This is what happened to my ENFP bf exactly. He is currently in stage 7, and I'm hoping he doesn't go to stage 8.



Anyone know how to help someone get out of this cycle? Click to expand...

To get your ENFP out of this cycle. there are many things you can do, but it is going to be extremely tricky. Since all ENFP's are so different, even when they are all within the same type, one thing that will make a certain ENFP feel better may set a separate ENFP on the edge for good.



There's tricks. The number one thing I would recommend to get an ENFP out of this cycle is to tell them that you understand and accept that they are hurting. When they need to talk, listen. Do not give advice unless they ask, instead your highly emotional and intense ENFP will need emotional support. In this depressed state ENFP's can be extremely emotionally attached and clingy. If you can not deal with a clingy ENFP, do not bother, because if you leave after they open their heart up to you, this make make the situation all the worse. If you cannot handle an overemotional person, do not bother unless you think or know you are able to deal with it.



Lie to your ENFP. This is bad, do not do it unless you are a very, very, very good liar. ENFP's are very good at picking up on liars and insincere people. And when I tell you to lie, I mean it in the sense that you aren't trying to help them but instead trying to look out for their own good. This can and will go downhill very fast if you don't know exactly how to do it. Basically, you are bull shitting your ENFP into thinking you understand them completely and will do anything to go out of your way and make them feel better. Some level or part of you has to mean it, even a very small amount.



You have to convince your ENFP that life is worth living again. Ultimately, the ENFP is the only one who can change themselves, not you, so what you'd have to do is prove to them or show them everything they've forgotten about life. The light that your ENFP used to bring into your life needs to be reflected back into them. Do little things like buying them small gifts or write them little notes (in a relationship) to show them that you have been thinking about them throughout the day. Make them have reason to fel free again, to laugh and love. How you do this is by example. Do not overdo it, as in, do not come across as fake or shallow in any way. They may read this and shut down further.



Do not, ever, under any circumstance, tell your ENFP that their are people who have it worse than they do. This is the worst thing you can say, from what I can tell. They see this as telling them that everything they are feeling is wrong. This is also bad because it is telling them that the immediate situation that they percieve is not good enough to be upset about. Again, this is the worst thing you can say.

Efraim said: Whoa! Stage 8 here. Don't know how to break free from this...I've almost already forgotten what it's like to feel happy...That stupid anxious feeling just doesn't want to go away even though I try hard to fight it back...I hate feelings. Actually at this point I hate everything and everyone Click to expand...

Only time will tell if it will pass. Please do not force yourself to feel happy, this will make it worse. Have you tried talking to someone about it?





I'm in Stage 3. I can tell just because of the way I have been writing as of late; the long sentences, complex and hopeless.



This seems correct, but I think you've left out the symbolism (or perhaps I'm just an ENFP obsessed with symbolism)... in my case, when I start getting around Stage 5 or 6, I turn "dark". This involved being intrigued with black, with roses, with stigmata, and I became dark in what others have said was very sexy.



I am always relating myself to things, animals, movies, situations, or words. Now that I'm in Stage 3, I've already set myself up for Stage 4, the Shut Down. My animal of the year (kind of like an animal totem, but without all the mumbo-jumbo stuff) is the Snow Leopard. I am literally trying to withdraw into myself. I am trying to become isolated, so I can ice up the wounds I've gotten from being too emotional. Click to expand...