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[Si] Si and addictions

hjgbujhghg

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I was thinking about the correlation between introverted sensing and addictions. Since Si is about subjectively experiencing the physical environment, it finds security in personally known places as well as bodily physical experiences. Once Si realized that one thing brings pleasurable sensations to their body, they are more likely to seek the repetition of this sensation, than for example Se, which would rather move on to try next exciting sensations. I think this might be more of a problem for inferior Si users - NP types and then also unhealthy SJs. I wonder...
How do you NPs experience addictions? Do you think you're more prone to them, than others? Do you think it's because of the Si?
The same question for SJs
 

INTP

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Maybe you find something interesting here: UNDERLYING PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ALCOHOL/SUBSTANCE-USE DISORDER PATIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT AN AFFECTIVE DISORDER

I didnt read the whole thing, just skimmed through it quickly and looked at this one table of results which in human language translates to:

Extraverts are more prone to substance abuse disorder than introverts unless there is some mood disorder that causes the addiction(in which case introverts are more prone to addiction).

Sensing folks are more prone to addiction with or without mood disorders. Mood disorders doesent seem to effect S/N ratios at all.

F types are only slightly more prone on addiction with no mood disorders than thinking without mood disorder. However with mood disorder F types are much more prone to addiction than T types.

J/P doesent seem to be relevant on addiction if there is no mood disorder, but P types are more prone to addiction if there is a mood disorder combined with addiction.
 

hjgbujhghg

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Maybe you find something interesting here: UNDERLYING PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ALCOHOL/SUBSTANCE-USE DISORDER PATIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT AN AFFECTIVE DISORDER

I didnt read the whole thing, just skimmed through it quickly and looked at this one table of results which in human language translates to:

this was interesting reading, the big 5 part mostly I wonder how high these people score on openess to experience.

Anyway it didn't really answer my question, if Si as function alone can cause that the individual is more prone to addictions.
 

five sounds

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Yeah I think inferior Si has something to do with how I am comforted by meals that my mom used to make. Same with going to music that is familiar when I'm feeling bad. I can see that it could become an addiction if I started to abuse things in this way to make me feel good.
 

hjgbujhghg

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Yeah I think inferior Si has something to do with how I am comforted by meals that my mom used to make. Same with going to music that is familiar when I'm feeling bad. I can see that it could become an addiction if I started to abuse things in this way to make me feel good.

I feel the same about familiar music, it gives me that very specific feeling of warmth. I also connect songs and music with situations that happaned to me in past
 

Qlip

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I always felt that Si in us was more concerned with our (ENFP) feelings at the time of the formation of our association, and not necessarily the sensation. I think addiction would be most likely if you had a strong association of drinking & tokin' and popping with comfort, with being with friends and acceptance rather than with a pleasant physical associations. The extraverts I know who are into chemical escape, use it just for that, escape and distraction... not comfort, which is what my Si is a goto for.
 

Showbread

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I feel the same about familiar music, it gives me that very specific feeling of warmth. I also connect songs and music with situations that happaned to me in past

THIS. So much. I can't even listen to some songs because they've become so tied to the memories associated with them. Same with smells and foods. There's a particular lip balm that I used during a season of my life. Not a particularly notable season, but that lip balm still takes me back to it roughly 6 years later.
 

hjgbujhghg

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THIS. So much. I can't even listen to some songs because they've become so tied to the memories associated with them. Same with smells and foods. There's a particular lip balm that I used during a season of my life. Not a particularly notable season, but that lip balm still takes me back to it roughly 6 years later.

I know exactly what you're talking about! But aren't they awesome, these sensations? It's a like a time mechanine :D , expect it can be a little bittersweet and melancholic, don't know how it works for SFJs.
 

EJCC

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I was thinking about the correlation between introverted sensing and addictions. Since Si is about subjectively experiencing the physical environment, it finds security in personally known places as well as bodily physical experiences. Once Si realized that one thing brings pleasurable sensations to their body, they are more likely to seek the repetition of this sensation, than for example Se, which would rather move on to try next exciting sensations. I think this might be more of a problem for inferior Si users - NP types and then also unhealthy SJs. I wonder...
How do you NPs experience addictions? Do you think you're more prone to them, than others? Do you think it's because of the Si?
The same question for SJs
When I'm in a bad spot, my go-to is almost always precedent. What have other people done in this situation that worked for them? So I guess in that sense, it could lead to addiction in that when you're in an awful place, and all the usual things don't help anymore, the deepest and darkest depths of the Si database might suggest addictive, sensual pleasures. I usually connect that more with Ne (and Fi, in my case), though.
 

Evee

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I feel the same about familiar music, it gives me that very specific feeling of warmth. I also connect songs and music with situations that happaned to me in past

So do I.
 

olias

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From my understanding I think you might have it backwards. The pleasure of Sensing contributing to addiction matches up with Se (attentiveness to sensual experience). INFJ/INTJ are more likely to end up addicted because of their binge tendencies with inferior Se.

Si, in a biological sense (and depending on how it's expressed) would provide an almost 6th sense of how you're feeling inside. You know you're getting sick before there's any symptoms. You know your doctor put you on something wrong, even though you can't explain it to him and he doesn't believe you. Periods SUCK.

Se enjoys running because it experiences the wind in the hair, the nice view, and and sun on your back. Si hates running because it's focused on how much your lungs burn, that stitch slowly creeping up on your right side, and you remember vividly how you were sore for a week after the last time you ran.

Si is first and foremost about memory and an internal compass. There's an aspect of the physical sensation, but it's an interesting side note. Si provides a huge capacity to remember (whatever it is you're focusing on), Si will make those memories available to you instantly even years later, and your sensation of those memories will be visceral - memories don't fade with Si, neither good nor bad.

Si also uses that warehouse of memories to make decisions and make subjective judgements, and it does it FAST and it does it viscerally and the decisions that Si arrives at are final.

Lastly, Si (again, from my outsiders perch) seems to provide a pretty stiff sense of what's right and wrong morally. My ESTJ has no interest in drugs and even if she did, she's such a rule follower it wouldn't matter. And Si dom or aux types are too busy working or otherwise doing their duty to take any time to smoke.
 

olias

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Yeah I think inferior Si has something to do with how I am comforted by meals that my mom used to make. Same with going to music that is familiar when I'm feeling bad. I can see that it could become an addiction if I started to abuse things in this way to make me feel good.

I feel the same about familiar music, it gives me that very specific feeling of warmth. I also connect songs and music with situations that happaned to me in past

Not to beat this to death, but I think this is important to understanding type dynamics.

The nice feelings you experience when you hear familiar music or when you eat comfort foods, that's Fi. If the food has no emotional currency but it's just delicious, that's Se. The vividness of the memories, that's Si. The combination of Si and Fi allows you to reconnect intensely and vividly with those past experiences, and to experience the same emotional reactions as you did back then - maybe even more strongly.
 

EJCC

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From my understanding I think you might have it backwards. The pleasure of Sensing contributing to addiction matches up with Se (attentiveness to sensual experience). INFJ/INTJ are more likely to end up addicted because of their binge tendencies with inferior Se.
Drugs and alcohol are also great for killing psychological pain -- and that pain can be caused by any function, or none of them. SJs may not be as likely to get into drugs because of "rules", but put one in the right situation and they'll succumb just like anyone else. And if not to drugs, than to some kind of addictive behavior. Perhaps an obsessive behavior, like disordered eating, or over-exercising.

Now to temporarily derail the thread (and this is an extension of my reply to you re: Si in the other thread):

Si, in a biological sense (and depending on how it's expressed) would provide an almost 6th sense of how you're feeling inside. You know you're getting sick before there's any symptoms.
I wish it were that easy. That only works with Si if you have a sense of "this seems familiar" -- but if you never notice it in the first place, then you never have that realization. I, personally, am not that aware of my physical or mental health, or lack thereof, until it's bad enough to halt everything.


Si hates running because it's focused on how much your lungs burn, that stitch slowly creeping up on your right side, and you remember vividly how you were sore for a week after the last time you ran.
Though plenty of Si-users love running, this is a pretty apt description of why I don't like it much. :laugh: There's a sense of being "in the zone", with Se, that I can rarely approximate. I can't turn off my brain like that when I work out.

Si also uses that warehouse of memories to make decisions and make subjective judgements, and it does it FAST and it does it viscerally and the decisions that Si arrives at are final.
They only last until something disproves them -- then they are quickly and (relatively) easily replaced. It only looks final from the outside.

Lastly, Si (again, from my outsiders perch) seems to provide a pretty stiff sense of what's right and wrong morally. My ESTJ has no interest in drugs and even if she did, she's such a rule follower it wouldn't matter. And Si dom or aux types are too busy working or otherwise doing their duty to take any time to smoke.
You're confusing Si and Fi, a bit -- Si only provides the data, re: what's "usual" and "unusual", but provides no value judgments either way.
 

olias

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Well said, and I appreciate the clarification. I more or less feel like I get Si - at least intellectually - but I think it's actually pretty foreign to me and I end up projecting Ni into it without realizing it. The aspect of things needing to be familiar before they're recognized is one I keep forgetting.

I almost wonder if that experience of being tuned into ones internal state is best part of Fi? Same thing with being overly sensitive to the discomfort of running. I'd be curious to hear which type has the highest incidence of runners. ESFP would certainly fit the stereotype.

I hadn't thought about the ESTJ and drinking. Anything that quiets the constant inner criticism might be appealing. I was just sort of day dreaming to day and making the connection between my Dom/Inferior of Ni/Se and thinking it makes perfect sense that I've never cared for alcohol. To me, all it does is make me dumb and make me numb. Where's the fun in that? lol
 

EJCC

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Well said, and I appreciate the clarification. I more or less feel like I get Si - at least intellectually - but I think it's actually pretty foreign to me and I end up projecting Ni into it without realizing it. The aspect of things needing to be familiar before they're recognized is one I keep forgetting.
:laugh: No worries, I project onto Se all the time. I only feel like I "get" Ni because I've harassed enough INFJs on the forum, in an attempt to better understand my INFJ friends and INFJ mother.

I almost wonder if that experience of being tuned into ones internal state is best part of Fi?
I think so. Strong Fi does seem to link to being in tune with your emotions -- at peace with them, in a way. Though I'm not sure if that changes with unhealthy IxFPs.

I hadn't thought about the ESTJ and drinking. Anything that quiets the constant inner criticism might be appealing. I was just sort of day dreaming to day and making the connection between my Dom/Inferior of Ni/Se and thinking it makes perfect sense that I've never cared for alcohol. To me, all it does is make me dumb and make me numb. Where's the fun in that? lol
Ha! Yeah that makes sense.

Just about anyone with an overactive superego -- this may be more type 1 than SJ -- would probably find mind-numbing to be appealing. With type 1, they do this pseudo-integration thing to type 7 when they're under a bit of stress, and they avoid all their stressors in favor of less important task and more fluffy/shallow "fun" things*. With ESTJs, they go into a Te-Ne loop, which, when you take Si data out of the picture, also links to throwing yourself into unimportant and "fun" tasks. (Si would help with prioritization and a sense of what's "usually" effective.) Generally speaking with those two types, their gut reaction to intense stress and pain is to set it aside -- but if setting it aside doesn't cut it, they end up on a mission to find what'll best deaden that pain. Best case scenario would be to get to the root of the stress and eliminate it, e.g. getting that stressful assignment done, or talking to someone about your feelings. Worst case scenario would be what I've been describing above, e.g. being so busy playing a stupid video game that you never do the assignment, or getting into drugs or alcohol to avoid confronting your feelings.



*Clarification edit: I'm referencing Riso and Hudson's introduction to the Enneagram:
Security (One goes to average Seven)
Ones become more playful and uninhibited in the company of people with whom they feel safe. It is as though a secure environment gives Ones permission to let their "silly side" out, along with the ability to express a more complete range of their emotions.. They can be funny, talkative, tell jokes and long stories and can lead others into adventures of various kinds. They can also be boldly outspoken, impulsive, and "naughty" when they feel they can get away with it. They can also allow some of their needs to surface and become demanding, selfish, and greedy after the manner of a low-average Seven. Under stress, they may inadvertently look for distractions and begin to scatter their focus and their energies, as if to prevent becoming overwhelmed by the pressures they feel both from the obligations they have taken on and from their superego.​
 
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