Hi, I'm an NT. Here are the answers to your questions:
Q. Would you ever say that you have become irrational?
A. Yes, I'm a very emotional person and I've had to work at becoming more rational through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy because I've been diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
Q. If so, what causes this and does it occur often?
A. It occurs every single day. Relationships are the biggest trigger. If I have an argument with someone, it's very hard for me to see their perspective. I instantly feel that they're not listening to me, that they don't really care about me, that they were lying to me before when they told me that they cared about me.
Stress is the second biggest factor. I try to eat well, exercise regularly, get enough sleep etc so that I have some resilience against stress.
I get stressed out by daily inconveniences such as having to deal with people I don't like, having to bite my tongue when someone says something obnoxious, having to stand in a long queue etc.
Q. Have you ever become angry at a societal occurrence such as something you have read in the news? Why?
A. Yes. Because I think "this is unfair", "there's no justice in the world", "this shouldn't be happening to me", "why me?" "no-one is helping me out with this", "I have to deal with this on my own".
Q. How do you express anger?
A. Either by losing my temper or else going into a silent rage and saying nothing at all. Sometimes I assert myself and voice my anger in a constructive manner but this approach does not always work so it's a tricky one!
Q. Do you ever become overwhelmingly excited in a positive manner, how does it effect you, and how do you express it? Already tried to ask this to not much response
A. Yes but this commonly occurred when I was younger. I try to be more stoical now and not show my emotions outwardly as much.
When I was younger, it would manifest itself in a number of ways-being very talkative, dominating conversations, laughing a lot, being very tactile, wanting to spend all my time with that person, laughing at their jokes, not being able to stay focused on one topic of conversation and ending up talking about everything that popped into my head, racing thoughts, feeling that I had to speak and fill the silence in conversations, doing impulsive things like drinking too much alcohol, trying to seek attention from other people through what I wore, by doing daring albeit juvenile things such as jumping into a swimming pool while drunk.
It did feel a bit "manic" and I was asked once whether I was bipolar! I was also diagnosed with mood swings so once that happened, I took steps to manage my mood in a more effective manner. My highs were ridiculously high, my lows were very low. I felt emotions more intensely than other people around me and that caused problems in my life. I'm not sure if I'm 100% over it but it has improved.
Q. Is romantic love irrational? How do you view it?
A. Yes. Yes because I've loved people who haven't deserved my affection and time and I was unable to see how toxic they were. I wasn't able to view them in a logical manner so I would put them up on a pedestal and think that they were perfect, that everything they did was perfect and I'd feel empty when I wasn't around them. But over time, I'd get tired of them and all I'd be able to see were flaws..all the things that they were doing wrong. I got obsessed with other people- certain friends, boyfriends- and it'd make it hard for me to focus on other things in my life. I would feel consumed by my relationships-that nothing else was important, that life had no meaning outside of relationships.
I've worked on being more rational so now I try to take relationships more slowly. I don't get that instant high from relationships that I used to get but equally I don't get the "crash and burn" scenario that also accompanied it. I think that my relationships are more stable now but also more boring. I try to be logical about relationships but it's not as enjoyable. It's more of a slow-burn..sort of like going to the gym as opposed to being a couch potato..it doesn't feel good at the time but it'll pay off in the long-run.
Q. Do you agree with the statement "Logic must come first but emotion is required to make a rounded thought complete"? If not, how would you change this statement?
A. I would change the statement to "Logic and emotion are both equally important". I think that logic is needed for a number of reasons. People need to work in order to pay bills and have a high standard of living. Logic is needed for problem solving. However, I think that emotion can lead to empathy which in turn can lead to conflict resolution. Logic would say that it's better to get your own way at all costs but empathy would say "ok, maybe I should try to negotiate and co-operate with this person". This could extend to a lot of different things in life-personal relationships, work, politics-so it's really important. I also think that emotion leads to creativity in the arts-literature, music, film etc. Emotion can lead to innovation in business-being able to think outside the box. It can lead to people taking risks and having adventures in life. I have a high degree of intuition and have a gut instinct. I can sense certain things and this ability is very useful.
Q. Give me your take on emotions in general: how do you experience them
My emotions feel intense. It's hard to describe how I experience them. It just "happens" unbeknownst to myself. It feels automatic, very "natural", very organic. I have an instant reaction to events that happen in life and it's easy to get swept away in a wave of emotion. They can feel like a hurricane-that they take me over-so I have to slow down and take time to think logically about an issue. If I feel very emotional about an issue, then I'll tend to focus on the short-term whereas if I'm more logical, I'm able to think about the long-term. For example, I might not feel like going to the gym but I tell myself that I'll feel better afterwards and that motivates me to go. If I'm too emotional, then I tend to make impulsive, sometimes self-destructive decisions so it's important for me to balance emotion with logic.
Q. do you feel you have 'less'/'the same'/'more' than your average NT?
A. I feel that I have more emotions than the average NT.
Q. how do you feel others could use them better
I think that some people could work harder to empathize-to try to understand other peoples' emotions and perspectives.
Q. What offends you? Does it always make sense?
A. I hate when people try to tell me what to do, how to be. Basically people who are overly controlling, who think they're always right...domineering, bossy people! They're impossible to get along with and I hate being around them! I like people who are more tolerant, who have a "live and let live" attitude to life, who recognize that there are many different ways to view a situation and that their way is not necessarily the best.
I hate stupid jokes. There are some people who try to make a joke out of everything and that annoys me because I think that they're trying to avoid sadness. Kind of like the actor Robin Williams. I saw him in an interview before his untimely death and whenever the topic veered into personal territory, he would make a joke. It felt like he was always "on", that he felt that he had to be funny, that he couldn't just be himself, that he couldn't just be sad or have any vulnerable emotion and that made me feel sad.
Q. Would you prefer to never feel emotions or to be subject to stronger ones in regards to almost everything which matters to you
Neither. I would prefer to have less intense emotions but I don't think I'd like to never feel emotions because that would be boring.