INFJ Social Anxiety (A complete insight)
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The Optimistminds editorial team is made up of psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health professionals. Each article is written by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The article then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
In this article we learn about INFJ social anxiety, before we dive into that, we will first understand what INFJ personality type is? We will get a deeper and clearer understanding of INFJ with links to social anxiety, and get a brief understanding of what is meant by social anxiety. Finally, we will follow up by answering a few FAQs based on this topic to get a better understanding of it.
INFJ Social Anxiety
INFJs can sometimes struggle with social anxiety, which ultimately causes them to seclude themselves. They naturally struggle without fluent alone time, but with social anxiety, it becomes difficult for them to interact with others.
INFJs without social anxiety might need their time alone, but need an equivalent time to enjoy having the ability to form connections with people.
With social anxiety, the INFJ will doubt every action ahead of others and have a tough time opening themselves up to new experiences. It’s a challenging thing to suffer with for the INFJ, and it often requires the proper people approaching them to be ready to form the connections they desire.
What is an INFJ personality type?
INFJ, introverted, intuitive, feeling, and judging, is one of the 16 personality types identified by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Sometimes it’s mentioned because the “Advocate” or the “Idealist,” people with INFJ personalities are creative, gentle, and caring.
This personality type is usually reserved but sensitive to how others feel. They are typically idealistic, with high moral standards and a robust specialize in the longer term. INFJs enjoy brooding about deep topics and contemplating the meaning of life. The INFJ type is claimed to be one among the rarest with only one to 3 percent of the population exhibiting this personality type.
What sets this personality type apart from the other types, is their ability to require their idealism and translate it into action. They are not daydreamers or philosophers who just believe in changing the planet, they’re capable of taking their values and using them to cause positive and lasting change.
What is social anxiety?
Social anxiety is a chronic mental health condition in which social interactions cause irrational anxiety. People who have a social anxiety disorder, struggle every day with social interactions which cause irrational anxiety, fear, self-consciousness, and embarrassment.
It is sometimes referred to as social phobia, which is a type of anxiety disorder that causes extreme fear in social settings. People with this disorder have trouble talking to people, meeting new people, and attending social gatherings.
They fear being judged or scrutinized by others. They may understand that their fears are irrational or unreasonable, but feel powerless to overcome them. Social anxiety is different from shyness.
Shyness is usually short-term and doesn’t disrupt one’s life. Social anxiety is persistent and debilitating. It can affect one’s ability to, attend school, work, or even develop close relationships with people outside of their family.
INFJ and social Anxiety
Everyone experiences anxiety regardless of their personality type, And dealing with an anxiety disorder isn’t exclusive to any one type either. But there is quite a high number of INFJs that have talked about struggling with anxiety to a certain extent.
An INFJ struggling with anxiety will notice that their personality will interact with their anxiety in some unique ways. Anxiety is experienced differently in different people, whether or not they share the same personality type, but it is noticed that there are certain ways anxiety is more likely to show up for INFJs.
Here are some things that are noticed about anxiety that are thought to be connected with how INFJs experience the world. Some people with INFJ personality might not identify with all the experiences listed here, that doesn’t mean they don’t have anxiety or that they’re not an INFJ.
- Act Defensively; INFJs are typically an easy-going type that values harmony too highly to trigger conflicts with people. Stress, however, can make them see the outer world as a hostile, dangerous place. When they layer that with anxiety, an INFJ can find themselves feeling very defensive.
They might attack with uncharacteristic anger or say things that hurt others in an attempt to urge them to backtrack and provide the INFJ space. It might take them an extended amount of time to work out that their uncharacteristic expressions of anger were rooted in fear and anxiety, and to seek out ways to affect that more healthily.
- Isolation; Even though they’re introverts, INFJs do need people. All introverts do to a particular extent, but INFJ types are particularly people-oriented. If they’re battling anxiety, they’re likely to avoid people like an INFJ would under normal circumstances.
Even if they get into a social situation, anxiety can cause them to hang back from others then be misinterpreted as aloof, bored, or unsocial. There’s no easy cure for this. It only gets worse if they continue to stay isolated, so it’s important to push themselves to interact with others.
It can get easier to create connections with people, especially with support from a counselor and/or friends who understand what they are going through.
- A vision of the world; When INFJs are stressed they tend to see the world as a hostile place. This doesn’t always make them lash out though. Instead, they could become more careful about trying to control the world around them. Many INFJs already have perfectionistic tendencies and they like to maintain order in the outside world.
Anxiety can just exacerbate that, and they may feel we need to be prepared for anything that might happen. Also, never ask an anxious INFJ, “What’s the worst that could happen?” they have too good an imagination not to instantly come up with multiple scenarios for imminent doom.
- Perspective; People with this personality feel their functions turned outward. INFJs often have a much easier time picking up on other people’s emotions than their own.
Anxiety tends to make it harder for them to do either of those things. It’s not easy to read people when their brain is imagining worst-case scenarios related to how other people perceive them. It’s also harder to process their emotions healthily because they’re in fight-flight-or-freeze mode.
FAQs: INFJ Anxiety
Is INFJ prone to anxiety?
Yes, INFJ is the “Counselor” archetype of Myers-Briggs personality theory, they are deeply empathetic and often understand others better than they understand themselves. They work hard for the common good, commit, and follow-through. And they are perhaps more likely than any other personality type to experience anxiety.
Is INFJ socially awkward?
Yes, INFJs can appear awkward at times, or even behave awkwardly, but this is often because of their incredible sense of intuition and empathy. INFJs who have alienated themselves can start to become uneasy in social settings, even though they are capable of being rather charming and outgoing people.
Is INFJ a rare personality?
Yes, If you happened to fall into the INFJ personality type, you’re a rare breed; only 1.5 percent of the general population fits into that category, making it the rarest personality type in the world
Can you be an extrovert with social anxiety?
Both introverts and extroverts can experience social anxiety. However, being an extrovert with social anxiety can be more intense; as the very thing that they derive their energy from is the one causing their crippling fear. When extroverts avoid social settings, they can feel lethargic and extremely sad.
Is shyness a form of social anxiety?
Shyness is considered a normal facet of personality that combines the experience of social anxiety and inhibited behavior, but is also described as a “stable temperament.” Shyness is classified as a personality characteristic.
What are INFJs scared of?
Many INFJs, when speaking of their fears, cited fear of abandonment alongside a fear of opening up to others and allowing themselves to be loved unreservedly.
Conclusion
In this article we learned about INFJ social anxiety, we first understood what an INFJ personality type is? We even got a deeper and clearer understanding of INFJ with links to social anxiety and got a brief understanding of what is social anxiety. Any questions regarding this topic, please do reach out to us freely.
References
https://www.verywellmind.com/infj-introverted-intuitive-feeling-judging-2795978
https://www.psychologyjunkie.com/2020/06/20/experiences-of-an-infj-struggling-with-anxiety/