[tewe_lambda]

So, lately, I have been afflicted with profound existential boredom. Not situational boredom. There are plenty of things that I used to enjoy, such as learning languages and making art and doing experiments, but I have almost completely lost my will to do anything. I now only see a vast pointlessness behind the surface content life and existence. I do what I need to get by, but all my zest for life and intellectual pursuit has seemed to dried up.

Has anyone else experienced this, and have you found a way to regain interest in life?

[rememberthisusername]

Find a door in the box and get back inside.

[honestfi]

^^ Yep.

I go through it a lot, and, this will sound odd to other types other than INTP, but I get my worst bouts of insomnia when I don't have a project or scheme to think about, as my brain is trying to think of something to really think about.

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I think that made sense.

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Anyway, like me, you'll probably find that the next burst of brilliant good intentions that will definitely set the world on fire will pop out at you randomly, in a book, in a song, an incident whilst out and about, a casual conversation, in one of your Christmas prezzies maybe.

Dry periods with no brain activity really suck, though.

[rememberthisusername]

lol yeh, if the mind of an INTP is not occupied with challenges in life then it starts to digest the fabric of existence itself! That's what happened to Decartes when he locked himself in his room and concluded such and INTP conclusion, "I think, therefore I am."

[scarygirl]

Much. Well, not maybe in the way you express, but I know, a feeling of existential boredom, like...everything's done, and I don't feel done at all.

:(

[darksoul]

I get my worst bouts of insomnia when I don't have a project or scheme to think about, as my brain is trying to think of something to really think about.

For three months, I couldn't sleep even if my life depended on it. (Only started resting well again recently). Too bored to sleep?

[honestfi]

Too bored to sleep?

Yes. It sounds bizarre, but I have to think myself to sleep, and I know it has always been that way, at least since I was about 6 or 7. I'm sure I can't be the only NT with this trait.

[Promethea]

Absofuckinlutely. I relate to this -so- much.

I start to have these nagging questions while I'm learning something/thinking about something - 1. why this particular thing 2. is the information correct 3. am I missing some information 4. what if I'm going in the wrong direction 5. what if I waste my time on this current pursuit and miss something more important.. and so on.

So I finally reach a point of paralysis, where any of it seems like a pointless endeavour. Its more than just boredom with ideas and knowledge - its the fear that they aren't correct, or important enough - that my mind isn't invested where it should be, or in the way it should be. Fuuu.

[Proteus]

as my brain is trying to think of something to really think about.

I can completely empathize with this. Right now I'm just beginning a 12 day vacation and have spent most of the day cleaning and running errands while trying to think of things to occupy myself with for the rest of my break. Simply keeping my mind in stasis without any type of stimuli or outlets for it is extremely difficult.

So often I have to make myself want to want to do something, and in the process of scrounging up that motivation it makes me feel that whatever it is I'm going to engage in is an ultimately empty pursuit as it's something done out of coercion/obligation and not because I'm genuinely getting something out of it.

So I finally reach a point of paralysis, where any of it seems like a pointless endeavour. Its more than just boredom with ideas and knowledge - its the fear that they aren't correct, or important enough - that my mind isn't invested where it should be, or in the way it should be. Fuuu.

I go through something very similar when I'm considering a new interest to pursue - looking at whatever it is that I'm contemplating getting into and just seeing what it will be like once I've actually dove into it - will it benefit me? will I get bored with it? will I gain anything from the process or is it just something done to kill time? And if I can potentially see myself sometime in the future having undertaken this new pursuit and being unsatisfied with it, then it just seems all the more pointless.

[Skum]

Yes, this is going on right now.

To regain interest I need a challenge- a problem to tackle and work through that really engages me. I want to argue with someone.

Instead, I'm seeing the world as completely justifiable in all its nonsense. Blatant in pointlessness, but still justifiable. And this translates into a giant "Meh" in reaction to near about everything. My mind is so stagnant right now.