IEE and Enneagram

[Kim]

Not all IEEs here relate to other IEEs and I think much of that might have to do with different enneagram types and instinct stackings. A real life meeting with @anndelise recently confirmed that we are definitely both IEE, but different e-types. There was a foundational relatability and comfort and ease of communication that I attribute to being identicals, but our approaches to and priorities in life differ somewhat.

This thread serves as an opportunity to tell a bit about yourself, especially with regards to your e-type and instinct stackings.

I self-type as IEE 7w6 (or balanced) sx/so

My priority above all else in life is seeing new places, meeting new people, and experiencing new things (this manifests most obviously in love for travel). I get depressed when I feel that my life is stagnating and things are not moving forward. After three years in one place I tend to get antsy (unless the place is very exciting or LA). At this point in my life, however, I can finally imagine having a home base somewhere (rather than the nomadic life I have lived for the past 20 years). But only if I can seek adventure and come and go as I want. I also don't look back. Once something is finished, it's finished. I would, for example, not move back to a place in which I have lived before unless I absolutely have to (I hate the idea). If I were to move back to LA, I would not live in the same neighborhood although I loved living there. I don't like to revisit the past (except for good memories, obviously).

I cannot motivate myself just through myself. I have the utmost respect and admiration for people who can. I feel like everything I do is a reaction to the outside world. I cannot think of myself removed from the outside world. I gain motivation through reading or watching something inspiring or, better yet, by talking to someone. When I am alone for too long, I get anxiety because I am not *enough for myself.* A therapist wanted me to write a diary once and I quit therapy because I hate hate hate writing diaries. I don't like to think about myself or my inner world and emotions. It feels claustrophobic and pointless.

I have a high energy level. I am usually the last one to leave a party or gathering because OMG I MIGHT MISS SOMETHING! My favorite days are the ones one which I am out and about, going to different places and meeting different people. Meeting people energizes and inspires me. I cannot make myself happy by myself.

I am obsessed with societal issues, politics, human rights, etc. Social issues mobilize me. In my activism, I am more inclined to want to protest against injustice than work alongside improvement (although I do both). I am fairly confrontational about issues I feel strongly about and I love to talk about politics (can be hard to find people who do, too, haha). When something catches my attention, I will obsessively read/learn everything I can about this issue until I lose interest and move on to the next.

I get distracted easily, can be very scattered, and I am not exactly disciplined and certainly not consistent. I am creative, but have horrible follow-through. However, I work extremely well under pressure and I am very crisis resistant and resourceful (I think I would survive the zombie apocalypse for a while). I am ambitious and want to succeed and that is why I get the work done. I am willing to take risks because I can deal well with failure. Most have paid off though.

I don't like more than basic planning (boring) and would rather just try things out (that's how I end up driving from Indiana to Florida with just a credit card and unable to pay for my breakfast at a diner that does not accept credit cards). That can be very annoying for people around me. Under normal circumstances, I don't worry much about things and I am naturally very optimistic. I can get ridiculously excited about mundane things (like those nifty hotel waffle makers).

I am loyal as a friend and in love. I am not always great at staying in touch with friends, but they are also scattered everywhere (thank you, Facebook, for making this easier). When I am in love, I can be obsessive although I try hard not to be (because it means I cannot focus on my work). It is healthy for me to be with someone who brings structure into the relationship and interaction because I am incapable of doing that (be with me ALL THE TIME! ). I can be insecure in relationships because I am always afraid I will get on someone's nerve eventually because I am such a scattered ditz. I need regular reassurance to alleviate my insecurity.

[Skepsis]

I don't know if I'm IEE. I could still be EII or some other type, but I do relate to much of what you wrote. I'm definitely not a 7, but I'm likely to be a 6 or 9. I get bored all the time, but I'm likely to alleviate my boredom through random internet searches, alternating my attention between numerous books, or calling someone up to chat for a while. I love new experiences, but do not go after them as much as I desire. If I was single with no kids, I'm sure I would lead a very different life by traveling and switching jobs more. I love going new places, but do not like driving because I can be terrible with directions while driving and I dislike driving in heavy traffic. I would love to travel to foreign places or travel across country by train, or go backpacking, but my obligations keep me from doing many of those things.

I get bored easily at work, and once I feel I've learned everything, I need get promoted or find a different job. I don't go out all that often, again because of loyalties to my family life, which is fine, but I do get excited when I get out out of the house on my own because I feel more free to engage people and explore the environment. I could wander for hours, lol.

I love when I get to go on week long business trips and I get to stay at a hotel and explore a new area and meet with new people. One time when I went, I missed a group dinner. We were supposed to meet at 6 on the bus, but when I went to the lobby, the bus had already left. So I ended up walking around in an unfamiliar suburb until I found an interesting restaurant to eat at by myself. It was quite an adventure. I ended up at some biker style diner, ordered a beer and some good food and just people watched(I love observing the locals of anywhere I go). I love when I get to do things like that.

I used to be quite shy and would rarely talk to people, but now I will talk people's ears off if the right topic comes up. I always like to be polite and friendly to everyone, even strangers. I found that church was really unfulfilling to me, so I go to a Unitarian Universalist congregation so I can discuss interesting ideas with interesting people, but sometimes I feel they are even too serious for me, lol.

[Eliza Thomason]

I liked reading this @Kim because I felt I got to know you better and that was nice. You seem like a person most people woudl like being around!

[anndelise]

Too much of an open question!! *dies from overload *

Ok, believe it or not, I edited my answer way down before posting it.

I self-type as IEE-Ne/Te 6w7, 9w1, 4w5 sx/sp cp.
Though I label myself as e6 sx, I actually feel like I cycle between 6 and 7, and between sx and sp.
(For purists, I see typing systems as a way of describing myself, but I don't feel a need to force fit myself into any one system...I think people are more complex than theoretically constructed stereotypes.)

(Note: very little of the following refers to the concrete world. Iow, when I say interests and projects, these primarily refer to abstract studies.)

Unfortunately, I can't really say I have a priority in life. If I did that would make decision making soooo much easier!! I do try to prioritize things, but since I'm primarily mood driven, and that mood can change depending on so many variables that I just can't anticipate which one will take priority when the moment comes.

My younger self was full of jumping into new situations and making use of loopholes to deal with the consequences. Sometimes the best way of dealing with anxiety is to just jump in and do something, and then be mentally "light on your toes" when the consequences come. This part of me is when i feel most alive, most joyous, most natural.

My parental self required significant effort to deal with not only my own psyche issues, but those of my daughter's as well. What started as a simple difficulty in critical thinking turned into constant doubt and self-doubt, analysis, checking and rechecking, and withholding/leashing of my natural explorative impulses. But even as much as I leashed those explorative desires, they were still strong enough to drive my daughter nutso. (There's a video in this forum of her and I interacting and she refers to this.)

I can't stick with one thing. I'm constantly changing how I approach something. If the first attempt failed, figure out where things might have gone wrong, and then try something else.


I constantly doubt. Maybe not so much doubt, but I'm constantly analyzing. Turning my thoughts over and over upon themselves. Approaching it from different angles. Wittling away the extraneous to get to the core. The core that fits the variety of angles. Once you've got that core, you have something you can trust and can build up off from. But still, even then constantly flipping it on it's different sides.

I constantly doubt myself, I'm filled with insecurity. And so I rely on external things that I can check and recheck as I analyze where I may have erred. I show something (a writing or such) to others, to see what they perceive, what they interpret from it. I have to be careful to present it neutrally, else I can't trust that they aren't being prebiased by my words. I constantly set aside my own preferences/experiences to aid me in seeing things from different angles. (Though this latter part doesn't help much in my decision making.)

I rely on outside sources of information. I rely on the written word which can be read and reread to figure out the errors being made. I detest when people attempt to rewrite history. Who won't let the facts stand up for themselves. Who instead attempt to hide info away so they can present a different version of it. I cannot trust these kinds of people. And if I cannot trust what you say, what you do, and I cannot trust that your words and actions will match each other, then I cannot trust you at all. And the more I have to interact with you, the more I feel disgusted by those interactions.

(This is actually a major source of conflict for me in this forum, when threads/posts are hacked away because someone wants to hide their own shit or alter other's perceptions of the actual events. I would prefer it to all be there, even if it makes me look bad, than to be hidden away, swept under the rug, or worse, recontextualized.)


In my daily life I feel constantly torn between the urge to dive into something I'm interested in (which is usually reading about something from a different angle, exploring some new tactic/skill),
vs the urge to take care of the mundane (housework, health care, yard work, etc).
I have not learned how to balance these two. Though the later falls behind. When i'm studying/practicing, I constantly feel the mundane needs calling out to me. When I'm cleaning, sorting, weeding, I constantly feel the explorative desires calling out to me.

My home is littered with various projects and interests in various stages. I have shelves filled with boxes of books, printouts, and notes on various topics.
While I'm decluttering my home, I struggle with the desire to have the area cleared and clean vs having the info available for future desires to study that topic. Getting rid of a book, or note, is akin to removing available information which can be used to doublecheck my thoughts/ideas. So that same agitation, anxiety, and disgust that I feel when others remove info, is the same emotion I have to deal with in order to get rid of books/notes. I feel like the rest of my life is going to be like this, which then angers me, and so I berate and belittle myself further. So basically, decluttering is a big f'n emotional clusterf***!! Yet I'm still driven to try.

....meanwhile collecting more books and papers for each new passing interest.


My energy levels fluctuate...severe enough to have received not just a diagnosis of bipolar, but for it to be considered state/federally as a disability. However, i do try working on finding a balance. I often use breathing techniques, pacing/walking, mindfulness tasks (to help shut up the constant internal chatter of analysis), etc. I've even used neurofeedback to help out, I just can't afford its costs, and disability insurance won't cover it.


I also constantly deal with flashes of images of things going horribly wrong followed by death, dismemberment, and/or dispair. Did you pack extra clothes? Do you have contact numbers? Is your phone charged? Do you have an emergency plan? What would you do if...? What would I do if...? Constantly! It gets so overwhelming that I just want to hide away from it all. So then i get torn between the urge to just jump in and do it...vs the overwhelming anxieties of all that could go wrong. Usually I bite the bullet and just jump in, but this also means that I don't actually pack extra clothes, have a fully charged phone, have the proper paperwork, etc etc. still, again, that torn chaotic feeling. Grrr.


In relationships I'm constantly insecure. I pick up on and notice even minor signals of things not fitting right.
He didn't hug me when he got home? What did I do wrong.
He didn't call? I must not be in his thoughts. Or maybe he's hiding something from me.
He woke up and went to play his video game in the living room? He must not want to cuddle. Or maybe he's avoiding me. Or maybe he just didn't want to wake me up to let me sleep in. Or maybe he didn't want to wake me up because he didnt want to feel guilty for wanting to play the game instead of cuddling. Or. Or. Or.
Argh!!


Because I have such a hard time sorting through all the internal conflicts, and because I have so much self-doubt, I find it easier to go along with what other people want. This isn't so bad in a social scenario, but it sux in other areas. Like the ordeal I went through with my physical therapist (which I wrote about in the delta lounge thread). It takes quite a bit before I'm worked up enough to stand up for myself, or to just run away. Mostly because I'm constantly doubting myself and my perceptions, and beating myself down for my many flaws.


But on the positive side, I love sharing things I've read with people, and sharing insights. Like a neighbor was having difficulties getting her husband to do chores around the house. I talked with her about her tendency to criticize his efforts and how that demotivates people, as well as how it's easier to get someone to do something if the idea to do it comes from them. So together we helped her create a plan of action in which she told him she was making a list of things that need to be done around the house, and asked him what things he can think of that he'd want to do. He gave her a list, and, without needing reminding, he did those tasks over the week. She was still frustrated that he didn't do as much as she wanted him to do, or do them the way she wanted them done. So we work on her ability to not just encourage him, but also her ability to accept his efforts. I LOVE this kind of stuff!!

I'm also quite verbally playful and, despite all my anxieties, I don't take myself too seriously. Like I might make a playful comment that a less playful person might interpret as a put down...though not a harsh one. Those with some mental agility might turn that comment around back onto me. In which I'll answer "of course" or exaggerate it further until we are laughing too hard to talk. I like inside jokes, or making references to things only one other person there would have a clue what I was talking about. I like the subtleness, (even though the subtleness from others might trigger my anxieties). I try to adjust my playfulness and teasing to suit the person, but prefer being around people who are also verbally playful with some quick wittedness. Unfortunately, my joke attempts often fall flat. And I'll even laugh at myself when I didn't get something I should've been able to catch.


The 6w7 and 9w1 issues take higher priority over the 4w5 issues. I'm still not at a point where I can willingly think about them (4w5), even though I recognize something I'm doing is related to that.

[Words]

You can have different aspects of personality but the same type.

[Galen]

Seems like an important trait of the IEE is to talk about one's self for many, many paragraphs.

[Words]

Seems like an important trait of the IEE is to talk about one's self for many, many paragraphs.

lol

[Kim]

Seems like an important trait of the IEE is to talk about one's self for many, many paragraphs.

Apparently.

[Galen]

Apparently.

I mean I wasn't lying

[applejacks]

@Kim , @anndelise - wish I could've been there, sounds like an amazing time!

I can relate to much of what you guys have stated- seeking new experiences and situations, prizing loyalty in friendship yet having difficulty keeping in touch regularly, seeking adventure, the strife of facing routine vs diving into the latest interest, ease of distraction or a rather "blowing with the wind" attention.. as well as much of what @Jimmers has said in terms of being shy until certain topics ignite my interest. Sometimes I can press a button inside of me and in my "element" and start a high five chain around an entire bar. Other times I'm quiet, shy, and reserved.

From all of this, it's hard for me to distinguish the differences from an enneagram perspective. I type as 9w1 with so/sx. This can make it hard to get to know me, as I prefer to listen than open my mouth and share my inner world with anyone inappropriate (small town gossip), yet to a complete stranger whom I'll never see again, I'll easily share in anything.

The one difference I see so far with @Kim and I is that I'm much more subdued than her, and have already satisfied all of my travel desires. I can have high energy spikes when I'm in "my element", but for the most part I'm very subdued and go-with-the-flow. Perhaps this is more similar to @anndelise as well.

[Emmym]

My best friend is an IEE 3w4. I know a much younger IEE who seems 2w3, and an older one who seems 6w7. Once lived with an IEE 5w6. IMO due to Fi-creative, it's probably pretty common for IEEs with different stackings to not really relate to each other much.