[MBTI General] Shadow Possession

[Redbone]

I have been possessed by my extremely evil, stupid, and highly irrational shadow ESFJ since April and I didn't even know it *moan*!

I just thought I had lost my damn mind. I mean, really and completely lost it. I kept saying things like, "I'm not myself. I don't feel like myself." The most telling statement, "I want to go home."

And this is the part where it gets good...it took another ESFJ to see it and help me and point the way back home!

I think this can be put in the #1 slot of "Scariest Thing to Ever Happen to Me".

Anyone else ever dealt with their shadow taking over and beating the complete and utter shibbit out of you?

 

[Vie]

I feel your pain. I was stuck for a year with my shadow controlling me -- I was moody, overly sensitive, impulsive -- basically everything I never am. I didn't really know how to deal with it and am glad that it just sort of went away on it's own.

But being irrationally emotional really does scare the crap out of me. Blegh.

 

[NPcomplete]

I had that happen some time ago. I didn't really know what to do with myself and was miserable the whole time. When I started locking myself in my room to cry, I realised that something was really wrong and sent a long email to one of my closest friends. I unloaded all my fears/feelings to her, she performed some magic and I started feeling better.

I think what also got me through that period was a change of scenery (I had moved for my internship). It's also during that period that I found new hobbies.

 

[suttree]

What do you mean possessed by shadow esfj?

 

[Redbone]

.

...wait, I should have said shadow INTP--negative form of ESFJ. Sorry.

 

[suttree]

What does that mean? I don't know about shadow form.

 

[Rebe]

I was possessed by my ESTJ shadow - extremely judgmental and critical of socially inappropriate behavior, wanted to argue and debate all the time, thought everyone was so ridiculously irrational all the freakin time ... wanted to know everyone's standpoints and then proceed to argue against it, demanding them to be logical and consistent.

I liked it actually. I have since calmed down a bit. During those few months, me and my ISTJ friend got along extremely, extremely well. But I chewed my unhealthy INFJ friend's ear off.

 

[ReflecTcelfeR]

What does that mean? I don't know about shadow form.

Essentially under great amounts of stress you become the exact opposite of what you normally are with regards to your thinking preferences.

 

[Redbone]

Essentially under great amounts of stress you become the exact opposite of what you normally are with regards to your thinking preferences.

And the worst of it, too. So I became a really unhealthy ESFJ.

I couldn't be rational to save my life, made some incredibly stupid and horrible emotional-based decisions and acted upon them. Convinced myself of things that were not based in reality at all simply because that's the way I felt. Clingy, begging for attention, paranoid, intrusive, demanding, chatty, and convinced I was right...a protracted tour of every layer of Hell.

Not a pretty sight. I'm glad it's over but ye gods! can stuff like that give you PTSD? That was beyond belief....

...even though looking back, I'm sure this has happened before to me as a teen.

 

[Invisiblemonkey]

I'm unaware of this phenomenon's causes, as well as what cannot cause it. Could someone elaborate? It seems like an interesting subject, with all due respect to those who have experienced it.
EDIT: Interesting. Sounds like a phenomenon commonly associated with anger or stress to some degree. Reason being, it appears as though it happens to me due to that... the symptoms increasing proportionately with stress. Since I believe I've said several things before about my anger problems, I'm going to stop here. The strange thing is, I've hypothesized that such a thing is my normal state for some reason.

 

[Such Irony]

My inferior Fe episodes involve alot of screaming, slamming doors, crying, throwing things, even hitting other people in my youth. The inferior episodes scare the shit out of me and I wonder how could I have lost control of myself to such an extent. I usually feel very guilty afterwards about how I reacted. Luckily this only happens about 2 or 3 times a year.

 

[sculpting]

I lived as a very strange sort of INFJ child/teen. I was entirely trapped into a boxed off quiet place but without any of the INFJ beauty to go with it-just protective walls. An INFJ doorslam upon the world.

Even now if hurt very badly I can feel the shadow Ni detachment and the shadow Fe sens eof shame come flooding back. But as I have grown to recognize this as part of myself...I recognize it as it happens, thus short circuit the process or cope in a more healthy way.