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What Scares Your Type the Most The P aspect balances out the J aspect, and so almost cancelling each other out, to the point that I’m almost laissez faire about all things and life itself… but not quite.
INTP
“They were the only person who ever got me.”
INTPs are totally independent non-conformists, right? (Right.) That means they don’t care what ANYBODY thinks of them, right? Well… not quite.
The message INTPs have been getting their whole lives is, “You are different, you are broken, you’re not doing it right.” On a purely factual level, they quickly learn that this kind of rejection comes from people who are either not smart enough for the job they’ve been given or are way too convinced that whatever an authority says is right (or both). That’s a big part of why they usually ignore it and just do their own thing anyway.
But it’s still rejection, and yes, INTPs are locked into the same human brain as the rest of us. Rejection hurts, and love is the cure, even for great visionaries like INTPs. But INTPs know they aren’t going to get love, affection, and friendship just any ol’ place. Most people they meet will only be able to relate to them on a superficial level — or not at all.
Which brings me to the special friends. The rare breed who may not see the world at all like the INTP, but does have an instant chemistry with them — not (necessarily) a romantic chemistry, but an idea chemistry.
This is the friend who helps the INTP pick through the trillion threads in their head and start to follow the golden ones. The friend who listens and it sparks ideas of their own. The friend who advises and doesn’t get upset that the INTP takes none of their advice, instead seeing even more new possibilities.
The friend who truly makes the INTP experience love and acceptance. Any given INTP might only have one or three of these people in their lives, and each one is worth more than diamonds.
And any day, at any time, something could take that friend away. Forever.
This is what terrifies an INTP.
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INTJ
“That was the day my brain stopped working.”
No one wants to lose their mind. But for INTJs, it’s not just the stuff of creepy movies. It’s the stalker in the dark.
When polled, INTJs report this fear under many guises: old age, Alzheimer’s, extreme mental disorders, even a brain injury (eek!). INTJs live in the future, not the present, taking much of their joy from distant goals and long-term growth. To an INTJ, the exigencies of the present are often an annoyance (shopping, repetitive chores, the drive time it takes to get somewhere… need I go on?). The real action is in their heads.
Anything that threatens that is an Enemy of ontological proportions.
Of course, INTJs don’t assume these things are out of their control — nothing is totally out of one’s control, to an INTJ. Instead, they take steps to assess and stave off this threat. A common first step may be a DNA test to assess their genetic risk for Alzheimer’s and other diseases; it only gets more convoluted from there. (I’ll cop to this myself: I’m an INTJ, and personally, I do my best to follow two research-based diets that help reduce the risk of cognitive decline with old age. It’s a die roll, I know.) Even then, the fact that there’s no guaranteed preventative terrifies us. All our knowledge and planning is a silver crucifix held out against the dark.
For INTJs, the terror of the decline of the mind affects even how we see death (if there’s a heaven, it damn well better include a good library). A painful end is manageable, but an end to learning, thinking, planning, envisioning? That is a cold, dark abyss indeed.
So if your INTJ seems too serious or stressed at times, take it easy on them. Of all the types on this list, they’re the only one whose worst fear is guaranteed to get them eventually.