Being around someone who can’t manage their emotions is never an easy task. If you are around an ENTP and wondering what will happen when they have an emotional reaction to something, you can be more prepared by understanding these 12 ways ENTPs deal with their emotions.
ENTPs express themselves if they have a rational reason or solution. They deflect from deeply emotional situations and need time alone to deal with their feelings. They can forgive easily and seek deep connections with people. ENTPs sometimes use artistic mediums to express their emotions.
It can be challenging to understand and help someone who hides from their own emotions or is highly specific with how they choose to express their feelings. If you are trying to figure out what to do when things get challenging for an ENTP, below are 12 to help you understand them.
1. ENTPs Are Vocal About Their Feelings
ENTPs are often perceived as unable to express themselves or say what they think and how they feel. That is true in some sense, but most often, when an ENT has a thought or feeling about a situation or experience, they will verbalize it and make it known.
They are not afraid to tell people what they want or express their dislike about something. They are incredibly rational, so when they talk about their feelings, they can see reason or already have a solution to the problem. The issue arises when the emotional aspect is too deep.
2. ENTPs Can Sometimes Deflect From Their Emotions
While ENTPs are great at expressing what they want or think, they can deflect from those feelings when things get too deep emotionally. ENTPs will then find a distraction, focus on others’ moods and feelings, and hide their own with the hope that it will eventually go away or they will forget about it.
ENTPs need logical reasons for every experience, so when they have emotions that they cannot reason with or find rational solutions to deal with them, the ENTP will avoid those emotions entirely. They would instead help others with their problems instead of dealing with their feelings.
3. ENTPs Seek Logical Answers
When an ENTP deals with specific emotions, they must see logic and rationality around it. If they are sad, they need to understand the reason behind the sadness. They can’t simply have an “off day” without a logical explanation like everyone else. ENTPs will not deal with an emotion that doesn’t have a rational solution.
If they feel an attraction to someone, they need to understand that person’s qualities that bring that connection. An ENTP will also need to figure out what they are going to do about that emotion and whether they want to pursue the person or realize that it will not go anywhere and break it off. If they can see reason and logic, they will express themselves.
4. ENTPs Get Angry If Their Feelings Are Invalidated
One of the reasons ENTPs avoid discussing their feelings is because they hate when their emotions are invalidated. It angers them to know they are being misunderstood or that someone is not reciprocating their discomfort.
ENTPs often think that they are always right. They will debate things and stand their ground until the end. Because expressing emotions is such a significant deal for ENTPs, they think that if they feel something and vocalize it, they must be correct, and someone else cannot question or ignore that.
ENTPs get angry pretty quickly, so when their emotions are invalidated, questioned, or ignored, their anger will flare up, and they will make sure you know it. They can’t handle someone who doesn’t accept their experience, regardless of how wrong or manipulative they are.
5. ENTPs Conceal Their Feelings
One of ENTP’s first responses to emotions is to conceal their feelings. They are sometimes afraid of change, judgment, and others’ reactions, so they will avoid sharing their feelings entirely. If you see an ENTP, they will look happy, confident, calm, and collected, even if they are miserable or heartbroken.
An ENTP will also often conceal their happy emotions for fear of being judged or invalidated. Other people think ENFPs are cold and don’t care or are neutral, but the ENTP could be bursting with joy on the inside, and they will hold back from expressing it.
The same applies to ENTPs who are in love or strongly attracted to someone. They might express themselves if they feel confident that their feeling will be validated or reciprocated. If they think they might be rejected or hurt, the ENTP will conceal their emotions and hope that the other person expresses themselves first.
6. ENTPs Need Time Alone To Reflect On Their Feelings
ENTPs are external extroverts; however, they are internally intuitive introverts. They need to be around people and have social interactions to recharge and thrive. ENTPS also need alone time when they are dealing with heavy emotional experiences.
The introverted side of an ENTP creates a need for ENTPs to seek quiet time alone for self-reflection and to process deep emotions. Sometimes they need to make sense of what they feel and where their thoughts are at before they can discuss them with other people.
ENTPs are also not the best at expressing their feelings. Sometimes they fear rejection and judgment and find it challenging to be vulnerable. They don’t like feeling vulnerable and letting people in. This trait forces them to either avoid their feelings or deal with them alone in a space where they feel comfortable.
7. ENTPs Forgive Easily
ENTPs care deeply about those they love and never want to hurt anyone. When challenging situations arise, and people hurt them, they may find it difficult to forgive those people, but once they understand why someone has done something, they will forgive them.
An ENTP is highly logical. They simply need to see a rational reason why someone has done something to upset them. They will not need to think twice before forgiving if they find it is a reasonable explanation or a misunderstanding.
The ENTP might still feel hurt after forgiving someone, but they will still be happy with their choice. If need be, they will withdraw from the person who hurt them for some time (or forever) because some relationships can’t be mended even if you forgive people and make peace with the situation.
8. ENTPs Seek Deeper Connections
For an ENTP to fully express their emotions, they will seek deeper, genuine connections. If they already have someone like that in their life, the ENTP will not have an issue talking about their feelings. If they don’t, they will conceal their emotions until they encounter someone trustworthy and competent.
ENTPs value genuine connections and relationships where they feel safe to be themselves without judgments. They enjoy friendships that challenge them but help them grow. When ENTPs find people like that, they are more likely to open up and verbalize their feelings.
9. ENTPs Use Artistic Mediums To Express Emotions
An interesting method that ENTPs use to express themselves is through art. Depending on the ENTP’s traits, likes, dislikes, and talents, they will use various forms of art, such as painting, music, dancing, singing, writing, etc., to express their emotions.
You can often see how ENTPs feel through their art. Their drawings, sound of the music, lyrics of a song, type of dance or music they dance to, etc., will reflect how they feel and what they are going through at that time.
Art is an excellent medium for people who cannot use words or don’t have people around them to trust. ENTPs find emotions challenging and can’t always find a way to discuss them with others. They find their validation through their creativity, allowing them to be expressive through a safe and comforting method.
10. NTPs Use Humor To Mask Their Emotions
ENTPs will try to avoid conflict, and they do this by making jokes and laughing about the situation at hand. They are not aggressive or mean to make others feel bad or hurt, but they do it to avoid dealing with what’s happening.
ENTPs use their sense of humor to mask their feelings and cover up how they feel. The humor helps prevent them from ending up in tears, having anger bursts, or hurting the people around them by expressing the truth of their thoughts. ENTPs make jokes to keep things neutral and calm while bringing a sense of joy into difficult situations.
11. ENTPs Can Push People Away
When ENTPs deal with difficult experiences that bring up an array of challenging emotions, they push people away. ENTPs don’t want to deal with the problem, expect too much from the other person, or turn to anger and arguing.
Sometimes ENTPs create debates; not to cause issues or make others feel bad but because they want to challenge people, and it is also the only way many ENTPs can voice themselves. Not everyone likes that idea or accepts it and will avoid the ENTP or withdraw from them. Due to this, ENTPs push people away even when they don’t mean for it to happen.
12. ENTPs Push People’s Boundaries
One of the ways ENTPs deal with emotions is by pushing the boundaries of people close to them. If you hurt an ETP or are trying to help them deal with their harrowing experiences, they might challenge your boundaries and push you to your limits.
They don’t do that to be manipulative or annoying; they do it (sometimes subconsciously) to see who will stick around and accept them when things are bad. They want to know they are loved and cared for and that a misunderstanding or argument won’t get them running for the hills.
ENTPs sometimes have low self-esteem, especially if they are emotionally immature or unhealthy and don’t know how to regulate their own emotions. They will then try to control others’ emotions by testing boundaries or unintentionally making people feel bad. When you look deeper, the ENTP is simply looking for validation.
Are ENTPs Emotionally Intelligent?
It would be unfair to say that ENTPs are not emotionally intelligent. In every personality type, there are emotionally intelligent people and others who are not as emotionally mature. Emotionally healthy ENTPs do exist, and they are caring, kind, loving, compassionate, and empathetic individuals.
That said, not every emotionally healthy ENTP will respond the same way to every situation. ENTPs are highly logical beings; they like to debate and test boundaries, so knowing something is affecting another person won’t necessarily mean they will stop or change.
A highly emotionally intelligent ENTP will know how to regulate their emotions and show up accordingly while understanding other emotions and finding rational explanations. A generally emotionally healthy ENTP can empathize with others but won’t necessarily do anything about it. An unhealthy ENTP will result in withdrawal, anger, arguments, and deflection.
Do ENTPs Cry?
ENTPs can feel emotions deeply, but they are not emotional. That means how they react or respond to their feelings, or the emotions of others can sometimes seem cold or contradictory. ENTPs care deeply about those they love and are close to. But ENTPs can deflect from their own feelings and try to conceal them or find distractions. Due to that, you won’t easily find an ENTP crying.
It takes a lot from an ENTP to cry. They can and will cry, but it must be something they feel deeply connected to or pained by. Some emotionally healthy ENTPs who understand that crying is a healthy way to express feelings can cry more easily. It typically takes an extreme situation before you see an ENTP cry.
Conclusion
There are various ways ENTPs deal with emotions. Emotionally intelligent ENTPs will handle their feelings more healthily, while emotionally unhealthy ENTPs will handle them in slightly unhealthy – possibly even toxic – ways.
The primary takeaway is that ENTPs find it challenging to express their deep emotions and require logical explanations and rational solutions to understand their thoughts and vocalize them. They also need people to show up and stick around when things are complex, and they resort to creative mediums like artistic techniques to express themselves.
