Do you feel profoundly misunderstood?
Here's the most common INFJ story:
You grew up intuiting things that other people missed. You weren't always right in your conclusions, but you were right often enough to build trust in your intuition. When you shared your insights with others they demanded proof, something your intuition couldn't provide (yet).
From here the story goes a couple of ways. Unfortunately, 'vindication' is rarely the outcome.
In one version, your prediction eventually played out but the people you shared those assertions with forgot or simply marginalized your ability as coincidence.
In another version, people got "weirded out" by your predictions.
Either way, you learned to keep your insights to yourself.
Then you learned the hard way that there's one thing you should always keep to yourself: this weird and inexplicable phenomenon of absorbing other people's emotions.
Absorbing other's emotions came so naturally to you at such a young age, you assumed it was happening to everyone else, too...
... until it dawned on you that nobody knew what you were talking about (not that you couldn't find the right words). You learned to keep that ability (or what some INFJs label a burden) to yourself.
You needed resources and mentors to help navigate this burden.
If you didn't find these resources, you ran to the part of your personality that is cold, detached and critical. This may have been the only relief you could get.
Being critical never feels good - it is not you - but it helps you survive the cascading torrent of other people's emotions assaulting you every day.
It’s not all bad news, though! Many INFJs have overcome these pain points to live happy, authentic, and meaningful lives.
At Personality Hacker, we've worked with hundreds of INFJs who have faced and overcome these challenges and others.
And today, we want to help you do the same.