"Emotional Growth" or "How Does My Childhood Explain My Alcoholic Tendencies?""

[Seil]

So I was bored tonight, and decided to peruse the internets for some fun. I got roped in to a few quizzes on Facebook and decided it would be fun to see if I could find the Meyers-Briggs test online. I remembered taking the MB test in high school, and it was kinda cool, and I found something similar (http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm). It doesn't list the details of my result, I had to look up what an ISFP (http://www.personalitypage.com/ISFP.html) is, but I found I related to it. It's probably akin to horroscope psychology, where anyone can
relate to every result in some fashion, but I feel mine is accurate.

Anyway, the way it described me got me thinking about my personality - I'm a little over sensitive. Are overly sensitive people more prone to introversion? To alcoholism? To depression? Are overly sensitive people kinder? Are they more artistic? What's going on here?

So I looked into a few studies online, and there were a few articles about the alcoholism thing (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/addiction-in-society/201102/are-more-intelligent-people-more-likely-be-alcoholics), and the depression thing (http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/why-intelligent-people-tend-to-be-unhappy/).

I'm just wondering if anyone has anything more concrete - about the MB Test, about questions about how childhood experiences shape adult life and personality, or about the questions above.

[Shyria Dracnoir]

I don't know about general terms, but I know my own hypersensitivity could definitely be contributing to my introversion. The reasoning I've picked out is that: I hate feeling shitty -> A lot of things other people do make me feel shitty even when they mean well (this was more true when I was younger, but it still happens from time to time) -> I become overly paranoid about making others feel shitty on accident -> Easier to just avoid people.

[Seil]

I hate silence, fighting and awkward situations => I try to break it up, start talking or tell jokes to avoid them => I stick my foot in my mouth => People are weirded out.

Hey, you're right.

[pochercoaster]

I think it's a maturity/self-awareness thing. Doesn't really matter what your personality is- everyone has the potential to escape into alcoholism or some kind of addiction if they don't know how to deal with stress. Introverted or not, sensitive or not, most people have quirks that they have to come to terms with. You can be intelligent and immature and self destructive, and you can also be intelligent and emotionally stable and levelheaded.

There are all kinds of problems with that link on depression. It's pop psychology drivel.

You might be interested in this link on highly sensitive persons: http://www.hsperson.com/index.html If that page is accurate at all it's not that uncommon (15-20%). I relate to a lot of that, but more on the environmental end than the social end, in that physical sensations (loud noises, bright lights, smells especially, uncomfortable textures) often overwhelm/stress me out. That leads me to find my happy place by sitting in a quiet dim room without talking to anyone for hours, which others mistake for depression when it's actually how I relax. MBTI is kind of horoscopey but I usually score INTP/J with a pretty even split between the last two.

[Doc ock rokc]

While y'all are hypersensitive by probobly default I think that I was tougher a long time ago but changed into the hypersensitive person I am now due to out side circumstances.

I mean used to be a outgoing person till The last of elementary/middle school. Whereupon my short temper (likely caused by frustrations at a deteriorating household) lead to overreaction on nearly everything. Thus the reason for many people to target me/my friends for bullying. I lost friends because I ether pushed them away or they pushed themselves away from me. Leading to several years of near absolute Isolation in formative years developing my Introverted personality that I have now. The daily beatings and insults probobly developed my hypersensitivity and low self esteem as well as perhaps my minor subconscious fear of groups and unwillingness to participate in anything social. However this leads to a conflict as I adore attention if i can get it. Leading for me to become a never-ending fountain of babble when I get the chance to speak my mind or if i can hide myself behind a proxy.

Yes I do spend to many insomniactic nights psychoanalyzing myself

on the score thing i am somewhere between INTJ and ISTJ (as I score one or the other depending on the day)

[BahamutFlare]

I don't know about general terms, but I know my own hypersensitivity could definitely be contributing to my introversion. The reasoning I've picked out is that: I hate feeling shitty -> A lot of things other people do make me feel shitty even when they mean well (this was more true when I was younger, but it still happens from time to time) -> I become overly paranoid about making others feel shitty on accident -> Easier to just avoid people.

I hate silence, fighting and awkward situations => I try to break it up, start talking or tell jokes to avoid them => I stick my foot in my mouth => People are weirded out.

Hey, you're right.

I do both of these, am depressed/lonely/blah some days. Other days, I'm my old self and overly excited and happy. These days I usually say something stupid to someone I like and stick my foot in mouth and go back to planning on how to live in a cave and get electricity to it.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

INTJ up in this bitch!

Might as well contriboot to the self-analysis circle jerk!

As for emotional growth, I'd say one tough night debating on finding an answer at the bottom of a painkiller bottle a little over a year ago changed a lot life outlook things. Learned how to stop being bogged down by shit that is, by all accounts, pretty trivial and not worth a dingus fart. Lotta stuff just seems silly after hitting that psychological rockbottom and clawing back by sheer force of will. Been told I some I come off as calavier at times, but hey I'd say that's a pretty good side-effect of successfully fighting off a near crippling case of depression.

Damn you seil, damn you for making me think things when I could be sleeping.