Does anyone feel different?

i only skip-read this discussion, so i may be repeating others. i apologise if thats the case.

i do agree with nicky that it would be so boring if everyone else felt the same way as you. on the other hand, it makes everything somewhat more daunting that nobody will ever feel exactly the same way as you about anything ever.

at the moment i’m feeling very passionless, which may be similar to what you’re experiencing, j0n4th4n. i’m simply not interesting in anything. i’m also going through a minor appearance dilemma, which is always troubling. i know the reason for this though…its the holidays. i always get so bored that i develop a minor form of depression during the holidays. does anyone else?

the point of the previous post was meant to be that mild depression can make you feel very separated from people. i don’t think that was made clear.

I realize that everyone is different and that I can’t find exact copies of myself out there. But, what I’m looking for is similar. An analogy to explain: I’m a christian who has studied theology, gnosticism, history of past christian saints, whatever else etc… Now I’m having a problem understanding something like, ‘fate and free will’. So I start asking around for people’s ideas but I’m surrounded by pagans, muslims, whatever etc. Now every once in a while I’ll come across a christian and they’ll give me some view point on my topic of contemplation. But that christian isn’t familiar with gnosticism, so not everything I’ll speak about is understandable. Then I’ll find another person who understands a lot about past christian saints, and they’ll give me a viewpoint but, they may not understand christian theology. All these topics modify the way a person thinks, and complement each other… Well I don’t know if I’m making sense, I think I need some sleep

I think there are a lot of people this way. What sometimes frustrates me is when I think I’m making a good connection with someone, in a sort of “Yes, someone understands what I’m talking about, finally!” type of way, and then later there is something that we totally disagree on. Disagreement isn’t bad, but I mean the kind of disagreement where in your mind it shows you how ignorant the other person was. And then I think, if I could relate to them, maybe I’m ignorant about a great many things. And I know I am but, now I’m getting off track.

If you have strong convictions about a few things, it makes it harder to connect with other individuals. Most people don’t have strong opinions about much, and when they do, it seems like it’s about something they don’t understand very well. It also probably also changes your taste in many things because your perspective is different.

Until I found this site, I didn’t know that many people with as keen an interest in philosophy as myself (meaning they had actually read philisophical stuff), and I haven’t even read that much on it (compared to a lot of people on this site)… yet (I’m still young).

I did one of those fun internet personality tests and it says that I come under INTP. Heres the test I did - http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

If you are going to do an online personality test though, I recommend you read this first - http://www.tri-network.com/articles/instruments.html

I often feel different to everybody else (in the real world), but I figure thats just me. But the Internet is a big place and I am pretty good at locating sites (like this one) and people which interest me, and have made a few net buddies. Though until I found like-minded people, I had a semi-lonliness. Although I am usually quite content by myself, everyone needs to find a few people they can connect with.

Find people with the same interests - look at their profiles (if they have anything in their profile) - and PM them. After a while you will find if they are simliar to you and you will have yourself a net buddy.

Hi there,

I’m from the Netherlands, and I felt quite different. But during the last few months I discovered where it was coming from.

I was becoming an einzelganger who liked to lock himself up in his room, thinking, reading and writing about my ideas, trying to understand myself en my fellow humans. Outwarded I was friendly and sympathetic, but inside very insecure. I didn’t know if was smart or stupid.

I was scoring quite high on IQ test, but till shortly, I failed to make something out of it. My boss let me go a few months go, so it gave me loads of time to satisfy my hunger for information.

Surfing the internet, I stumbled on a high IQ organisation (no, no not Mensa). And on that site there was a long list of characteristics of high intelligent people. Few of those are, people dont seem to understand you, or understand your jokes. You seem to be ahead of other people, making mind-jumps etc. (I can’t enter that website now, but if interested I could translate some characteristics mentioned)

I also went to some meetings of HIQ people, and the way we could connect was astounding. 2% of the people seem to have IQ’s above 130. But what happens if you score high on those tests is unclear. But it’s clear to me that those people think differently als normal people. And because more people are normal, high intelligent people don’t feel normal or accepted. But if you’re HIQ and the people around you are also (aware of it), you can have great chitchats, as were you normal people!

That’s my version of being different. Maybe some of you will recognize it.

Maybe this gives a clue;
Strong sense of justice, and what’s wrong or right
You like to work alone
Other people don’t understand your jokes
Quickly seeing solutions for problems
Very sensitive
Other people often can’t follow your thoughts
You’re a loyal person
You’re often bored on parties
You have high standards, especially on yourself
You can’t stand repeatings of what’s been just told
At school you’re a bit of an outsider
When working on a project you can work for hours and forget the time
Things you have to say are often neglected or misunderstood
Often you hear the comments like; don’t think to deep, are you serious about that?
You’re non-conformistic
You don’t like being in groups
You’re an idealist
feeling you are more able to do, then you do
problems with organizing your life
tend to postpone things
problems to get started with things, but got many ‘little’projects running
problems with pushing trough and finishing
a tendency to addictions
quickly bored
quickly agitated
creative (for example music and writing)
intuitive
low selfesteem, and moody
Translated from http://www.hiq.nl/.
It could be a dutch thing, but I think (high) intelligent people have more similarities as they could have thought. I thought I was different and alone, till I stumbled on this list. But I’m being personal, while the tone on this forum is quite objective. So I keep it with this, unless people want to react.

I’m sure there are lots of people out there who have those characteristics. Go to http://www.typelogic.com and have a look at some of the personality types.

You are not a unique and beautiful snowflake.

@Crusader; I’m well aware that people are sharing most characteristics. Even introverts can behave like extraverts. And about the other couples of the Briggs Myers test, Jung said they should be well balanced. Extremes points at immaturity of a personality. A topic about that test is running on that forum with members who supposed to have high intelligence. It’s a dutch language forum, but you can check the result of the poll; scubateamuden.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=641. I bet there are a lot of INxx people here.

And about feeling different, if you start thinking you are different, there is a good chance of becoming different. But there has to be a reason, why you think you are different. And an element that has been undervalued in my view, is the level of your IQ. Not-moderate people experience the world/life different, as moderate people.

@Rafajafar; interesting you used a snowflake for your analogy. You know our bodies are made up out of water for a great deal. And as it’s stated your reply, every snowflake is different. But they’re all snowflakes. But what makes water crystalize, to form such diversity of (micro)appeareance? I suppose all humans have the same ground, but still we are all different. Everbody unique? Yes and no. I felt I was alone (or unique), in the way I looked at the world. But in the last few months I found people who are living at a level close to mine.

Reading this forum, my guess is that the average intelligence is above average. So I think there are more people feeling different, then there are coming out for it. And maybe my posts above gives a lead.

Why don’t we do a poll like them and find out? We could put it in mundane babble.

I believe-rather ironically- that more people in the world think away from the ‘norm’. If you do this it tends to either be a sign of great intelligence or a sign of mental illness and/or very low intelligence. People in the average intelligence range tend to be the ones that think the same.

I wouldn’t say the ‘the same’, as everyone is unique and saying ‘the same’ makes it sound like thinking the the same thoughts at the same time. I would say they think along similar lines.

I wouldn’t even say that though. In my depserite attempts to categorize and make sense of personalities I always try lumping people together but it never works. I could say all right wing people are assholes but when I’m thinking that I tend to find rational ones even convincing ones that ruin the image.

It’s hard to find people who are exact the same, but we all share some or more characteristics.

Correct. Because if the ‘norm’ doesn’t exist, how can you think like that?

Why only the average? Lower and higher intelligence causes also similarities in personality.

God that hiq list fits me!, and Crusader i’m an istp on Myers-Briggs (from a book).

Okay, I took the personality test 3 times and got the same result (with various percentage changes of course)- INTJ

When I read the description of an INTJ, not all of it resonanted with me. In fact, some parts of the description seem to be the exact opposite of myself. This is especially true of the Risk Profiler- in no way did I identify with my primary “ponderous” description. I found myself to be shocked by the assertion that I “like thrillers and enjoy watching sports more than discussing abstract topics.” I could go on, but those two really jumped out at me as being the exact oppoosite of who I am. I did find the majority of the “rationalist” category to be befitting however. I was going to read all of the other categories, but quickly found myself identifying very well with “Moralist”.

Perhaps I am taking the test incorrectly, but I am not too convinced with its accuracy (at least this specific test’s).

Or perhaps you’re not reading between the lines.

Do you enjoy action movies? Were you a fan of cartoons like G.I. Joe and Transformers as a kid? If you were a fan, why? Because of the events, or because of the coolness?

Your personality profile is event-oriented.

There’s many things that the MBTI does not tell you about yourself. Historically, though, INTJ’s are very much engrossed with “events” that take place. They are historians and military strategists, historically.

They don’t take things at face value, like an ISTJ would (this category has trouble with things like interpretive art or poetry…i.e. a dog barking is a dog barking, not a metaphor for trouble), but they do like to judge things with the intent of finding how the face-value and the ideal-value relate. These people (as well as ISTJs) have issues with things like…sarcastic humor.

You do make a good philosopher, though. You have the ability to rationalize a situation, but not to it’s lowest common denominator. You are good at keeping perspective, at seeing the greater picture. This trait is shared by most IN##'s for some reason.

When they say you like action movies and thrillers, I think they mean more to say that you’re excited by events, because it means you get to look over them and see the big picture.

Just by the fact that you doubt the reliability of the test results speaks volumes, by the way. Why? Because they don’t obviously fit you 100% (perfectionist ideals coughs). ##FP’s would shrug this off, and try and make it fit, to see what it means, ##TJ’s would begin to doubt the test.

And yes, I consider myself a reliable source on this subject. I happen to have been raised by two experts on the matter, and they like to impart a great deal of information on their trade to their children. (read: Force Fed).

There are quite a few other MBTI personality tests online, just go to google and type in Myers Briggs and you’ll see heaps of results, including a really simple one at http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/tt/t-articl/mb-simpl.htm

Here is a quote from the site above -
"As with all personality questionnaires, the results of any of these can be ‘wrong’ (all questionnaires recognised by the psychological establishments have reliability and validity research which shows, how ‘wrong’, on average, they can be!). The questionnaire can provide valuable information, but the real value of the Myers Briggs model of personality is in deciding your type for yourself.

This article contains a description of each of the preferences, which you can use to help work out your Myers Briggs type."

Basically you work it out for yourself from the lists and descriptions and stuff. Notice how I said “fun” in my original post? You don’t need to take it too seriously.

Hello everyone, I’m new here and I hope I’m doing this posting and replying thing right
Regarding the topic, I completely agree on how different and alone you may feel sometimes.
heck, I’m in such a bad mood coz I just got dumped for being too ‘shallow, empty and phoney’ all because I’m a little DIFFERENT ! so I know how messy it could get and be.
hope my second post will be more cheerful