How the hell do I control my raging P?

[LAM]

I resisted from saying Pness because this seems to be one of my biggest problems.

I seriously cannot control my P anymore and as such end up going into this "infinite possibility" view almost all the time. I basically just continually get a different opinion/perspective on every single thing all time. I really don't know how to explain it. I guess as an analogy I wouldn't have a train of thought, just some teleporting squirrel on crack that tries go on all paths then making this last second rushed decision when asked to actually come up with something.

Safe to say this makes my attention span something like 2 seconds. (sorry I actually had switched to another thing after that sentence and this is my continuation of this thread 1h later.)

I guess what I was trying to say is that I live in a world full of unkowns and I am being driven crazy trying to account all of them and that I can't stop doing it. So I am now stuck in this state although surface persona manage only to show extremely decreased reaction time to questions. Also any english essays I write in this state seem to transcend the laws of grammar, english and time itself as my english teacher found out.

 

[AlisaD]

When I saw "Raging P" I almost fell off my chair laughing. My visualisation of a raging P would be laying on your bed for hours, not moving, barely breading, completely unresponsive to the outside world. Raging P - priceless.

But once I read your whole post I found myself doing this . And realized you were right. It is a pretty wild beast.

Unfortunately, I can't really help you control it, I can just say that I feel for you. I have one of my own, been trying to tame it for years, had no success whatsoever, so finally I gave in and decided to let it run my life - which is therefore going nowhere, but giving in to the chaos makes me all warm and tingly on the inside - so I guess it was worth it.

 

[Anthile]

 

[EditorOne]

Raging P kind of cracked me up, too, mine takes the form of diffidence to the 10th magnitude. My hair is on fire? Isn't that interesting?

OK, I'm not sure where the line between useful daydreaming and the need to take action so you don't starve to death or get run over in traffic is drawn in your case, but I'd start to use practical outcomes like that to initiate action on other things, with some guidelines. Like, if you are hungry, you will eat, right? But what. I can see it spinning off on you, but tell yourself "it really doesn't matter." Eat the first thing you see in the frig or cupboard. Other stuff works the same way: You have a need to be fulfilled, and the first choice you come to that fills the need is "good enough" for now. It might not be perfect, but here's your partial epiphany: Most things don't need to be perfect. They just need to be "good enough for now."

Looking back on it, you might want to read up on "maslow's hierarchy of needs." Did I spell his name right? Owell. Putting all the the things your P wants to dither about somewhere on the hierarchy might help prioritize them for you, in a truly basic way.

Another tool, honest, it works: A cheap stopwatch. Once you've identified something that needs to be decided, give it two minutes and then go with the best you've got, without further dithering.

INTP writers have your problem a lot. IT's so easy to go down side roads doing research or just thinking that a whole day can go by in which you forget why you sat down at the damned computer in the first place. The solution (for me) was small chunks in which I refused to contemplate the big picture, only the next 2,000 words or so and what I wanted them to convey. It takes practice, but it does work.

Remember, too, green light, go, red light go, yellow light GO QUICKER because if you dither you're in the middle of the intersection while all the J's are tromping the gas because they've got green.

Good luck. Remember to be patient with yourself. What's a weakness and an annoyance right now is actually one of the greatest strengths you have, the ability to sort through things without prejudice or preconception.

 

[Causeless]

...I can see it spinning off on you, but tell yourself "it really doesn't matter." Eat the first thing you see in the frig or cupboard. Other stuff works the same way: You have a need to be fulfilled, and the first choice you come to that fills the need is "good enough" for now. It might not be perfect, but here's your partial epiphany: Most things don't need to be perfect. They just need to be "good enough for now."

Such is my own method.

From personal experience, works well until miscellaneous items begin to impede your view of the monitor.

"Where the hell do I put this?"

"Eh, here's good enough."

 

[Enne]

Why don't you identify what it is that you want to do or know? You could design a multitude of projects aimed at faceting and shaping areas that you want to improve in, even obscure / small / stupid ones. With the many options you have for activity going, ranging in endurance required, etc, you could find something to do even on days when "the P RAGES". The vast variety means that you will not feel as constrained or as "obligated" to pursue any one thing at a given time, but will still give you something of an external match to your intrinsic motivations, and give you reason to press forward.

 

[Ermine]

I guess you need to decide how important it is to achieve any of the possibilities you dream of. If you honestly don't care about executing any of the things you're thinking about, then there's nothing to worry about. But if you really do want to achieve some of them, I'd suggest picking just one possibility and breaking it down into smaller tasks which you can do with a short attention span. And I hate it when Js are right, but it really does help to make "to do lists" even if you don't follow them exactly.

Yes, there are infinite possibilities, but many possibilities require prerequisite possibilities, and surely you have some preference within all the possibilities out there.

 

[Gather_Wanderer]

i almost found a new sig. really though, the Pness puns aren't getting old.

i agree with the to do lists bit.

 

[Irishpenguin]

Oh yea, my P starts to rage quite often, especially when moms asks me what I want for dinner.

I'm still horrible at making this decision, it usually can take up to an hour or more, but I think I might have found something that helps. I just found this out like 2 days ago so I'll just share the experience here

Okay, me and mom, driving home from the movies, trying to decide what to get. Options are like...fried chicken, Chinese food, restaurant, or any fast food place around (which is a lot). My mom didn't care, and I didn't care, so we both had no idea what was for dinner at this point (that's what normally happens). But when I was thinking over the possibilities, mom threw that "We can get Chinese if we call within ten minutes since we're close" and my first thought was like "Pffft, no way am I going to decide on this withing 10 minutes, we might as well just through that option out the window" and then the lightbulb turned on, which resulted in " HOLY CRAP! MOM! WE'RE GETTING CHINESE FOOD! GIMME PHONE NAO!"

So yea, the basic idea was that since we only have a 10 minute window to get Chinese food, that makes it some sort of special for the time being, so it's kind of like having a "Meal of opportunity". And I think that this might just work better as an add-on to what EditorOne was saying, so it's like, yea you can try and go with the "Whatever shows up first, then do that" but if you want to ease into that thinking process then maybe like look for the first thing, but if you run across something that in anyway seems more significant, then automatically default to that, I guess a common example is like eating finishing up some bologna since it's about to go bad. I think you get the drift.

 

[karlds]

I came to this forum to inquire about the other side of this issue: how to develop my judging preference. Perhaps one cannot look at this struggle as reigning in Perceiving. Perhaps it is that one must focus on making decisions with whatever information is on hand; in other words, don't invest any further resources in gathering info, but instead use your resources to make the decision. It's scary indeed, but it is a way of life that many embrace with success, including many other Rationals.

Sometimes I feel that my particular balance of preferences has put me in a big ditch. Introverted, not caring about the outside world, intuitive, not caring about the status-quo, and waiting yet longer for more information. I wonder how I'll ever get to the right career if I never learn how to move forward. Outside all this, I suspect I am trying to solve all my problems with reasoning, which leaves me disappointed. If I want what I want, I'll have to use functions that are entirely different from what is comfortable for me. This means looking like a fool and understanding very little. It means a sort of second infancy. I am still young, and have many new things to experience. It is my hope that I will not shunt the lessons life has to teach me, but that I will take them to heart. Certainly, I can't learn this new way of life without experience. I cannot theoretize it because it is practice.

I offer this as my perspective; perhaps it can offer another angle for your own analysis. If any have advice for me, that's welcome too.

 

[Dormouse]

Wall of text

Heh. Exact same thing here. I don't know why, but restaurants are the worst. I've literally skipped meals because I couldn't decide what to order.

Now my system is pick whatever, regret it later and sulk for the rest of the meal.

 

[Anling]

I'd say learn to set goals, start with anything. Unless something is clearly more important at this moment, you can just pick something and go from there.

Now my system is pick whatever, regret it later and sulk for the rest of the meal.

My dad always complains that we don't have the meals planned out and schedualed a month in advance. That would certainly cut down on the wondering what to eat today train wrecks. But he doesn't seem to have the concept of changing your mind based on mood. Sometimes you just don't want to eat what's schedualed.

 

[Irishpenguin]

Now my system is pick whatever, regret it later and sulk for the rest of the meal.

Haha, yea that always happens to me too, but it usually only happens when I've had all the ideas hopping around in my head for awhile until I finally just become too tired to think about it anymore so just agree with whatever the next thing my mom suggests. The conversation usually being something like

Mom: "How about <insert option here>?"

Me: "Yea...I guess..."


and then I end up in that sulky state for the meal since I think I could have had something better.

However, if the decision was made by me and I was confident in it, for whatever reason, then that meal is Fucking Delicious. Y'know that whole psycological thing of like "Fuck yea! I'm eating this meal because I chose to! This is awesome!"... or does that feeling only happen to me?

But yea, having that feeling, or maybe just not having the sulky feeling, is definitely a factor in my decisions now. Because I know if I'm sporting this face,, then the meal will suck, but if I make a decision, then awesomeness awaits me .

I hope I didn't go too far off the OP's question

 

[Oblivious]

SATAN GUIDE MY PNESS.