Stress and the INTJ

So here I am drinking tea and thinking about my INTJ’ness.

I am drinking tea because it seems to me to be a kind of cure-all. The real cure-all for an INTJ however is not tea, it is getting things done. And the source of angst for an INTJ is, not surprisingly, the inverse.

After a rather extended period of ‘angsty inverseness’, I put the kettle on, washed all the dirty cups in the short time it took for the water to boil, found the list I made early this week and crossed off the things I’d done. I then made a cup of tea. 15 things on the list, four left. Not bad considering this list does not have a particular end date. Things feel better.

I can verify that the following statements match whatever strain of the INTJ I happen to have in relation to stress and stressful things.

“A large number of INTJ folks reported that they often felt a strong desire to clean when under stress”

“If they do not take a project to completion, they may set themselves up for frustration and depression resulting from too much self-criticism.”

“They become frustrated if they are too tightly controlled.”

There is also an excellent description of INTJ’s on Urban Semiotic

Personality Page gives a good general overview of INTJ’s they also, naturally, give overviews of the other types.

And because only 2% or so of the population happen to be INTJ’s the you can take the test (Jung/Myers-Briggs) along with a stack of other interesting personality tests over here at Similar Minds. But only after you’ve made yourself a cup of tea.

4 Comments

  1. Cat said:

    The power of suggestion – I read this, made a cup of tea and did a personality test! (ISTJ in case you were wondering!)

    August 8, 2009
  2. Interesting! If anything I am borderline S. 😛 Hope the tea was worth it!

    August 8, 2009
  3. Heather said:

    hehe!! My housemate Leah and I are both INFJ’s and we constantly commiserate with one another about our “J-ness”, which compels us to make lists, wash other people’s dishes and re-order our wardrobes in order to feel under control!!!

    September 15, 2009
  4. Juan said:

    I also wash my housemate’s dishes (sometimes), just because I feel like helping them and not because I had a “weird” fascination with cleaning or something (well, perhaps just a tiny bit). Unfortunately my housemates are not INTJs and I know they will never do the same for me.

    November 9, 2009

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