OldPro said:Alcohol/substance-use disorder patients who also had an affective disorder had MBTI profiles very much like those we have noted in individuals who have an affective disorder not associated with an alcohol or other substance disorder. The affective disorder patients were comparatively over-represented as having Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Perceiving preferences, and were significantly over-represented as being Introverted/Intuitive/ Feeling/Perceiving and Introverted/Sensing/ Feeling/Perceiving types (Janowsky et al., 1998).
Exactly my experience having spent much time in the company of these types. An INFP with an affective disorder is the type who will combine whiskey and psilocybin, disconnect the speakers from the stereo, put on Mozart and then "listen" to the music by gripping the bare ends of the speaker wires.
However, most of the members of this forum are INTJs, which as far as I can ascertain thus far, is the only type that can possess an IQ over 130 and not have some sort of dsm v code. Prior to happening upon this forum, I didn't believe a whole tribe of people like that existed. I thought my only choice was to belong to the tribe of high-IQ-but-cuckoo-bananas or try to fit in with lower-IQ-but-sane.
7Wannabe5 wrote: I mostly agree. It is much more of an adventure for me to take a scavenger/scouting walk in my neighborhood than it would be to take a luxury cruise vacation (yawn, boring.)
A luxury cruise vacation is actually my nightmare idea of a vacation. Being trapped around so many people in a small space. I think all the close proximity to people I don't know and small talk with acquaintances would sap far more of my energy than climbing Mt Kilmanjaro, without any of the nourishment the latter would provide, which come to think of it, is probably something I would actually really like to do.
thrifty++ said: A luxury cruise vacation is actually my nightmare idea of a vacation. Being trapped around so many people in a small space. I think all the close proximity to people I don't know and small talk with acquaintances would sap far more of my energy than climbing Mt Kilmanjaro, without any of the nourishment the latter would provide, which come to think of it, is probably something I would actually really like to do.
Neither option appeals to me much, and my reactive generalizations would be that the first is something only an "old baby" would want to do, and the second is the sort of useless, boring activity that mostly only boys want to do, like putting balls into nets over and over again.
Well, forced to hastily eat my poorly-thought-out words once again. It recently came to my attention, that due to small world effect, I am currently the mistress of one of the 400 people who attended the funeral of Sir Edmund Hillary. So, turns out that he was almost certainly one of you people; "nice man, but difficult to talk to", definitely introverted, probably INTJ. And, I am no longer allowed to make mean-spirited comments about people who are driven to climb mountains due to the fact that they are also not unlikely to engage in philanthropy etc, etc, etc. and not just because of obvious sour-grapes due to lack of possession of anything resembling hip-to-shoulder ratio recommended for such an endeavor and paralyzing fear of heights, blah,blah, blah whatever...
7Wannabe5 wrote:Well, forced to hastily eat my poorly-thought-out words once again. It recently came to my attention, that due to small world effect, I am currently the mistress of one of the 400 people who attended the funeral of Sir Edmund Hillary. So, turns out that he was almost certainly one of you people; "nice man, but difficult to talk to", definitely introverted, probably INTJ. And, I am no longer allowed to make mean-spirited comments about people who are driven to climb mountains due to the fact that they are also not unlikely to engage in philanthropy etc, etc, etc. and not just because of obvious sour-grapes due to lack of possession of anything resembling hip-to-shoulder ratio recommended for such an endeavor and paralyzing fear of heights, blah,blah, blah whatever...
Interesting. He is a bit of a legend where I am. His face is on many of our coins. Him and the queen of England.
Pro: introverts have a natural aversion to saying anything, which means that when they do, it's usually worth listening to.
Con: some good material goes to waste in deference to the natural aversion.
I believe the corollary applies to extraverts. All good ideas are expressed, but all bad ideas as well. Overall I think the extraverts' dilemma is slightly preferable.
For an introvert, once you've acknowledged that the social consequences of saying something stupid tend to be pretty low (or at least lower than imagined for those with severe social anxiety) it gets easier to loosen up and spitball a bit.
Miss Lonelyhearts wrote:...
I believe the corollary applies to extraverts. All good ideas are expressed, but all bad ideas as well. Overall I think the extraverts' dilemma is slightly preferable...
Only if you are able to take criticism. Mouthing off if you think you're THE shit, when you're actually just shit, makes for some tense working environments.
I know I don't know a lot of things and I've found that the fastest way to learn is to expose my ignorance. For those in academia who are too proud to do so, it's a thoroughly embarrassing experience to share a meeting with me
I'm INTJ with a very high "I" almost off the scale. My partner is a very strong 'E'. We have one daughter who is similar to me and one who is similar to my partner. Our family is like some kind of live experiment of how the interactions, pros and cons work.
Yes it's not always easy for a strong "I" in a relationship with a strong 'E'. But we find ways of making it work. Lockdown has been hard - for me as I never get peace and quiet anymore as everybody is at home all the time. And for my partner as she misses the social contact.
Jacob was spot on with the observation about how extroverts derive energy from socialising but introverts are exhausted by it and derive energy from quiet downtime.
I'm the one with the deferred gratification who got good exam results, a well paid job, and who saved a ton of money. My partner is the one who ignored the risks and just started a business without bothering too much with a plan. That's now our main income source.
For what it's worth, I'm the only one who has ever had any kind of a problem with alcohol (a long time ago, and just being a waster rather than a proper alcoholic). For my partner it was more for the fun of it. I'm also the one who's done a lot of travelling, but probably in a very different way to my partner. We did struggle a bit travelling together as we had different approaches.
With our daughters we see the raw pros and cons in people who haven't yet figured it out. My extroverted daughter is like the example further up this thread who hangs out in the front yard looking for people to talk to. My introverted daughter really struggles with too much social interaction.
The poster who mentioned being seen as arrogant made an interesting point - I've noticed people thinking that about me a few times and never understood why.
One thing I don't agree with is that introverts don't need other people. I get incredibly lonely if I'm on my own for too long. I do need people, but in small doses.
This all sounds very, very familiar to me; though for us, DW and I are a bit closer to the middle--I scored a 65% I and DW scored a 60% E. Basically, it means DW knows that she can't really rely on me for engaging in the polite, socially-expected surface-level discussions with neighbors, family, church folks, and school parents (she knows she has to run lead on those social interactions). But she also knows that I'll talk for hours to the exclusion of everything else if I find myself with 1 to 2 folks with similar personality types. With our kids we also have one I and one E, though I get the sense that both of them are much more extreme, respectively--our son is VERY much an E, who never, ever stops and who never wants to be alone (thankfully he's discovered that reading and writing are other ways to engage with people and not be alone). Our daughter, on the other hand, I think may be more of an I than me; she will certainly engage socially, but you can often see her steel herself before doing so, and she falls apart if she doesn't get a decent amount of time by herself to recharge her batteries.
