How do you deal with your feelings, emotions & desires?
I accept them if I consider them valid and/or appropriate. Otherwise I set them aside.
What is the experience/process of repressing them like (or whatever you do with them)?
If I'm resentful about repressing them, then they boil inside me and make themselves impossible to ignore -- and the resentment makes them stronger and worse than they were originally. But eventually they die down, and I suppose the dieing down process is repression, in a sense.
If I'm not resentful about it, then it's as simple as telling my feelings that they aren't useful, and focusing really hard on what should be focused on instead. If I ignore the emotion long enough, then it goes away. Literally.
When & how do you ever act on them?
I act on them when it's appropriate to.
What convinces you that your own feelings, emotions and/or desires are valid or not problematic?
After I have the gut reaction (and it's always a gut reaction) that my emotion is valid, I will myself into black-and-white thinking; I get so excited that my emotions aren't dismissable, for once in my life, that I make myself believe that accepting the emotions 100%, and acting on them in a completely uncensored way, is justifiable because the emotions themselves are justifiable, and because shouldn't I have the right to let it all out as a reward for keeping it held in for so long? (This happens a lot with righteous anger; if someone questions it, you'll hear me say "Why shouldn't I be angry? I have every right to be angry!")
How does one get you to talk more openly of yourself?
Be my friend. Be open and receptive. Earn my trust.
You seem to like to hide your personal side; is that a correct perception?
It is.
What makes someone appealing/attractive to you, both romantically & platonically?
I love it when there's more to a person than meets the eye. A lot of the time, I end up befriending people because they want to befriend me, not the other way around, but the people I actively seek out are the ones I find interesting, and the ones that I can learn from. This is the case both romantically and platonically -- and in both cases, I won't chase them down if they show no interest in me, although I may pine after them a little.
How does your wing influence your personality?
I care too much about what other people think of me. I also consider myself duty-bound to other people, simply because they're people and they're in my vicinity -- regardless of whether I know them or not (although my duty to my friends and family is obviously thousands of times stronger). So because of my wing, I'm not as independent as I could be, and there are limits to my ability to go off on my own and do what I want.
And your instinctual stack?
I'm not clear on whether I'm sp/so, but if I am -- and I probably am -- then it influences my personality by making me become self-focused under emotional stress. Even though, as I said before, I'm fairly other-focused and have a duty to others, if I'm having a rough time, my first thought is getting through it, whatever it takes. I'll maintain an accidentally self-imposed isolation from the rest of the world, because I'm too focused on solving my own issues to remember that other duties exist. (My mom knows when I'm having a rough time when she doesn't hear from me for a few days.)
What do you hate to be like?
Worthy of being dismissed, e.g. for being ignorant, stupid, or shallow.
How do you like to be?
Worthy of respect, and acknowledged for what I work hardest for/at.
How do you like to be perceived?
See above.
What's an impression others often have of you that is not accurate and/or is surprising to you in a negative way?
A quote I often hear from people: "I didn't know you felt so strongly about that." Which I suppose means that people assume that my still waters don't run deep, i.e. that I'm not a deep person, simply because I don't talk about my deepest feelings.
What's an impression others often have of you that is surprising in a positive way?
My roommate once told me that I seemed like the sort of person who would make great personal sacrifices for my values. I was surprised by that at the time because we didn't know each other all that well, so I don't know what I could have told her that would give her that impression.
Answer as many/few as you'd like.