myself in all my "weirdness" from day 1. If they can take it/like it, they're welcome aboard the INTP ship; if not, it's okay because they just fade with the background and I forget they exist.

About general weirdness, I don't know. I once had this thought: "what if I started acting like "normal" people? They always look so happy, like jellyfish floating in the sea, being moved by currents, not being curious about what surrounds them, not analyzing everything around them... but if I acted like them (supposing I could manage that level of social skills), I wouldn't be happy because I wouldn't be able to be curious, and even if acting like them brought me things that make me happy, I'd be mad at myself because I didn't achieve them by being my normal weird self". And then I realized that I wouldn't change the way I perceive the world for all the gold in the world, and that I like the "relationship" there is between me and my mind, and I stopped caring about weirdness. Willpower is the problem I'm trying to address right now.

 

[Population: 1]

Seeing as the OP is from seven years ago I'm not really aiming this at the thread maker. I'm obviously not part of this club but there is a kinship. Call me your illogical cousin. I know all about the not fitting in and your thoughts don't align with 98% of the other people you're interacting with deal.

Are all those 'normal' people you see actually happy? Or are they damn fine actors so used to playing a role their pseudo happiness just fits like a comfortable well worn leather jacket? There are loads of people who are pretend happy and scared shitless to admit it, especially to themselves. You have to be you because honestly you're going to do a lousy job being someone else. I'll be damned if I've met three people in my time that really understood me. Believe me I don't exactly make it an easy task either.

Anyway, you're never going to be one of those people and if you managed to shove yourself into that mold you'll be far more miserable being someone you're not. Ask them. A lot of them are being who they think they should be and not who they are because of family pressure, peer pressure, societal pressure etc. They'll probably deny it but you can see it in people. Well, I can. A sort of vacant sadness like someone else should be living in their skin.

Ha. Typical NFP ramblings. I feel the whole outcast vibe. It can take a while to be comfortable with who you are, but it's worth the wait.