My god, it would take me hours to read through this thread now, which is sad since I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of insight into how everyone works, especially fellow 'feelers'.
1) When you talk about feelings/emotions, how do you experience them?
It's rare when I actually discuss my
own emotions, and I usually don't need to, since they're usually very obvious. My
feeling, though not entirely separate by any means, are based off what I've always termed empathy, and they are heavily dependent -- or at least heavily
influenced -- by my environment. I recognized this process in myself well before I knew what Extraverted Feeling was.
I'm constantly aware of my emotions, whether or not I'm paying attention to them, but that doesn't mean I'm terribly apt talking
about them because they're often at the mercy of my Feeling, by which they are most often guided.
To personify it, Feeling is a hyperactive, fickle, and none-too-bright extravert who informs me of things by way of
screaming in my face. If there's no thought to guide it, it ends up dragging me down to the darkest depths of despair, or shooting my emotions skyward to short-lived euphoria, all potentially in a matter of seconds, and mostly based on what's going on around me.
Of course, it can occasionally decide that the trusty codger, Thought, the quiet, mystical iNtution, or the trickster Extraverted Sensing have provided it something worthy of reacting to, and it will again slam me.
With all of that going on it can become extremely difficult to discuss my emotions. However, I can discuss someone else's with great ease. Hell, I can usually tell them what they're feeling (or, rather, emoting) before they know themselves. Problematic.
Here's an example of how a conversation may go between me, someone else, and Fe itself:
Someone Else: "How are you feeling right now?"
Me: [thrown for a loop] "Uh....
Hey, Fe? How am I fee—"
Fe: BLAAAAAARGHRAGHFJWAKKA HAHAH, ASS[etc. cussing] FWARHGTH!
Me: "Nevermind, Someone Else, let's talk about
your feelings — I can tell you're really in a bad mood. Fe won't shut the f-ck up about it."
Someone Else: "...You're a crazy-ass [mean woman synonym]."
2) Do you always go on your feelings? Do you feel that your emotions are "trustworthy?" Do you ever feel like your view of a situation is clouded by your personal feelings?
Whoa whoa, that's three separate questions.
First, yes. But that doesn't mean much, and if I answer with just that, it doesn't give the whole story. I trust Fe, but I don't always trust the crazy ideas that it can generate if Ti and Ni decide to let it knock them for a loop. In other words, Fe has the potential to adversely affect their functioning; it can influence Ti easily, making it 'panic' from the emotions, thus generating rather paranoid ideas, while Ni is awash in the emotions, temporarily drowned and creating all sorts of potentially goofy sh!t.
Furthermore, if I just put a gag on Fe and give it time out, I'll pay a price. Eventually, it's not going to let itself be hindered anymore and break loose, usually after I've been 'brooding' over a situation with Ni and Ti, who inadvertently feed too much to Fe. I can often trust Ni, but Fe makes me go ballistic. Sure, it may be feeling something legitimate, but it can get out of control directing my emotions.
Second, emotions aren't anything more than the reaction my brain's perception has to the environment. Thus, my emotions are only as trustworthy as the input driving them. Thing is, I usually trust my perceptions, and by extension, my emotions.
God, I hope I make sense with all of this.
Thirdly, I think I answered that with what I answered to the first of those three questions.
3) How does the feeling translate into action?
Again, I think I answered that within 2. Best I can tell, Fe drives me by grabbing at my environment and feeding Ni and, to a lesser extent, Ti, and being a weird buddy with Se (I have an XSFP side that can be pretty strong at times). All these functions are part of how I perceive the world around me, and so whatever they're doing creates an emotional reaction, mostly thanks to Fe.
I'm in touch with Fe pretty strongly, and the result is that less emotionally 'in-tune' people call me 'overemotional,' 'unstable,' and 'spastic'. Funny thing is, other Feelers I know think I'm too stable and rational, at least at points because of my constant love-affairs on the side with Ti. I can't win.
4) Anything else you feel like sharing. I'm just a T, so I'm not even sure how to word all this in F language.
I have often felt I'm cursed with all of my Feeling. I've never liked being as empathic as I am, feeling other's pains and suffering. I am overly sensitive to the 'emotions' of my environment, which can be overwhelming or stifling at times. All of that may be a big part of the reason I've developed my Thinking so much, but it's quiet and internal, like am intimate friend I talk to and confide in about intellectual meanderings.
In the winter I will have a lull in Fe and Se, and essentially become Ni, Ti, and to a lesser extent Fi. I'm sure that sounds like bullsh-t, but it can be heavenly at first. Then, as time goes on, I don't know what to do without Fe and become increasingly lost and introverted -- 'schizoid,' actually. It's then I realize I can't function without it.