[NF] THe "Crazy" "Paranoid" NF

[sculpting]

I used to do this with people, but I had to be careful as it was way to easy to do the Ne-paranoia thing and end up coming to the worst conclusion of what others thought about me. Total paranoia.

I would say my better examples of the Ne patterns be ignored tend to be in my workplace. I see a pattern. I try and tell someone about the pattern. They ignore me. They faceplant. Rinse and repeat. I usually note these folks are not really seeing the big picture.

My one strength is troubleshooting though, as I take this weird "wack-a-mole" gut feeling approach to problems and I often end up correct. I cant even say why. I hear an entire problem described vaguely and I just wrap structure around it, and then go "oh that's the problem". Funny enough, several of my research advisers were INTPs and over the years as I left their labs, each would note that my skill seemed to be able to get to the gist, the underlying pivot point of a problem and figure out a solution. I could just figure out the particular breaking point that really mattered, and ignore all the other possiblities or layers of issues. (I did not get complimented on my attention to detail or my research endurance or publication record )

So whenever I start something new, I always have to deal with kind of knowing what the right answer is, due to the intuition, but not having anyone actually listen to me. It get sold, but after a bit they start to listen.

Sometimes it does put together patterns that make me anxious though. I can tell when a pattern is complete but needs data verses a pattern which is very sketchy.

People patterns-they just seem obvious, although i dont do motives so much. People mostly do what you expect them to do.

 

[Qlip]

I never really felt paranoid.. except when under stress, which was very short term. Mostly I just wondered if I was paranoid. I had certain feelings about why people were doing certain things, but I could not substantiate them. Most of my confusion was wondering if I was (depending on the situation) A. thinking the worst of myself or B. Justifying an action. Most of the time I had actual insight and was mistrustful of my Feelings.

 

[Virulence]

I've gone through some weird phases with intuition. When I was a teenager, I had very strong intuition, but I had terrible self-esteem and didn't trust my perception at all, which led to a lot of unfortunate events! As I've gotten older, I've learned that, yes, I should trust my own goddamn intuition because when I don't I get involved in stupid things and it doesn't end well. Could never explain the "why" behind hunches, though, beyond "'Cause I have a feeling."

It's satisfying to end up vindicated and able to say "I told you so."

 

[cascadeco]

hmm. to echo what a few others have already said,

I never had issues growing up, or even currently, being called crazy or paranoid or whatever, by anyone. (I am however probably universally considered unusual - by virtue of my group of friends and comments to that effect, and social stuff throughout life I think a lot of this is because I simply don't verbalize any 'intuitions'/suspicions I have about something until or unless I'm reasonably certain and I actually can articulate reasons other people will understand. Also, it's important to me to have reasons for why I think something - so I like to do that analysis to figure out what little details, or what all the elements of a situation are that make me think something is 'off'.

Tied to this, I don't really verbalize unless the issue actually does come to a head, or I need to ask something of someone if it directly impacts me / our relationship. And, I'm someone who, whether due to introversion, or how I was raised, or what, just tends to keep most thoughts to myself anyway.

Also, kind of to Marm's point, I think what's being discussed is partly just 'intuition' in the layman's sense, not necessarily just in the cognitive functions sense. I know my ISFJ friend quite often gets 'feelings' about situations and people, in similar contexts as to examples given in this thread, and will cite that as her intuition.

And finally... what MonkeyGrass was saying is something I can definitely relate to. I KNOW when I'm in a mental/emotional spot where I can't exactly trust myself.. like I know when I'm paranoid due to my current state, whether it's a bit of a depressive funk, or higher stress so I'm more anxious about everything, etc... so most especially when I'm in those sorts of moods I've learned to ride them out before saying anything or actually acting on my thoughts - because half the time I AM being paranoid or am projecting, and internally I start concocting all these theories. I don't verbalize or try to pinpoint what is what until I'm out of that funk - because often once out of the funk I realize a couple of the theories can be struck out right off the bat and were merely a product of my mood.