10 Things That Terrify INTPs – According to 314 INTPs
Do you ever feel isolated or misunderstood in your fears and worries? Have you ever wondered if anyone out there could possibly share your same concerns and terrors? I’ve wondered this myself for a long time, and I also wondered if personality type had anything to do with what we fear. I was determined to find out. For the last few months I’ve been talking to as many people as I can find about their fears to determine if there is any correlation between personality type and fear.
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What I Found Out:
There were definitely variations in the major fears of each personality type. I made it my goal to get responses from at least 300 people of each personality type before writing a blog post about their fears. What I discovered is that there were some universal irrational fears (spiders, heights, snakes) but that aside from those, the fears varied drastically according to type. NT types, for example, greatly feared mediocrity. SJ types mentioned insecurity and financial ruin. NF types tended to have more existential worries about meaninglessness and the afterlife.
There Are Always Variations
I definitely saw differences in the majority of fears that each personality type chose, yet there are exceptions to each of these fears. For example, a huge number of INTPs mentioned commitment as a major fear, but there were several who said this fear didn’t really bother them at all. There are always going to be variations within type, so all this post is going to show us is what the majority mentioned. The top 10 fears in this post are based on the number of votes that I got from INTPs I spoke with in forums, Facebook groups, and one-on-one in real life.
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The Top 10 Things That Terrify INTPs
- Rejection
Rejection had by far the highest number of votes over any other fear. I tried to research this fear and find out if it was specific to INTPs, as it was mentioned by them far more than by other types. The only conclusion I could come up with I found in Naomi Quenk’s book “Was That Really Me? How Everyday Stress Brings Out Our Hidden Personality”. She explained how personalities with inferior Extraverted Feeling, such as INTPs and ISTPs, may sometimes experience a profound feeling of “separateness from the whole of humanity. The ISTP or INTP is convinced that he or she is unloved and ultimately unlovable. Some relive childhood feelings of being extremely different from other children, marching to a different and unacceptable drummer, often with no clue about how others see things. The memory of childhood misery and helplessness may intensify the adult’s inferior function experience.
It’s important to note that Quenk is referring to INTPs in an extremely stressed state, or in the grip of their inferior function. However, in type theory it is commonly taught that those with inferior Extraverted Feeling care deeply about being accepted and appreciated for who they are, although they will rarely voice these concerns and may even try to ignore this desire.
- Commitment
I noticed that perceiving personality types mentioned fear of commitment far more than judging personality types, and this may have to do with the nature of perceiving. Perceivers prefer to keep things flexible and have their plans open for change. Rigid structures and commitments can make them feel uneasy and trapped. Some INTPs said that their fear of rejection is what caused their fear of commitment.
“Deep down I know that what I fear isn’t so much the boundaries of commitment, but the feeling that I could get so close to someone and then they could reject or leave me or expose me as being worthless in some way.”
– An anonymous INTP
- Being Physically Helpless or Out of Control
INTPs are extremely independent individuals who pride themselves on their autonomy. Being physically helpless, suffering from paralysis, or feeling a loss of physical control all came up repeatedly as major fears.
- Dying Without Achieving Goals
The INTPs I spoke with often mentioned that they wanted to leave a legacy or make a positive impact in some way on the world. Not meeting their potential, procrastinating through life, and/or never finding their true purpose were all mentioned frequently. Because INTPs think ahead to the future, many of them mentioned that they hated the vision of being on their death bed and realizing that they hadn’t achieved their goals or lived to their greatest purpose.
- Insanity
INTPs live in a world of mental richness; they love to logically understand complex theories and concepts, and they are inspired by looking at numerous possibilities and meanings. Not being able to have mental control or losing their mental acuity was a very intense fear for many of them.
“Losing my mental powers or functions is my greatest fear. I not only fear going completely crazy, but I fear finding out I’m really not that smart and that I have deceived myself into believing things that were simply false.”
– Tim, an INTP
- Death
Most of the INTPs I spoke with didn’t really fear the pain or process of death itself so much as the unknown after death. While some feared the nothingness that they believed exists after death, others feared the afterlife and the potential of heaven or hell.
- Deep Water
This fear was mentioned quite a bit more by INTPs than by any other personality type. Dark water was mentioned a lot as well. I noticed that intuitives mentioned dark water more than sensing types, and I think it may have to do with the intuitive way of ‘filling in’ the unknown with what could potentially be there. I could be wrong though, so if you have a theory about this, let me know in the comments!
- Loss of A Loved One
This fear has been universal among all personality types so far, with some types mentioning children or spouses more. What I noticed with INTPs is that they often specifically mentioned the fear of losing a singular person; for example, losing their best friend, losing a mother, a father. They didn’t tend to use the plural form of “loved ones” when they spoke about loss, they usually focused on one particularly meaningful person in their life.
- Wasting Life
This point goes hand-in-hand with the fear mentioned in #4. INTPs want to make a difference in the world. They want their lives to mean something, and most want to leave a legacy of some kind. For many INTPs, the fear of getting to the end and realizing they didn’t do something important is terrifying.
“I fear having a normal 9-5 job and a normal life and never doing anything important and wasting my potential. I procrastinate and I don’t want to wind up using up my life on meaningless projects that never amount to anything.”
– Sai, an INTP
- Mediocrity
INTPs are a rare breed, making up approximately 3% of the population. They can often feel separate from others, and this can be both a blessing and a curse. While at times they struggle with being misunderstood, they also enjoy their unique ability to probe complex thoughts, explore limitless ideas, and reach new levels of understanding that many other types rarely fathom. They long to use their unique abilities to stand out from the crowd and make a meaningful contribution to the world in some way. As you can see from this post, their fears often revolve around not making the most of their talents, and looking back on life and not feeling like they did enough that had real purpose and meaning.
What Do You Think?
Are you an INTP with an opinion on this post? Do you relate to these fears or feel like sharing your experience? Let me know in the comments!
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This was so well written?. As an INTP I think this was a well researched and highly accurate assessment of our fears. Every one I read was spot on. It’s interesting that you found they feared losing a single loved one, as opposed to several. My fear is losing my Dad. And, #7 just blew my mind. I don’t mind swimming, but when it comes to lake water where I can’t see my feet, I freak out lol. I hate even the thought of standing dark water. My friends have definitely made fun of me for it haha. This article was spot on.
Thanks Ian for giving me your feedback! I really appreciate it. I definitely don’t like swimming in murky water or lake water where I can’t see my feet. Thanks again!
Hi Susan, In dream theory, water represents emotion. Deep and dark water would represent uncomfortable or wrong or inaccessible feelings. Since INTPs have Fi in the 8th position, it would make sense that knowledge of their own feelings seems like this unknown, scary place.
That’s what popped into my mind! HTH.
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing, Laura!
I found the “death of loved ones” part interesting. While I do have a very real fear of losing any person I consider being a “loved one”, one has always stood out, and that is my dad. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the irony of the fact that as having reached 30 already, the only loss I’ve suffered is the one person I was the most afraid of losing.
Other than that, the fear of wasting my potential (and here-under: feeling mediocre, not living up to my dream of becoming *something* before I die, not being able to fulfil my dreams of learning all I want to learn etc), is indeed also very real for me as an INTP.
The fear of rejection and commitment also makes sense. It has been crippling romantic life over the years. The thought of committing to any kind of job or programme or other, that I potentially might not like later on, is also quite bad. For me, this plays a big role in my severe indecisiveness. The fear of picking the wrong thing and being forced to commit to it.
The fear-like sensation you feel when you notice editing mistakes (or typos) in your comment, but are unable to edit it so you can fix it, is also worth mentioning! :p
This feels quite accurate to me, especially feeling misunderstood and not living up to potential. Also the deep water…I think it may associate with fear of the unknown, but definitely a fear I’ve had that I hadn’t associated with personality.
Most of these were right. I’m not acatully afraid of death, i’m to curios about what comes next. And for death/loss, my grama is the one i can’t stand loseing.
Thank you for responding! I’m glad you’re not afraid of death. I wish I could be more curious about what is after and less terrified myself!
As an INTP I am the same. I am so curious as to what comes after. I am only scared of death in the sense of #4 and 9, of dying while still being mediocre and not achieving something.
I thought that most of these were accurate as well. I don’t really have a person I’m afraid of losing though but I guess I’m not really especially close to anyone. I think the biggest fears on this list for me would be 3 and 5 but that may be because I’ve had a lot of experience with people who have dementia and I ride horses so there is a higher of injury or paralysis, especially since I do one of the more dangerous disciplines.
Thanks for giving me your feedback! I think #3 and #5 are understandable given your experiences. I have ALWAYS wanted to ride horses, but I’m afraid the extent of my experience is being led around a yard when I was in summer camp as a child. Thank you again for commenting 🙂
Mix #1, #3 & #8 with the effects of adoption and an adopted INTP could be left cowering in a dark corner, untouched by the other seven. Or maybe constructing some kind of invisible psyche-support. Curious how other types might fare as adoptees.
I find deep water attractive; though drowning is the death-process that I most wonder about.
Another INTP adoptee here.
#1 has always been hard for me. Originally I assumed my fear of rejection stemmed primarily from being adopted and technically “rejected” by my biological parents. Despite the fact in order to be adopted in the first place you’re adoptive parents need to consciously CHOOSE you, so its not all rejection.
#2 definitely have huge commitment issues, takes me forever to commit to anything and I need to get all the facts, analyze all the pros and cons, and have a solid idea of what to expect from my decision to commit to something. This makes buying anything difficult for me as I want to make sure I’m getting the best thing for my money, it makes relationships even harder because its full of variables and based too much in emotion for me to gather facts.
#4,9,10 are all pretty much congruent and are the most terrifying things I’m currently facing. Feeling like I may be wasting my life procrastinating and that I wont reach my full potential or have anything of importance to show for my life once its over.
Anyways… really cool to know that there are other people out there dealing with the struggle of being and INTP and being adopted, it definitely presents unique challenges and heightens the challenges we already face as INTP personality types.
I was stunned to read the one about deep water- I definitely have a very hard time swimming anywhere but a pool! The other one that particularly stood out to me was the fear of deceiving myself. As an INTP I am good at debating every side of a situation so I am constantly second guessing everything that goes on in my head, including any possible passions. Which of course leads to the fear that I won’t ever do anything with my life. Then again, that could just be me making excuses so I can keep procrastinating. Who knows. Thank you so much for taking the time on this!
I was so surprised by the deep water fear i had to log in and comment on it (which i don’t usually do). I’ve always been telling my friends about this fear, especially dark waters. If i can’t see my surroundings or all the way down then….[shudders] I do associate it with a fear of the unknown, practically anything could be there, and you’re unaware… I’m getting scared just thinking about it.
Thank you for commenting! It was definitely very interesting to see what different types mentioned more than others. I definitely noticed a fear of the unknown more with INXX personality types. Sorry if it scared you though!
1,2,3,7,&10 resonated with me. So that’s 50% correct. . .? My fear of rejection causes me to not become too attached. I’m also non-monogamous which concerns what I suppose may be my fear of commitment. They could be related.
This is so accurate it is almost scary. I laughed when I read the dark water, I thought it was just me. I guess it is all of us.
I think it’s very interesting that 3 of the 10 fears (4, 9, 10) are essentially the same thing. And I totally get it, I’ve sat at my desk at work many times thinking ‘this is not what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m better than this job.’
I was a bit skeptical of the insanity, but the quote used, I agree 100%.
I think the one that hit home the most was #3, though. I think the vast majority of my irrational fears are based in a lack of control of a situation/myself.
When you think about it, fear of dark water and death could be be considered fear of the unknown. Why do we fear the unknown? Because we can’t see how to control it. So in the end loss of control covers 2 (fear of commitment = losing total independence), 3, 5 ( insanity = loss of control of your mind), 6, and 7.
Really, we have 2 main fears that take many different forms, and 2 lesser fears that could probably be linked back to the big 2 somehow.
An interesting insight into how we, as a group think, especially when you don’t usually find a group of 300 intp’s hanging around willing to talk about their fears.
#3 was the scariest, I believe. As an avid soccer player, the thought of not being able to play is the stuff of nightmares. As an athlete, physical disability ranks at the top of my fear list.
Boredom. One of my biggest fears. I feel like my life is one big search for continual entertainment – I need to be kept busy at all times by either a book or a puzzle.
This is extremely common among all other human beings and has nothing to do with personality types.
I understand most of these fears are universal, however different types listed different things than other types. For example, mediocrity was brought up a lot by NTs but security was brought up a lot by SJs. Both may seem renown or security, but one type is more afraid of one thing than the other.
I’m surprised that fear of failing or being wrong was not mentioned. As an INTP those are my top two. Of course, the above list probably fits under the umbrella of “the fear of being wrong/making a mistake.”
Thank you for mentioning dark water. Seems silly, but everyone knows that’s where the monsters hide.
So my deep water fear is common with other INTP’s. It all makes sense. It’s actually kind of creepy and scary how accurate these 10 points to me. So almost all my fears (except my fear of dogs), are connected to INTP.
Great to find this article. I relate to all 10 fears and think they are all generated by unintegrated Fe. I think they’re all pretty much control issues, as an earlier commenter suggested. The replies that surprised me were the ones that referred to a fear of literal deep water. My first thought when i saw “Deep water” was of deep psychic waters, the place where “there be dragons.” I have only occasionally felt a fear when i’ve been in real deep water (snorkeling, swimming in Hawaii), but it’s taken years of psychotherapy to begin to get over my fear of what lies beneath. Loved the other comments.
Your feedback is really interesting…I hadn’t thought about how they might all be related to unintegrated Fe! Thanks for your input! Glad you enjoyed the article 🙂
The “unknown” is probably the worst. It’s 4:30 here in the morning and my head is bombarded with questions that no one can seem to answer. It’s trying me nuts. I’ve even started questioning whether a pillow is actually “just” a pillow ????
I’ve gotten multiple types, predominately INFJ and INTP (though never E and never S). What I fear most is never being accepted – never belonging – the only thing that gives me hope is that I’m young & that there are many people I can encounter in my life. I also don’t really fear the rejection people in general (general people), but individuals I admire who (at least somewhat) understand who I am.
Most of these are fairly accurate for me, esp #7 – Not deep water in and of itself (I love the ocean, deep sea fishing, boating), but being in deep water without a boat or raft freaks me out. Just floating in a lake (swimming, skiing, etc) I start to look down and wondering whats comming up. Watching TV on DISCOVERY or something where people are scuba diving makes my skin crawl.
I totally disagree with this. My greatest fear is ignorance. Or illusion. Or lack of awareness/wisdom. All the rest does not matter to me.
Ignorance and illusion would be insanity
I was highly entertained by how similar a few of these are. That’s INTP logic for you, expanding lists because subtle differences still change the meaning enough to alter the point.
I’m INTP, have never tested as anything else, and I relate very much to most of these (in particular commitment and mediocrity.) I find it hard to commit to something (rarely is this related to other people) because what if I don’t have enough data to make an informed decision? Because more than anything I fear the idea that I’m really just an idiot with an ego and I’m too stupid and prideful to notice. Moments of commitment are like moments of truth and once you know the truth, it has to be faced.
Very interesting list, though not everything rang true. Rejection is definitely one of my worst fears. And I totally related to the book excerpt that talked about reliving the childhood experiences of being different as a kid. The deep water,as well as dark water, was facinating also. While I love the ocean, I hate diving into deep pools. I hate that feeling of being so far underwater and not instantly being able to reach the surface. I tried to get SCUBA certified once because my husband loves it. It took forever for me to successfully pass everything in the 3 foot deep pool. Then we went to a river to finish the test, and it was dark, and that was it. I immediately went the surface and refused to complete the certification, and never tried again.
Commitment only partially rang true. I had a lot of short lived relationships because when I knew they weren’t “the one” I had no interest in nurturing it to see where it went. But when I met my husband, I had zero reservations about committing to him. But my career may betray a fear of commitment. I do freelance work. I commit to projects for just a short time. When they are completed, I get to move on to the next exciting thing.
Actually I am more afraid of stairs than all these things
Deep water. Huh. That’s pretty uncanny. It’s not the water itself that’s the fear. It’s the fact that there’s an infinite, opaque abyss that you’re in, and you have no idea whether the leviathan is swimming up from the depths of the unknown to consume you whole. In fact, the fear is more closely related to the possibility that the water isn’t just water, but the medium for delivering physical danger to my person.
Most of them were true in one sense or another. Definitely rejection, not being accepted for who you are. I’m not scared of commitment to my partner for example, but I really dislike commiting myself to deadlines, events, but I’m working on that. I fear getting to the end of my life and having regrets, I want to accomplish my dreams. I fear death, but logically there should be nothing after life. And yes, deep water, I am rather terrified of sharks mainly and my mind is way too good at imagining them.
The deep water is a super interesting one, something I have felt as far back as I can remember (a memory of being a child with water wings on, screaming in the pool). I always hated the drains on the bottom of pools, and always felt like something could get me from below. Even being up close to a docked ship gives me the creeps, thinking about how deep it is underneath.
I have thought about this fear before and what it means. It could be analogous to the fear of independence and commitment, or at least the ability to escape (being physically helpless)… the surface of the water is only two dimensional, so while swimming down and around for escape (from random imaginary threats) there’s a limited breath-holding time. The only escape while breathing is horizontally, thus limiting options that three dimensional space provides, such as jumping, climbing, or having objects to obscure the threat.
It feels very vulnerable to be in deep water.
Dark water is a justified archaic fear. I take on the challenges after information on the flora and fauna. ESFP will be sucked by a giant bagre after shouting and tap in the water and INTP will never approach again a puddle of water.
To rap all this up, an intp fears that their ideas will be rejected and if they aren’t rejected, they fear that they fail the ones who believed in them.
I have feared being trapped in meaningless work or life, like to one I lived. There are hundreds of thousands of electrical engineering types like me and maybe a thousand or fewer good jobs that would challenge us. So there is, at best, a 1% chances of meaningful work. I was the 99%. I fear that the important lessons I learned will die with me, not finding someone to pass it to as a mentor. Regrettably INTPs and other intelligent people do not reproduce so we cannot mentor the children we did not have, but possibly others through our writings. When I took the online Keirsey Personality test, I could not believe that a soulless computer could know the deepest inner workings of my soul. Most of what is in the article is on-target, but I add the fear of dying the cowboys death and having my corps found frozen to the earth, and no one knowing who I was. Even though INTPs do not care what others think. It’s Karma, right? Call this the scientist-engineer’s lament.
The same. But a cow boy death is certainly a beautiful end for an ISTP.
Deep Water: The abyss that will absorb you whole, the abyss with who knows what tentacles lurking in the dark, the fear of not knowing how deep down it goes as the surface doesn’t reveal its depth. This can refer to emotions; they run deep and INTP’s prefer to remain on the surface. So it might be a fear out of the inferior.
It might also be a fear of going too deep, to think too deeply on a subject and reach levels of understanding that will forevermore set you apart from the rest of humanity. This too would be some kind of inferior-based fear. Necessarily the joy of exploration must have a cost, a fear associated with it because polar opposites define and create each other. Therefore Deep Thinking will cause anxiety. Maybe this is why an INTP might have many topics of interest and enters deeply in them when the need arises, but may also quickly lose interest when a certain level of understanding is reached. Maybe fear is what kills off an interest.
In that sense, Deep Water is what covers the magical, this is the point where in science causality and logic fails and eldritch elves of quantum mechanics enter into view. How far out can you philosophize before you have come full circle to everything that is not logical and categorizable?
To think deeply and explore the abyss where none have gone before and not being able to predict how deep the ocean trench is scary. It will set you apart from the banal commonality of mediocrity at the cost of staying attuned to humanity. The higher the satisfaction of exploring into novelty, the greater the loss of connection to others. But not to know how deep the rabbit hole is in itself causes anxiety, because what gets an INTP going is knowledge, so, not to know is disturbing. The surface of Deep Water is the reflection of the unlimited sky above it, the knowable and familiar and it is the place where it meets the unknown, the dwelling place of forbidden and dangerous knowledge and the seat of the limbic system.
The greatest fear of an INTP is to be overwhelmed by emotions, losing control. It is when the limbic system grabs the INTP by the throat, slaps him or her around the face a bit, laughs manically and declares: ‘Now you are in my domain and despair for there is no way out!’ But oh the eeriness of the water and the attracting depths that one must dive into and the hope of finding footing is irresistible. INTP’s must follow their driving vector, their curiosity and drive to know. To know is to live, to remain at the surface staring at the knowing sky is death.
But ultimately all knowledge ends with death. Death is not an issue in and of itself, it is the End of All Knowledge that INTP’s fear. Not to be able to carry all that you accumulated as values and knowledge and even wisdom with you. to have that all taken away is desperately unreasonable. When an INTP wants to leave a legacy, surely this would be the accumulated insight into Deep Water, where despite anxiety the joy of truth finding and sense-making was fought from the tentacles of the unknown. That what was gained must not fall back into the Deep.
Water is the medium of feeling, as air is the medium of thought. Deep Water is the realm of emotion and yet it is there where necessarily the most out of reach and hard to grasp concepts lie. What INTP will understand intuitively the intricate variables of emotion? Air, as knowledge hits the surface of the water head on. The INTP’s arrow points downward in order to reach far into the sky. This sounds counter-intuitive. But I think that as polar opposites define they also attract. One must always seek what is not yet present, the grass being greener over the hill means that the INTP must come to terms with emotion and its pitfalls. It will be fascinated by the exploration of Deep Water which is the ultimate quest for understanding the self. It is through integrating what is opposite to our instinct that we grow.
So INTP’s explore the Deep to find themselves and so necessarily the depth of the water must widen as to be able to reflect the surface of the air touching it. The one is a function of the other. The greater the understanding of reality in the medium of the mind, of air, the deeper the medium of emotion, of water.
INTP’s float in the water, their head in the air, but their body is an arrow pointing down in fear and fascination, the head the last to go under and the first to re-merge. To Know is to dive deeper and deeper and decent into madness and separation and to be mad is to be rejected for what was learned. But it is always the tension between emotions and logic that defines the field of friction. Knowledge, ratio, logic do never exist without intuition, spirituality and faith. Knowledge, understanding and such things are the primary vector but they are always sought after to come to an equilibrium with their counterparts. One must serve the other lest none survives.
The INTP is not a person who appreciates logic, categorizing and making sense of the world in a vacuum. An INTP must go the farthest of all personalities and uses its logical approach to the extreme because it must be the counter-weight to the extremes of emotions that are present. It is merely a matter of perspective to focus on the primary functions. One could as easily take a reversed approach and it would be valid, that the INTP is a creature of such emotional depths, that the need to organize and cluster into rationality is equal in depth to reach equilibrium.
Woah!
Same!
“Death is not an issue in and of itself, it is the End of All Knowledge that INTP’s fear. Not to be able to carry all that you accumulated as values and knowledge and even wisdom with you. to have that all taken away is desperately unreasonable. ”. This resonates with me more than anything. I think I might be one of the people who fights to stay alive until the bitter end just because I don’t want to cease to exist. I think the probability of an afterlife is slim but if there is one I’d be so relieved to find that I still “am”, I wouldn’t care what the afterlife is like.
Extremely accurate. ~INTP
For me, 7 out these 10 are things are on my list fears so I’d say this is pretty darned accurate for INTPs.
Completely ridiculous how on-target these are. Only one that really doesn’t apply in my case is deep water, but that’s because I already know what’s down there. Because T.
Being an INTP I think it’s spot on, except the deep water one. I also believe that the rejection and commitment things align. I’ve thought (go figure) about this a lot. It’s getting harder and harder, longer and longer to break my barrier for any girl who tries to show affection and hope that it leads to something more. I completely suck at noticing this and others know/notice months before I do and I’m never the one to make the first 20 moves. It usually takes a lot of time for me to even feel something.
In those cases it has in fact led to something more (usually after months of trying to make me notice and if their personality is intriguing), I give all or nothing you know. Either it’s on or completely off… but after three longer relationships which all ended in rejection, been cheated on, left feeling worthless and heart broken, I fear being committed again because of the tremendous pain of being rejected when you know you gave everything and invested all that time and affection but suddenly you’ve been rejected and tossed away.
Although all of the results said i’m an INTP I can hardly accept because of the fear of dissapointment when i found out i am not one. Most of the things you mentioned were right however I did fear the pain of dying too. Deep water is scary to me because of the things that could be down there;example a huge silent sea monster on the bottom. Maybe it wont be so scary if i am able to see directly to the bottom and when there is light below. Like a swimming pool with lots of light around and below, so if something happens at least I can be seen by people. I’m also afraid of losing my live when I didn’t do the things i wanted like researching about something important, especially when no one knows my progress. I fear the afterlife too, it scares me to think that I may be deleted completely from the universe and can’t be reincarnated again, and the loss of memory after reincarnation, the things i have, and what I know. Also afraid of forgetting my families and best friends.
Oh my god that is so much accurate… every point
I thought it’s lack of confidence that make me feel like this
I didn’t know that others may experience that too !
so damn right…
This is so accurate…it’s kinda scary tbh
This is so accurate… it’s kinda scary tbh
I have believed since the moment I was aware that I could think, that something isi wrong with me. I have always believed that something about me makes me unlovable and unacceptable and believe me when I tell you, I have spent many a hour trying to figure it out. When that said, I’m more readily capable of analysing others and how they and our big bad world tick. I read about this, IE, personality types and mine in particular INTP, and never knew such a thing existed and I am mesmerized. What I had hoped for in reading more and more about intps was to feel some amount of weight to be lifted off my shoulders or some sort of a mental relief…. ThoughT it has never come. I don’t know if we INTP’s are destined for such a blessing, but I often wonder what it must be like for the world a blaze inside my head to suddenly fall silent…… While I’m still living of course.
But, for the record, everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, written in these articles is so very true and accurate. You have yet to state or theorize something unfitting! And for this I truly thank you. There is a tiny smidgen of hope in me now that I may yet achieve recognition for having existed at all.
did you guys get into my brain or something,, this is so spot on
Dark Water is pergaps the only fear I don’t have of all these, but on the other hand I have a very real fear of the ocean, regarding driving boats (because of the lack of control of the waves and how the baot breaks the waves, possibly comes from an episode in my childhood with a plastic-ring riding after a baot, and my brother driving it too fast, resulting in me falling off!)
Other than that it was all spot on!! I’m definitely an INTP!
I’m an INTP and this made a lot of sense. Especially the relationship between commitment and rejection. I like to think I’m an interesting person, but I limit how close I get to people because I’m afraid they’ll decide I’m boring, and thus leave.
The only thing on this list I don’t fear is fear of commitment, because I have found the person who appreciates me and accepts me as I am.
That is an amazing and beautiful thing to hear. Yay for you!
The water thing was strange. I very often daydream about how I could e.g. escape a crashed train that landed in water. I hate deep water.
I’m skeptical about the voodoo-ness of relating mbti to fear of water though.
(I’m not scared of water in general. I can swim and relax etc.)
Deep and murky water for a certainty. Another fear I have is air travel. They are relatively similar to me, except at least with flying, you can see the inevitability of your demise as you plummet to your finality. Deep and murky water though….. ooooooooo…… Just no, no, no…. The other fears are there to some degree but they are not debilitating the way large deep murky bodies of water are. Such as. commitment. I don’t fear it, but I certainly find that I guard against it. Funny thing is, I’d like to be in a committed relationship, well at least I THINK I would. Hummmm….. .
I cant help imagine driving my foot through a rusty steel rod as I kick my legs to tread in the murky water…
I’m an intp and I connect with the fear of deep dark water, always have. I think the main and most simple reason is a fear of the unknown, we can’t see what’s in the water as it’s too deep and dark and there are no clues as to what’s there either, there’s nothing to work out and no connections to be made, it’s completely unknown, this also relates to a fear of the dark I had as a child, I didn’t know what could he in the dark.
It’s not the dark or the deep water that terrifies me, it’s the not knowing. As outlet type identifies with knowing.
That’s my idea anyway.
I did a lot of work with a therapist a while back who had a speciality in dream interpretation. I’m an INTP and have recurring dreams often centred around murky water.
In dream interpretation water often represents emotions and feelings. In my case dark water because my emotions were a mystery to me, I feared them and tried to repress them.
I suspect the fear of dark water could be linked to this.
Deep water? Definitely. Being out of control? Absolutely. The others? Not so much. But that probably has something to do with my depression too.
I think the problem with murky water is that there is too little information that we can process to decide whether or not it is reasonable to enter the water. For me it isn’t so much fearing what might be there as just not knowing what’s there, whether good or bad. I’m reasonably able to do something risky if I know the benefits outweigh the dangers, but I want to have enough information to make that call.
As for losing a loved one, we fear losing the one who understands, accepts, and/or us best. Since we are generally so misunderstood, we can’t bear to think of losing someone who does or at least tries the hardest.
Hello,
Thank you for this article and the commenters above ! I am well past 30yo and I’ve had a deep fear of oceans since I was a child, and I could never explained why. This the first time ever in my life that I find a sensible reason. I’m so grateful for that.
Oftentimes, people ask if I’m scared of sharks or some kind of water animals and when I say no, they never understand what it could be then. Now I have something to say that makes sense, I hope : the fear of not knowing.
And it is relatable in other areas of life as well. Fear of not knowing the future creates anxiety. Fear of not knowing about the after life. Not knowing, is apparently, the biggest phobia of INTPs…
I agree with 1,2,3,4, 8, 9 & 10. The rest no.
Everyone’s talking about the deep waters so I’ll make a conclusion as well. Being that INTP’s rely on imagination and logic,not being able to predict what will happen will drastically change their perspective on a given topic or situation. For instance,I don’t know what will happen to my relationship with my friends and it makes me terrified or just the fact that dark,deep waters could have something that’s lethal to humans or just superior in a way. Being overwhelmed can cause an INTP to either get annoyed or scared. Like a superior entity in this case,being pulled down without any form of safety. Not being able to predict the outcome as well,I can’t take the fact that “This is how it all ends and I don’t even know how this happened or what will happen”.
I never realised that I have a fear of “dark water” before, but it’s true. I was at a big lake a while back, and I was affraid to take a swim, because I didn’t know what was in the water. Images from horror movies came up. This is also the case at the ocean, though I do swim there on occasions. But I LOVE swimming in a swimmingpool. In a swimmingpool I can see everything, as the sides and bottom is white. So it’s not a fear of water … only “dark water”.
I would moreso state that my fear is anything that I cannot outright see clearly (in this world here). Like that is one of the reasons why I don’t particularly like the trains because I cannot see what is outside when we are underground and surrounded by blackness. The water thing however, as the gentleman stated, I didn’t really know that I had this fear. Maybe that’s kind of the reason why I have a fear of the color black in a sense….it’s like it shows absence. It’s a great color for wear, but if something was black and oversized, it gets under my skin. It’s like I don’t really KNOW what to expect when things are overly large and black. Especially with water. I mean, ANYTHING could be in there. There’s no telling….like the Abyss. You know?
Looking into the night sky that is clear and full of stars freaks me out, to the point of almost having some sort of panic attack!
It’s so overwhelming, the infinity of the universe, somehow I get this feeling that I will get sucked into some kind of black hole and disappear, losing my consciousness, my existence completely. Probably also have something to do with the fear of the unknown.
All of this right,plus intp super afraid of heights.
This list is creepingly accuate for me (apart from #7). I actually sat gasping with how accurate it is.
Oh wow! I’m sorry it was creepy for you!!
I think fear of dark water is related to our (INTP) fear of ourselves’ and others’ emotions. Water = emotion; dark = hidden/manipulative/scary/etc.
Thank you for your article….I think. It literally gave me the chills, especially when I got to the second item, “Commitment”. I’m a typical INTP with a weak Fe function, I dread having to deal with my own and other’s emotions. The picture of a chain below that heading seemed to me like a symbol of being required to deal with the emotional needs of others and whenever this is required of me, it’s a metaphorical required of me, it gives me a metaphorical sensation of being connected with every relationship I have, including those I didn’t choose, by a choke chain around my neck. And too many of those people just love pulling so hard on that chain that it hurts and I can’t breathe.
This issue definitely relates to the quote from the anonymous INTP:- “…the feeling that I could get so close to someone and then they could reject or leave me or expose me as being worthless in some way” is definitely real. I recently read another article on “16 boxes” titled “How to Destroy an INTP or ISTP” which was also scarily accurate and one of the methods was forcing them to use their inferior function which would definitely raise the likelihood of criticism and potentially rejection. And it doesn’t help that as an Introvert and a Thinker I come across as cold, detached and aloof. Someone once said that they hoped I’d experience rejection because I was so good at dishing it out.
As for the fear of water, I pondered on that and my conclusion was that, while I’m not afraid of water per se, I’m definitely afraid of drowning, on a par with being strangled (related to the my “choke-chain comparison” and suffocated). The common denominator is being unable to breathe.
When I have to deal with demanding people who continually require me to overuse my weak Fe…if feels as if I have no room to breathe.
When I lose someone I love, my unshed tears rise up into my throat to choke me and…I literally feel as if I can’t breathe.
To me, being drowned, choked, strangled or smothered would be the worst way to go. Being trapped. Losing control. I can imagine how Eric Garner must have felt. It gives me the chills.
Hi,
One thing that is missing here and I think my biggest fear, or at least the one that I have to deal with most, is having to deal with too many inputs at once. My brain fries when two people are debating me (aggressively) at the same time.
To develop professionally, my biggest focus has been needing to learn planning skills, especially scheduling and prioritizing. Also, even though a lot of detailed organizing is not typical for an INTP, I’ve learned that it can make life much easier because it cuts down on a lot of that feeling that there are too many things to handle at the same time. If I at least know where all my tools and information is, I can typically avoid that fear at work.
I’ve found I cannot use a GPS in my car. My partner, who clearly is NOT an INTP, is mystified, but too polite to be really annoyed. I told him, “It’s just the way my brain works. I cannot drive, concentrate on all that requires, and listen to a disembodied voice giving me directions. I just freeze up,” Plus, I am extremely directionally dyslexic. That plays hell with being told verbally to “Take the next left” because my brain “sees”/experiences it as a right-hand turn…. The interesting part is, I have always been this way with directions, since childhood., so it is not some recent, “just-getting-older” manifestation. Yippee. So I wind up writing down driving directions. I underline the LEFT and RIGHT turns. I try seeing it in my mind. It takes time, but once I “get” it, I’m good. It’s too much sensory information – an overload that seems to freeze my “program”…but there always feels like there’s program – at least one or two – running underneath that I can’t see but I can perceive. The brain is a damn mystery, surely. -J
Definitely deep water. I’m struggling with SCUBA instruction at the moment. The fear of being weighed down, unable to breathe or get to the surface…is something I cannot unthink.
Wow you just named my biggest fear…being alone in a deep, dark ocean…there’s something terrifying about the abyssal nature of it. Gaaaah!
Is it strange that I fear all 9 out of 10? My fear of being mediocre, and wasting my life sometimes drives me into a frenzy, and that leads me to think that I have lost my mind.
Same
Wowwww
All my fears are in this list.
Wasting my time makes me crazy.
In Jungian terms, deep or dark water is associated with the subconscious. This is an area that INTPs tend to compartmentalize because it is the opposite of rational and logical. The fear of it really taps into the fear of the unknown and unknowable.
This is so accurate I’m intps, these are all the biggest fears that I have. I really liked your post it made me feel like I’m not alone.
This post named 7 of my worst fear
Especially the 4th one it really terrifies me to not accomplish anything
Definitely related to this one. Another one I could add, which I think fits into the themes here, is being trapped. I have a certain claustrophobia, and something that I could describe as fear of commitment, though it’s not really the phrase I would pick. I get deeply anxious when I feel like my options have been closed off. Like if I go to the store and there is only one tube of toothpaste, and it’s the kind I use and pick every time, I still get very anxious at the lack of options.
Well they are absolutely my biggest fears even reading the list makes my hair stand straight specially #4 & #5 I’m spending all my nights to overthink them
As an INTP, I personally have no fear of “Dying Without Achieving Goals”, “Death” or “Wasting Life”. I see all three as very related and they may have been fears when I was younger, but if so, I lost them as I reached INTP maturity.
This is so accurate all my fears are listed on here.
I wouldn’t say all of these are so accurate, but that is just from my own experience. Definitely commitment and the loss of a loved one. I can see how many INTPs can fear death because of all the unknowing especially because it is hard for many of them to believe in a religion or anything you tell them without proof or evidence. I don’t agree with the dying without achieving goals though… That sounds more like an INTJ or ENTJ thing. Insanity, like death is another thing I often think about… I don’t fear it, though I see how many others could. Mediocrity is a good one I agree with too.
The “deep waters”: I often experience it, but only when I’m at my wit’s end and just simply giving up. I’m just falling and letting life happen to me (and not in a good way)
Commitment is a scary thing. Unknowing in general is hard for INTPs, but we have to face it often because we don’t believe in anything without proof.
7. Deep water; from an INTP. I used to dream about tidal waves often. I found out that in dream theory, water equals emotion, this makes sense with the INTP tendency to avoid overwhelming emotions
” I noticed that intuitives mentioned dark water more than sensing types, and I think it may have to do with the intuitive way of ‘filling in’ the unknown with what could potentially be there. I could be wrong though, so if you have a theory about this, let me know in the comments!”
It is literally a fear of dark water. That Stephen King story, called ‘The Raft’ (I think) was a little scary to some people and humorous to others, where it totally freaked out only a relative few, in my experience. I was freaked. It gave a voice (in my head) to what was always a feeling about dark water.
These same few that were freaked by that story all had dreams about some version of a place where there was a black waterfall and/or a black pool of water, usually issuing out of some building. It is connected- if not by proximity, then intent- to the dreams about the place made for gathering and storing information; where the oranges are spun round and round in water and,in that way are stored for decades; the dreams about the coffin liners in the fields that get moved from time to time; and something about living in a situation that feels like, or is, humanity (at least the survivors) living in malls. Sort of like giant communal slave hats that used to be stores. And, when the dreams started, none of those things existed, but now most of them do, as a certainty. Including people living in malls, and the malls existing, though the method of living is currently different.
The problems with intuitives is that they intuit and a lot of what they intuit is intuited very well. It’s different from prophecy, but to the untrained observer, it seems much the same. There is some theory that this is because people who use more of their brain are both more connected to the life force in everything on earth that comes from the holy spirit and more open to perceiving the presence and thoughts of demons. This does not mean that they would be people aware of doing that or more holy or more evil than any other people. Just, more literally open-minded.
Whatever the case, fear of dark water is not metaphor or allegory. It is a real fear of dark water. And, deep water is often dark; but deep water is not to be trusted either.
Wow! This profile kicked me in the gut full force. The only fear not totally me is deep water; that fear is only true if I’m swimming in the ocean vs. scuba diving, which I love. The former produces fear because I don’t know what’s looking at me from below as if I’m a seal to be eaten. If I’m face to face with a shark, I’m cool! Commitment, rejection, not living up to expectations, dying without leaving a legacy…. I think I’m going to need some drinks now to try and relax. Thanks a lot!😏
for me, being in dark water is equal work being left from those who are out of water. it also means that I must face monsters that I always denying.
I measured as an INTP but am highly empathetic and have followed a more artistic route, which isn’t often mentioned in INTP descriptions. That said, I do associate with the rest of the INTP type. I would agree with the fears above, although they would be feared by everyone I think. The commitment is a strong one for me, as I do feel separate and commitment to me is a little claustrophobic. On the other hand, I am human and wish for connection, so it is an ambivalent state to be in! I like water and otherness, the line between universes, after life is not a fear for me, although how I die (ie pain) is.
Ok, understood all that, but how do we free ourselves from these fears then?