If someone says they're sx because of some non-sx-related thing, we shouldn't call them sx, nor should we not continue to raise the question of what it "is" or how it operates.
I don't really feel adept at answering this question in a way that properly conveys what I understand sx to be without generalizing my whole experience to the point where all people can relate to it. A lot of my understanding comes how a person presents themselves with their immediate expenditure of psychological energy, so it's tough to quantify outside of personal impressions I've gathered over years of observation. And talking about these observations in terms of a person's "energy" gets rife with personal interpretation, so I tread with caution.
If it's at all possible (note: it is), I'd avoid the word "intense" completely when describing sx types. I've come to find it a really shitty word to describe the phenomenon, because people seem to just conflate it w/ having high energy levels. I don't consider myself to be particularly "intense," and I don't see many other self-typed sx-firsts (particularly sx/sps) like that either. The thing I see more is a certain internal reactivity, an uncensored spontaneous burst of inner energy even if there's not a lot of it. This type of internal awareness also leads a valuing and respect of that internal reactivity in others. You'll often find Sx-firsts looking for ways to gently poke at people in order to get a rise out of them, to check and see if they're alive inside. I remember discojoe, an old LSI sx/sp member, would often ask people these weird semi-rude-but-not-quite-rude-enough-to-make-you-angry questions just to see how they'd react. "Are you a grower or a shower?" "If you could have sex with any animal..." etc. There's a certain compulsion to trigger something uncomfortably reactionary in people, themselves included. It's not by definition sadistic or masochistic behavior, and I don't often see sx-firsts bemoaning over their inner turmoil unless particularly stressed.
Sx-secondary types will sorta play along with these solicitations for internal reactivity, but I don't often see them initiate it. Sx-lasts can and do experience a certain inner restlessness depending on how neurotic + energetic the type gets, but they don't readily express this in a very reactive manner. It can sound very matter-of-fact and unpoetic to someone who's much more aware of their internal dynamism and acts it out more readily.



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