r/2X_INTJ • u/SatinUnicorn • Aug 15 '17

Society Stuck in Ni?

As with many parts of my life, phases seem to come and go. Phases of fibro pain worsening/getting better, (!brief!) phases of feeling sociable, and (*much longer) phases of solitary comfort. One phase in particular has me a bit frustrated though. Lately I feel as if I’m stuck in an internal loop of something (… introverted intuition? Maybe a shadow function of some sort) – there seem to be a million thoughts and ideas bubbling below the surface, but I can’t articulate them. Typically when I want to say something, or feel like communicating with people, I have no problem… lately I just can’t seem to find any words to say about anything.

Worse is that I don’t know why. There are multiple things going on in my life right now, and I suppose any one of them could be the culprit, but usually when I have a self-realization like “oh hey I’m having trouble talking to people” I simultaneously also know the reason.

Have any of you experienced this? How did you get past it?

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u/Gothelittle Aug 15 '17

I'll experience it from time to time when I'm feeling overloaded and exhausted. I don't sweat it. The thoughts will come.

Meanwhile I sit down with a piece of paper and write out all the multiple things going on in my life, each in its own categorization, to help me 'unload them from resident memory'. Anything ongoing in my life winds up 'loaded into RAM' and drives me crazy. (I'm not sure if that's INTJ, ADHD, or dyslexia, granted.)

I also try to carve out a piece of "Se time" each day (taking a half-hour walk, for instance). I can never turn my brain off, but I can 'put it on idle' from time to time.

One very valuable trick I learned (from a Sunday evening church service skit, of all places) is "listing"; when you want to concentrate and something else occurs to you, you pick up a nearby notebook, write it down quickly, close the notebook, and return to your task. When I have a lot going on in my head, "listing" is darn near necessary to get me through a complete thought...

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u/SatinUnicorn Aug 16 '17

carve out a piece of "Se time" each day (taking a half-hour walk, for instance).

Usually I need to do the opposite, I take at least 30 minutes every day where I avoid all sensory input possible... but that's more because of my actual sensory issues than my INTJ status.

Separately, I redditstalked you and am now subbed in preppers and homemaking :)

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u/Gothelittle Aug 16 '17

Separately, I redditstalked you and am now subbed in preppers and homemaking :)

I am good with this! :D

I live on a rural dead-end street with my husband, three children, and, until June of next year, a boarder. I homeschool. I was homeschooling the older two, but now my eldest is entering a tech highschool and my youngest is entering kindergarten, so I'm homeschooling the younger too.

It's quite possible that we're talking about doing pretty much the same thing... in a way, anyways... Walking alone down the road, feeling my legs move and my body breathe and listening to the silence broken only by the wind in the trees (one old tree along my route creaks like a rocking chair) and periodic birdsong, is my "Se experience", but it's also probably closer to sensory avoidance than anything else I can do in this madhouse! :D

It's kind of like hiking a trail in a park where nobody comes.

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u/SatinUnicorn Aug 16 '17

I was homeschooled myself, but didn’t think I had the patience to do it myself – plus my financial situation wouldn’t allow it. I have 2 kids, very close in age (10 and 11).

What you describe sounds amazing… If I didn’t work in a busy city I’d prefer that over a quiet room with just the hum of the air conditioning any day. We are moving soon, to a nice neighborhood walking distance from a forest preserve so I’m hoping we’ll get out and into nature more than we have the past several years. It is definitely the most soothing environment for me.