MBTI and Mental Illness
I came across a post on a blog speaking about the Bipolar Personality. The author said that the bipolar personality is often portrayed as negative but their individual positive traits to cope with their different way of thinking (believe me, it's different!) is rarely described positively. She believes most Bipolars are ISFPS and INFPS, developing creativity to deal with their strong emotions.
She might not be wrong. My first friend growing up was an INTJ. She was at an 11th grade reading level in 5th grade. She never believed I could be a writer but I gauntered my own will to read in my free time out of school. I read 300 books. I was very INFP but I couldn't express it. Didn't even know it was in me.
I always thought I was an INTJ until I was diagnosed and treated for bipolar. Then the test told me I was an INFP. Some things point me to that reasoning of being an INFP - grandiose ideas and depression as an INTJ for seeing the world as it is. I alternate between both views as a bipolar. However, the MBTI test itself is hard for me to understand. I can see myself as INTJ, sometimed as INFP. I often question it's validity as do many others for it operating on the basis of extremities.
Maybe it's cause disorders and personality types can change. As we adjust to new experiences, our brain rewires itself. Neuroplasticity. We don't stay the same forever. Maybe as we adjust to new experiences, we need doctors to adjust themselves to us. Not to continue in a treatment that is no longer effective.
Hey though, my opinions may be invalid. I am not an MD right?
However, I would like to entertain the reader to the movie "A Dangerous Game." It is the story of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud's short lived friendship. Sigmund Freud was very methodical in his treatment of mental illness and cold hearted. Carl Jung had unethical relationships with his patients. It was Jung's interest in the esoterical that made Sigmund Freud eventually cut contact with him. Jung later went on to study more of the mystical and esoteric, believing that one can teach another to tap into one's potential. He was a creator in the MBTI assesment and now individuals are able to tap into this system.
Perhaps then it is necessary to start observing the potential in illness. To reach new heights in mentality. The benefits of Autism. The benefits in Bipolar Disorder. Instead of thinking about it's negative effects, turning the patient away from recovery with their own strengths and instead to attempt living a life that is not their own - not defined and "doomed" by their illness.
Sigmund Freud thought this ideas endangering his own system and his patients. For if people fearlessly pursued their dreams, would their be a point to law? A system of government? An order of peace? Perhaps people would end up destroying the world in the process.
""Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
-Albert Einstein
I am well aware that the argument Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud had will haunt Psychology. It's a threat to it's existence even though Carl Jung's ideas were not widely adopted by everyone who came to study him hereafter. Perhaps though it gives hope to anyone who has been diagnosed and is questioning it's validity.
If you have read this far, I suppose I will tell you the truth.
You ever wondered why certain medications can treat Anxiety and Depression at the same time? This is no coincidence. There is a lot of confusion in the community. We can recognize that there is illness or distress plaguing the individual but not all of us can determine it biological. When you really study it in depth, you find that there is no scientific basis for any illness. No observed phenomena of a chemical imbalance of the brain. And if anyone told you that they could biologically test you for mental illness, you will find that it's a bogus test. There's no way to do so.
However, if you are depressed or suicidal, get a doctor. Try medication.
Perhaps the medication will effect your health later on. There is no study of this by any pharmaceutical company (*SHOCKER!*) but many patients observe complications with their health as their medication dose increases.
There is also no science to getting people off their medicine. Most MD's assume it is impossible but is it really? Perhaps with proper therapy and an appropriate time frame (3 months, not three weeks) the patient may able to get off medication. (Sometimes it takes 3 years.) However, most MD's do not recommend trying at all. They say that the patient will have to stay on medication their life when in some cases, they don't need to. They don't have to. Is psychiatry then properly rehabilitating people ar all? Or are rhey just after money? Hey, just for fun, go see what kind of car your MD drives. You know where he got that car? Your money.
Perhaps some people do have illness but still have to get off medication. This will be your choice. I stopped seeing my psychiatrist because he failed to help when I was failing at school due to being distracted by my medication when focusing on material. I chose my illness for now because I need to support myself. I am not getting married soon. No husband wants a dependant wife (though I will have to be eventually based on the nature of the illness) and my mom does not want me to live with her forever.
I chose my illness because for now, I have to take the reigns of my life. I have to readjust myself to my long manic cycles because it is what I am used to. It is how I am best able to learn and succeed, regardless of the issues between family and friends (which I am now aware of.)
The whole point I am trying to make is that you can only decide for you what is best for you. Life is a learning process and sometimes with illness, it is scary. I am not recommending getting off medication but if you are feeling brave, take the leap. It's time.
She might not be wrong. My first friend growing up was an INTJ. She was at an 11th grade reading level in 5th grade. She never believed I could be a writer but I gauntered my own will to read in my free time out of school. I read 300 books. I was very INFP but I couldn't express it. Didn't even know it was in me.
I always thought I was an INTJ until I was diagnosed and treated for bipolar. Then the test told me I was an INFP. Some things point me to that reasoning of being an INFP - grandiose ideas and depression as an INTJ for seeing the world as it is. I alternate between both views as a bipolar. However, the MBTI test itself is hard for me to understand. I can see myself as INTJ, sometimed as INFP. I often question it's validity as do many others for it operating on the basis of extremities.
Maybe it's cause disorders and personality types can change. As we adjust to new experiences, our brain rewires itself. Neuroplasticity. We don't stay the same forever. Maybe as we adjust to new experiences, we need doctors to adjust themselves to us. Not to continue in a treatment that is no longer effective.
Hey though, my opinions may be invalid. I am not an MD right?
However, I would like to entertain the reader to the movie "A Dangerous Game." It is the story of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud's short lived friendship. Sigmund Freud was very methodical in his treatment of mental illness and cold hearted. Carl Jung had unethical relationships with his patients. It was Jung's interest in the esoterical that made Sigmund Freud eventually cut contact with him. Jung later went on to study more of the mystical and esoteric, believing that one can teach another to tap into one's potential. He was a creator in the MBTI assesment and now individuals are able to tap into this system.
Perhaps then it is necessary to start observing the potential in illness. To reach new heights in mentality. The benefits of Autism. The benefits in Bipolar Disorder. Instead of thinking about it's negative effects, turning the patient away from recovery with their own strengths and instead to attempt living a life that is not their own - not defined and "doomed" by their illness.
Sigmund Freud thought this ideas endangering his own system and his patients. For if people fearlessly pursued their dreams, would their be a point to law? A system of government? An order of peace? Perhaps people would end up destroying the world in the process.
""Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
-Albert Einstein
I am well aware that the argument Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud had will haunt Psychology. It's a threat to it's existence even though Carl Jung's ideas were not widely adopted by everyone who came to study him hereafter. Perhaps though it gives hope to anyone who has been diagnosed and is questioning it's validity.
If you have read this far, I suppose I will tell you the truth.
You ever wondered why certain medications can treat Anxiety and Depression at the same time? This is no coincidence. There is a lot of confusion in the community. We can recognize that there is illness or distress plaguing the individual but not all of us can determine it biological. When you really study it in depth, you find that there is no scientific basis for any illness. No observed phenomena of a chemical imbalance of the brain. And if anyone told you that they could biologically test you for mental illness, you will find that it's a bogus test. There's no way to do so.
However, if you are depressed or suicidal, get a doctor. Try medication.
Perhaps the medication will effect your health later on. There is no study of this by any pharmaceutical company (*SHOCKER!*) but many patients observe complications with their health as their medication dose increases.
There is also no science to getting people off their medicine. Most MD's assume it is impossible but is it really? Perhaps with proper therapy and an appropriate time frame (3 months, not three weeks) the patient may able to get off medication. (Sometimes it takes 3 years.) However, most MD's do not recommend trying at all. They say that the patient will have to stay on medication their life when in some cases, they don't need to. They don't have to. Is psychiatry then properly rehabilitating people ar all? Or are rhey just after money? Hey, just for fun, go see what kind of car your MD drives. You know where he got that car? Your money.
Perhaps some people do have illness but still have to get off medication. This will be your choice. I stopped seeing my psychiatrist because he failed to help when I was failing at school due to being distracted by my medication when focusing on material. I chose my illness for now because I need to support myself. I am not getting married soon. No husband wants a dependant wife (though I will have to be eventually based on the nature of the illness) and my mom does not want me to live with her forever.
I chose my illness because for now, I have to take the reigns of my life. I have to readjust myself to my long manic cycles because it is what I am used to. It is how I am best able to learn and succeed, regardless of the issues between family and friends (which I am now aware of.)
The whole point I am trying to make is that you can only decide for you what is best for you. Life is a learning process and sometimes with illness, it is scary. I am not recommending getting off medication but if you are feeling brave, take the leap. It's time.
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