INFJs and INFPs and Chronic Pain

Lauren Sapala
3 min readMar 16, 2024

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INFJs and INFPs both frequently suffer from chronic pain. Sometimes this pain arises from an injury, and sometimes it is the result of a long-term chronic illness. Whatever the root cause is, living with chronic pain is an exhausting process. It’s helpful to understand how the traits of the INF personality type affect your journey with chronic pain, and can even contribute to an increase in pain levels.

Both INFJs and INFPs commonly experience “energy overwhelm,” and this is a significant factor in an increase in pain levels for those who live with chronic pain. Energy overwhelm happens when we are overwhelmed by too many people or too much stimulus, as often happens with busy workplaces or crowded events. Energy overwhelm can also happen when an INFJ or INFP is trying to take care of too many people. It can also happen when we spread ourselves too thin trying to ensure that harmony is present in any given situation.

Another significant factor that can contribute to an increase in pain levels is driven behavior. Driven behavior is more frequently found in INFJs, but it can also be present in INFPs as well. Driven behavior is characterized by frantic, restless activity that drains a lot of energy from the person, but doesn’t actually accomplish very much.

I talk more about this in the video below:

I’m teaching a new class focusing on issues like these for INFJs and INFPs. We’ll be learning how our obsessive need for harmony can cause energy overwhelm, how we use productivity and accomplishment to earn self-worth, and more. The new class is called INFJ and INFP Life. It begins on Wed Mar 27 and runs for three weeks.

I got the inspiration to teach this class from my last class, in which so many INFJs and INFPs showed up with questions about how their high intuition and high sensitivity affects their relationships, creativity, and overall life. Finding out you’re an intuitive personality type — with all that means and all that comes with it — can be overwhelming to say the least, even for those who have known they’re intuitive for a long time. I’m hoping this class will shed light on some of the more hidden facets of being an intuitive personality type and also help bring people together to meet other intuitives.

Make sure you SUBSCRIBE to my newsletter HERE to get the next two videos in this series, and all the updates on when registration for INFJ and INFP Life opens, and please also SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel here to get more videos on life as an INFJ or INFP. If you have any questions about the class, you can send them to me here.

I’ll see you soon with the next video in this series: INFJs and False Friends.

Lauren Sapala is the author of Writing on the Intuitive Side of the Brain, The INFJ Writer, The INFJ Revolution, and the creator of Energy and Intuition for INFJs, an online course for INFJs on intuition, relationships, creativity, and more. She is also currently offering a free copy of her book Firefly Magic: Heart Powered Marketing for Highly Sensitive Writers to anyone who signs up for her newsletter. SIGN UP HERE to get your free copy.

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Lauren Sapala

Writer. Writing Coach. Author of The INFJ Writer: Cracking the Creative Genius of the World’s Rarest Type. www.laurensapala.com