Just pasting some things down.

Nearly all of the problematic characteristics described above can be attributed in various degrees to the ISFJs internally mapped and abstract view of the world not being successfully coupled to an appropriate level of Extroverted feeling. Without this rational external balance, the ISFJs opposing unconscious functions can wreak havoc upon the order and sense of the ISFJs perceptions and ideas. ISFJs are usually stable, certain, reliable and deft in their approach to life. But if unbalanced, they are likely to treat any point of view other than their own with a kind of cold dismay, and if pressed hard will tend to shut out the existence of problems caused by others differing attitudes and opinions. If the ISFJ does not learn how to deal with the wide range of differing world views they come into contact with, they can find themselves closed into a lonely little corner of the world in which only their own feelings of safety and certainty are maintained. This is a natural survival technique for the extreme ISFJ personality.
The main driver to the ISFJ personality is Introverted Sensing, whose function is to define the properties of and locate and recognise the sometimes abstract and innate qualities of and between the objects of the outer world. If an ISFJ's picture of the world is threatened by external influences, the ISFJ generally tries to shut such new information out of their lives. This is totally natural, and works well to protect the individual psyche from getting hurt. However, the ISFJ who exercises this type of self-protection regularly will become closed within a small and ever decreasing circle of those family and friends who do not actively disturb their increasingly narrow and rigid world view. They will always find justification for their own inappropriate behaviours, and will always find fault with the outside world for problems that they have in their lives. It will be difficult for them to maintain close personal relationships because they will have a negatively polarised and therefore limited ability to communicate outside of the box of their own security needs.
It is not an uncommon tendency for the ISFJ to support their ideas and values by using only the value judgements they make about the world and other peoples behaviour. However, if this tendency is given free reign, the resulting ISFJ personality is too self-centred to be happy or successful. Since the ISFJ's dominant function is Introverted Sensing, they must balance this with an auxiliary Extraverted Feeling function. If the ISFJ uses Extraverted Feeling only to serve the purposes of Introverted Sensing, then the ISFJ is not using Extraversion effectively at all. As a result, the ISFJ does not sufficiently recognise and sympathise with the way feelings effect the behaviour of others in the world to have a good sense of why things happen as they do. They see nothing but their own perspective, and deal with the world only so far as they need to in order to support their perspective. These individuals usually come across as somewhat judgemental and full of fixed and often rather ambiguously polarised ideas about the world. Other people are often surprised by the vehemence of their ideas and are usually unable to understand how they came by them.

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I think the thing is that ISFJs tend to need emotional consistency in our lives, and when it's not there, we start to worry. We like to know that things aren't changing, because when certain things change, it really stresses us out.


When our inferior Ne takes over, we start worrying about all of the negative possibilities. This is especially bad when we don't have access to information. When we don't know something, we'll imagine that the worst case scenario is actually the truth. We do this because we like to be prepared for everything. Things are much less stressful to us when we know that they're coming.

It's extremely stressful for me to be unexpectedly hit with something negative, especially if I have to react quickly. When that happens, I go into panic mode, because I can't adapt to it quickly. So, I always prefer to know when something bad is coming, because that way I can take my time to get ready for it and stretch out my emotions over time.


So, when a bad thing is going to happen, I'd rather know about it as early as possible so I can prepare for it.


So the problem is that if I don't know if something bad is going to happen or not, I'm stuck...I don't know whether to try to prepare for it or not. So my default position is to try to assume that the worst will happen, and to start preparing for it. This is inferior Ne in a nutshell.


However, what the ISFJ Growth link discusses (and a few other MBTI books mention as well), is that as ISFJs, we need to make sure we don't jump to these negative assumptions without any proof. We should only believe negative things if we know for sure that they're coming. Otherwise, we're over-worrying about something that probably won't ever even happen. This has happened to me a number of times.