Many STPs I have interacted with have stated this to be an issue; especially ESTPs. Our brains "plot" or "scheme" or whatever you wnat to call it. We are hell bent and determined to make htings happen in our lives, preferably with as little effort as possible in order to result in maximum gains. So, our minds must run a myriad of background processes, and the net effect of it is that our brains never really "turn off."
I am not kidding you, this is such a problem for me, I have laid awake at night thinking, plotting, scheming, dreaming, conceptualizing, etc. since my early tennage years, and I am now 36. I didn't get an Rx for insomnia until my late twenties. The sad thing is, that I LIKE THE WAY MY BRAIN WORKS, but my body is a wreck if I allow it to run on its normal schedule, and do not force it to reconcile with my physical body, which also has very many demands of it each day. It is a very tricky balance for me to maintain, and for my STP kin as well, but I know of few that would change our wiring even if we did have the chance.
Oh yes. This, too.
I'm always over-analyzing EVERYTHING. It's like the whole childhood game of, say when you're playing hide-and-go-seek, "Will they run up and find me right when I pop out and blaze a trail toward home base? Or maybe they're on the other side of the house. Or maybe they're waiting for me around the corner! Do they think I'm just going to sit here forever, or that I'll make a dash for it? Maybe they figure I'll run, or maybe they'll know I'm thinking this and figure I'm too smart to just reveal my location and therefore are spending their energy elsewhere. Or maybe they know I'm thinking THAT and figure I'm smart enough to use the opportunity to just make a break for it and are waiting around the corner for me. Of course, who would waste all that time and energy when they could be looking for the others instead?" and on, and on, and on, and on, ad infinitum.
That's literally how I thought as a child, and it has carried over into adulthood. Every interaction I have with others is judged through that constantly shifting paradigm, weighing scales, observing and (sometimes)
over-analyzing every minute nonverbal cue of my "opponent." I've been known to think a little too hard about things in the past but subsequently pared it down and now I think I'm pretty good. It all has to make sense in context, of course.
Also, my mind is a multi-tasking beast. I don't know what it is, but it's like it HAS to be running several programs at once, which I flip back and forth between spontaneously as needs arise. My priorities are constantly shifting, and I'm constantly debating which move to make next. "Should I email this person now, or give myself some time to think and show them I'm just disinterested enough to not be sweating the small stuff?" "I need to stop by and get some stuff at my place, but should I go home first and THEN to my girlfriend's place who knows when since I'm so easily distracted, or just get her to swing me by real quick (with some bonus makeouts since her parents are at her place)!?"
Sometimes I get jammed, though, and my memory kinda goes kaput. Like today at work, one of the dispatchers was gone and all six lines were literally lit up like Christmas lights. At one point three of them still hadn't been answered. It was a mad rush, and at the end I was kinda dumbfounded, just like, "Wtf was I doing...? I remember this one thing but I feel like there was something else..." As it turns out, though, I didn't miss anything, hah.
I honestly have no problem falling asleep, though. I used to in my younger days, but these days I just get waaaay too sleepy. Like you've said before, Halla, we go full-force and sometimes we just collapse. For me that's every day.
Sometimes working 50 hours a day and a couple of classes with loads of homework (one of them crammed into half a quarter because it's online)... good god, man. And every weekend has been pretty packed since I don't even remember when...
Please tell me, Sir, is the xNTP experience similar?
If so, how do y'all cope with it?
Are you OK with it?
Does it ever get in the way?
Dude, life gets to you, too, hah.
They're IN
FP, but you're right, I hear NT's have a real time of it, too. As far as being analytical, that is. Emotions keep NF's up.
