New INTj here, hello all!
Short intro:
-Name is mainly a reference to the song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers but also has a few alternate meanings.
-Psychology, particularly personality type, has been a hobby of mine for about seven years or so.
-Confident I'm Ne-INTj.
-Looking forward to improving my understanding in the theory and helping others if I'm able.
-I'm a father so my time here will most likely be limited and sporadic.
Long intro(for those interested in ascertaining my type):
I was born into a family with a lifestyle heavily influenced by a high control religion(or cult as many would say). In an effort to instill the religion's values into his children and ensure they attained eternal salvation, my father() took the route of leading by example, putting his emphasis on living life as a devout Christian(which meant strictly following all the rules and guidelines and teaching us to do our best in everything to make God proud). Although the religious aspect of my environment put a severe strain on my self-esteem, I had a fairly good family life with (divorced)parents that sincerely loved and wanted the best for me. In my free time away from the church I flourished as an individual; I excelled in school(I've always loved math and science), indulged in my inquisitions about life and how things worked, and spent many hours of my leisure time reading(Animorphs was the first science-fiction series that I devoured as a youth).
People, making friends in particular, were the bane of my life for as long as I can remember. It was hard for me to grasp the significance of the social rituals people went through and even the thought of participating in small talk made me grimace(Why talk about how sunny/cloudy it is? Isn't it blatantly obvious to everybody here standing outside?). Fortunately my mother() gave me some tips that helped me get through the social sphere more easily("If you smile more often people will be more likely to talk to you," etc.) and, while I never had an abundance of friends, I never became too anti-social. Even with the pointers, however, this was not an area of my life that I put much effort into; the close group of friends I did have throughout high school were people that had become attached to me(for reasons I didn't understand at the time). This group eventually played an important role in releasing me from the bonds of the religion that entangled many aspects of my mind.
Around the time I was finishing high school a friend of mine had me take the MBTI. I was scored as ISTJ yet was skeptical of the whole notion of personality types and the like(mainly because I held the religious belief that God wanted everyone to be a certain way, other ways of life were not permissible; in retrospect I believe I was scored as that type because that was personality I subconsciously worked hard to portray in order to be a faithful member of my church). My friends and I had frequent discussions and debates revolving around music, psychology, and, most importantly to me, religion. It was during these talks that I was able to gain other points of view regarding religion and how to live life. I participated in the debates in order to gradually convert them to my way of thinking and grant them eternal life, but ultimately it contributed to the realization that I was unhappy trying to live out of harmony with who I truly was inside.
By the time I graduated, events and factors had fallen into place in such a way that resulted in me being excommunicated from my church. This basically meant that all of my family and friends in the church were to act as if I didn't exist. Needless to say this was devastating to me, but thanks in part to my group of friends on the outside I managed to keep my sanity and move on with my life. My excommunication also turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for I was now allowed complete freedom to think for myself and question everything that I hadn't before(for fear of being viewed as 'spiritually weak'). I researched countless religions, pondered philosophies, and became enthralled with psychology and modern science. Eventually I studied MBTI(around this time I scored as INTJ and felt more comfortable with that), then SLOAN/OCEAN, and finally Socionics in an effort to better understand myself and shed my former religious ideas of who I was 'supposed' to be. All of this went hand-in-hand with just trying to improve myself as a person in order to reach my full potential, not to avoid destruction at Armageddon but for myself.
At this point in my life I have a great wife() that helps me take care of the house and our wonderful and bright toddler. I maintain contact(to the best of my INTj abilities) with my friends. Hobbies that occupy my non-busy time are enjoying music(wide variety of types, but mostly rock and its many forms), designing a board game and writing the novel it was derived from, reading for entertainment and/or learning, and of course Socionics. I think I have a fairly good understanding of all the elements and am confident in my typings of people I know personally. Still, I realize I have much to learn and, being a busy father, don't have as much time as I'd like in order to deepen my comprehension.
Hopefully that was informative and interesting for all that managed to get through it. Thanks for reading.
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