25 Struggles INFJs Will Understand | INFJ Forum

25 Struggles INFJs Will Understand

SarahBS

Permanent Fixture
Apr 10, 2015
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1. Being able to predict with eerie accuracy how a situation is going to play out, but being too polite to tell people that they’re making a mistake… so just keeping quiet and having to watch exactly what you thought would happen, happen.

2. Having zero interest in casual dating in a world that’s obsessed with flings and one-night stands.

3. The consistent, nagging voice in the back of your mind telling you that you’re not living up to your full potential.

4. Having much never met another person like yourself, since INFJs are (a) Only 1% of the population and (b) Usually inside reading a book.

5. The constant struggle of wanting alone time but feeling the uncontrollable compulsion to go make your loved ones happy.

6. Fooling everyone into thinking you’re an extrovert while you’re in public and then confusing the heck out of them when you don’t want to go out tonight because… well, you just don’t want to.

7. When pretty much all of your favorite people are fictional.

8. Not wanting to work for a corrupt, capitalistic society … but also needing to pay rent and eat.

9. When you want to go to sleep but your brain wants to stay up analyzing the great mysteries of the universe.

10. Having such a clear idea of something in your mind that it’s impossible to convey it using words, so you just talk around the concept for hours and end up making everyone more confused than ever.

11. Being just idealistic enough to conceive of a Utopian society but just realistic enough to understand all of the reasons why it could never exist.

12. When a conversation with someone doesn’t unfold the way you meticulously planned for it to in your mind.

13. Being in tune with absolutely everybody’s feelings except your own.

14. “Funny thing — I already watched our entire relationship play out in my mind. It ended in a painful divorce ten years down the road at which point I lost custody of our beautiful Dachshund Aristotle, whom I loved with all my heart. So no, I won’t be available to go out on a second date with you.”

15. Oscillating between revealing absolutely nothing about yourself to others and then revealing way too much and apologizing for it.

16. Actually, feeling the need to apologize for pretty much any emotion or need that you outwardly express.

17. Accidentally creating ridiculous standards for other people in your mind and then being disappointed when they fail to live up to them.

18. Hating conflict but having people constantly come to you with their conflicts.

19. When you finally find the nerve to open up to a loved one about what you’re thinking or feeling deep down — and then they still don’t get it.

20. Needing close relationships in order to be happy, but also needing a lot of alone time in order to be happy.

21. Being a magnet for self-destructive people and then dwelling on their problems ten times more than they do themselves.

22. Being intellectually gifted but also entirely out of touch with the world around you.

23. Being a compulsive people-pleaser in relationships because your partner being unhappy would actually feel worse than you being unhappy.

24. Kind of fitting in everywhere but really fitting in nowhere.

25. When you occasionally remember that the rest of the world doesn’t live life almost entirely inside of their minds — and honestly having no idea what that must be like.
 
[MENTION=14023]Angela[/MENTION] let's try not to :D

I've stopped explaining myself to the world 6 months ago :) ^^
 
[MENTION=13542]SarahBS[/MENTION] I am so close with them, yet my mom always makes a big deal about everything, and how I can just change so just do it. I just want her to understand me! lol
 
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If you know everything about yourself, there would be nothing left to explore and no or little room for spontaneity.
 
Wow. I am not alone. I'm so happy I joined this site!

This is a great post [MENTION=13542]SarahBS[/MENTION] . Thank you for it. =)
 
[MENTION=14253]seltsamsea[/MENTION] you're not alone ^_^
:hug:
 
[MENTION=13999]Pleiades[/MENTION] , a piece of advice from me: Don't expect to be fully understood here. Even We don't understand each other sometimes ;)
 
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#26. Endlessly being exposed to other INFJ's that endlessly go on about what it's like to be an INFJ.
 
Could the theme of the thread be understanding how INFJ's choose to make sense of the world.....

Many of the descriptions mentioned actually demonstrate the boundaries of the emotional capacities of an INFJ but neglect the fact that a lot of us, wither explicitly or covertly, rely upon the same sort of thinking to elevate ourselves above what we have originally realised.
Sooo IMHO, the answers lye in how we progress from our introspection rather than understanding ourselves relatively to the world around us.
 
bingo

Kind of fitting in everywhere but really fitting in nowhere.
^this coupled with an insatiable need to please others leads me to often wonder: whose life am i living? i don't even know.
 
Really really bang on - that sums it up perfectly. If I could would get a t-shirt made with the 25 points printed on it and wear constantly, except I know no one work read it
 
This post was truly awesome. My INFJ rant, "I feel so different. Alone, but not necessarily lonely. Totally misunderstood. Taken for granted. Overlooked, but have a nuclear warhead in my mind and heart of information to share that will change humanity." Feels like I'm in Antarctica sometimes. Only Elvis understands when I listen to him or Led Zeppelin, U2, etc. Music goes inside of me as well as knowledge. I say certain knowledge..for now, call it esoteric, metabolizes me rather than me metabolizing it. Wow, sounds like and INFJ. Overshare :)

Once again, your post was freaking awesome. The most awesome part is I know how you feel! Who else would get this? I mean really man. Wow. Sorry, I'm a newb. Feels like I landed on a planet within a planet. Man, no one else gets this. Well, it feels that way ;)
 
#6, I don't really agree. Haven't fooled anyone into thinking I'm an extrovert.
#21, I'd agree completely, though.

Good list.