While anyone can experience anxiety, MBTI types often cited as more prone include INFJ, INFP, and INTJ (Intuitive Feelers/Thinkers) due to their tendency to overthink, feel deeply, hold high standards, and get overwhelmed by emotions or lack of purpose, with NF types (Idealists) particularly sensitive to relational distress and feeling misunderstood. Type A personalities, common in some MBTIs, also link to higher stress and anxiety.
INFPs, INFJs, and INTJs tend to experience higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms, especially in environments that lack emotional safety or purpose. These types often overthink, hold themselves to unrealistic standards, or isolate when overwhelmed.
Overthinking is a big problem for both INFJ personality types and INFP personality types. As a writing coach who specializes in working with both types, I've seen that overthinking is tied to INFJs and INFPs struggling overall with creativity, feeling connected to their intuition, and life in general.
Anyone can have an anxiety disorder, but people who have lived through abuse, severe losses or other adverse experiences are more likely to develop one. Anxiety disorders are closely related to and affected by physical health.
Type A behavior (hard-driving, competitive, time-urgent, hostile-irritable) has been linked to high stress levels and the risk of eventual cardiovascular problems (i.e., coronary heart disease, CHD).
Which MBTI Types struggle most under pressure?
INFPs are introverts, which means they feel most comfortable in quiet and peaceful settings. They enjoy spending time alone, thinking, daydreaming, or working on creative projects.
Anxiety—Neuroticism. Neuroticism is significantly correlated with anxiety disorders [23]. Some findings have suggested that people with high neuroticism scores may be more likely to feel anxious than those with low scores [43]. It has also been proposed that all anxiety disorders are related to neuroticism [102,103].
Oprah Winfrey
Despite her worldwide fame, Oprah suffers from an anxiety disorder to this day. Oprah's adult anxiety disorder's root cause is trauma during childhood, which then manifested when she did not want to speak with some people or felt awkward with others.
Taylor Swift may be one of the biggest pop stars on the globe, but she's also been strikingly honest about her mental health struggles. From eating disorders to the pressures of fame, from alcohol use to anxiety, Swift has given fans entrance ticket into her inner world.
ISFP. Easygoing, creative, spontaneous, and modest, ISFPs may be more likely than others to self-medicate with substances. One study compared personality traits among people struggling with addiction. The researchers found ISFP to be one of the most common MBTI types among those who also struggled with a mood disorder.
People with the INTJ personality type (Architects) are intellectually curious individuals with a deep-seated thirst for knowledge. INTJs tend to value creative ingenuity, straightforward rationality, and self-improvement.
The Joker being an ENTP personality type, he possesses certain personality traits that align with this classification. One of the key traits for ENTPs is their dominant Extraverted Intuiting (Ne), which is one of the eight cognitive functions that individuals use to take in information.
ESFJ: You Take Everything Personally
ESFJs tend to overestimate their importance in the lives of others. This can make them see even small signs of annoyance as personal attacks, and that is an exhausting way to live.
INFJ is regarded as the most sensitive personality type. Some estimates suggest that 80 to 90% of people who test as INFJs also test as highly sensitive people, because the traits of the two overlap so much.
ISTJ. ISTJ's are quiet and serious, generally interested in a peaceful and secure way of life. They are known for their responsible, dependable, and thorough natures. They are logical, practical, and work steadily towards goals without much distractibility.
More women report experiencing high levels of anxiety than men: In 2022/23, an average of 37.1% of women and 29.9% of men reported high levels of anxiety.
Zendaya has openly addressed her struggles with anxiety and the “dark cloud” of sadness, sharing her experiences to destigmatize discussions on mental health. Your browser can't play this video. An error occurred. Try watching this video on www.youtube.com, or enable JavaScript if it is disabled in your browser.
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in diagnosing and treating mental health conditions. A psychologist and certain other mental health professionals can diagnose anxiety and provide counseling (psychotherapy).
A big event or a buildup of smaller stressful life situations may trigger excessive anxiety — for example, a death in the family, work stress or ongoing worry about finances. Personality. People with certain personality types are more prone to anxiety disorders than others are. Other mental health disorders.
When asked about the emotions they experienced most regularly, here's the percentages of each type who chose “Anxiety” from the list of options.
INFP. These are caring, quiet children who can get lost because they do not advocate for their needs but do advocate for the needs of others. They can feel the pain of others intensely. They enjoy the fantasy world and creating things in a slightly unique way.
Reluctant to Open Up – INFJ personalities value honesty and authenticity, but they're also private. They may find it difficult to open up and be vulnerable about their struggles, not wanting to burden someone else with their issues.
As shown in table 2, the most frequently occurring type for this sample is ENFP (15.2%), followed by INFP (10.5%). The least common types are ESTP (1.2%), ISFP (2.0%), and ESFJ (2.0%).