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Are you "spacey"?

[INFP] 
15K views 12 replies 12 participants last post by  willowsprout 
#1 ·
One big thing in my personality is my apparent "spaciness" or, to elaborate a little, my tendency to day dream or hyper focus on thoughts or ideas to the point that I am literally blocking out all the rest of the world.
For instance, I was once so focused inwardly on one specific thought that a fight was going on in the same room I was in and I was totally unaware of it until someone asked me about it later on.
This also seems to happen in conversations that I am not totally interested in. I find my self spacing out into my own thoughts to the point that I am just not hearing or seeing whats going on. The only way I seem able to describe it is that I am hyper focusing inwardly on my own brain and my own world and all the rest of the world goes "out of focus".
I was just wondering, does this happen to anyone else? Is this an INFP or more so an "Introverted thinking" trait or just a trait all my own??? And if so, how do you "deal" with it or do you deal with it at all?(not that its a bad thing but you gotta admit it is something that can get you in trouble from time to time)
 
#2 ·
I like that you admitted it's not a bad thing. It's not. ^^ If somebody complains to you about it, make a joke about it, taking their comment lightly.

It happens sometimes, still does to me from time to time, although I haven't had too many one on one conversations as of late, and I don't recall it happening recently. It did use to happen-it's normal for us, I would think. My mother used to that a LOT and she's probablyn not INFP (although she might be another NF, perhaps INFJ-however, I do not know if this behaviour would be "common" in INFJs.) What's bad is when you look at their eyes and are thinking about something else, and then you feel forced to follow the conversation without actually haven't listened to what the person just told you! A-ha, mmmmm follows, hahaha!
 
#3 · (Edited)
XD Its nice to hear that I'm not completely abnormal. In fact I love being able hyper focus, it allows me to see things a little deeper than a lot of my friends and even allows me to approach things from multiple angles, plus its kinda nice to have your own little world to recede into, almost like your own little shell or something. Sadly I seem to be an expert at absent minded conversation and it tends to get me into trouble with my more demanding friends. I will look right into your eyes, nod my head, I even have this whole inner recording device that produces automatic replies such as: Huh well that interesting, Cool, Yep, uh huh, sure, okay, I guess, maybe, well that sounds nice. It can go like this for awhile, but it can get a little sticky when the conversation slips from the normal and mundane into the intense and emotional stuff that requires honest and thought out replies. I often end up feeling like a bad friend, cause it makes it look like I don't care when in reality I do care very deeply about what going on in my friends lives but my brain just can't handle the silly little mundane chatter that often comes before honest thought out communication...its kinda like commercials before the movie, the commercials aren't that important and its easy to just slip out of the room to do something more interesting and important but if you lose track of time you might miss the most important part of the movie...only difference is you can go back and rewind a movie you can't rewind friends...if you know what I mean...
 
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#4 ·
Yeah, I'm spacey, especially in slow moving or mundane conversation. And I can't concentrate if a paragraph is too long in a text. If you don't get to the point quickly enough, I'm gone. Like IAmMe2010, I can be quite good at hiding it because some part of my brain recognises the points in the conversation where a response is required while the greater part of my brain thinking about how they make black bricks.

I like the way I think, even if it might cause a problem now or then. I didn't even realise it could cause a problem until recently when I thought about how much I've missed in class. So I brought it up with my psychologist and she recommended practising Mindfulness. Apparently the more you practise focusing your attention the easier it will be, makes sense of course, but it's kind of boring work which doesn't at all help with the focusing thing or motivation to do it, if you follow what I'm saying. I'm not sure it was coherent. But you could look into it if you find being spacey causes a problem sometimes
 
#5 ·
I've always been spacey or at least perceived to be. Typically in a social setting like a classroom or work environment I'll have "tunnel thinking". One thing is on my mind & I've tuned out the people around me. Meanwhile everyone else is saying "Join the group! Where are you? What, you don't like us or something?" Tends to annoy people. What makes it worse is the insomnia medication I had to get on 8 years ago to stay alive. It makes my brain foggy so I probably come off as an old Woodstock stoner to some people.
 
#6 ·
I do this all the time! Especially when I'm walking somewhere. I wont even realize that I'm lost in thought and I'll end up walking into a trash can or tripping on a curb or nearly walking into traffic (I also tend to not look where I'm going because I'm too busy looking at everything else, and this doesn't help). >_< I'm so lucky to have friends who actually pay attention to their surroundings, they usually stop me from doing stupid things by grabbing me or putting an arm out in front of me, haha. I also tend to space out accidentally when I'm with other people. Sometimes someone will be talking to me and I won't even realize it. I feel bad because they usually think I'm ignoring them, I always have to apologize for my crazy brain!
 
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#8 ·
What's really awesome is when I get in that spacey mode and someone is talking to me, and my mind is still focus on this wierd random thing and the other person gets really frustrated because they think I'm completely oblivious to what their saying because I keep droning on and on about this thought that I'm obsessing about, and they get frustrated and give up,
and then I go "so you were saying, blah blah blah" and pretty much reiterate what they were talking about.

I think this might be a general introvert thing, but I know when people ask me a question, especially when I'm tired, I have to take a moment and think about the question and think about the answer before I can actually a question. I also remember as a kid someone would ask me the time and I would answer, and I'd be like "Okay, it's 6:30, but what does that really mean?"
 
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#10 ·
oh yes, I'm very good at tuning out the rest of the world and being totally engaged in my head. It's more like my normal state of being. Every once in a while I'm like "Oh, look, there's a physical world! Ok now what was I thinking about?" ;P I tend to also be dead to the world whenever I'm reading, and when I finally put the book down I'm all disoriented and feel like I have to really try to adjust.
 
#11 ·
It happens to me often. Many people look at me oddly when I'm ambling down the hallway with a dazed smile on my face, contemplating some random daydream I had. Whenever this happens, I usually end up going to the wrong class! haha

But be proud of your spaciness, INFP's!!! IT'S WHAT MAKES YOU SPECIAL~~~~~~~
 
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#12 ·
I think this is an IN thing.

As an INTJ I've been enveloped in my own thoughts a lot. I consider myself lucky to be alive, because of all the times I've crossed the street without looking because I was pondering deeply. I often take wrong turns, or end up in places without knowing how I got there because i 'zone out' due to some interesting problem I am attempting to solve in my mind.

The other day I accidentally walked into the wrong classroom. I didn't notice it at all, I had unpacked all my stuff and sat down before realizing that the teacher wasn't the one I've been seeing the past couple of months, and that the person sitting beside me wasn't my friend, but some gorgeous blonde (If it wasn't for her, I could have sat there for even longer before realizing).

Sometimes I accidentally put my clothes on backwards, or wear different color socks because my attention is elsewhere. Granted, it doesn't happen as often as it used to. When I was a kid, it was really bad. These days I'm not that weird.

I don't consider myself spacey, though. I like the word "eccentric".
 
#13 ·
I've been spacey my whole life. Growing up my father's favourite saying was Melissa, earth to Melissa. It's funny when I zone out during a conversation and the person doesn't realize it because I'm looking right at them even though I'm not using my eyes. They'll interpret it as eye contact when I'm completely tuned out. Then when it comes to the point where I'm supposed to respond they realize I'm not paying attention at all. It's like one of those gags where I'm sleeping with glasses that have pictures of eyes on the lenses.

I usually don't run into things though. I'm on auto-pilot and I've had entire walks around the block without paying any attention or bumping into anything. It's like driver's hypnosis.

I've also had instances like those talked about in another thread where I'll laugh or show an emotional reaction to what I'm thinking about and then I'll realize that everyone's still there and they'll ask what's so funny/why am I crying. I'll be embarassed because it's so irrelevant and I'll just tell them it's nothing. I wonder if people think I'm crazy. Lately I'll just stop walking all of the sudden while I think about something and I'll look like I'm unconscious on my feet before starting up again looking as if nothing happened. That's got to look very odd the way I suddenly pause and start up again sometimes.
 
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