Okay, I am new but I am wondering if any of you ENFP's have been diagnosed with a mood disorder. I am not intending to insulting anyone; I, myself, have been diagnosed as Bipolar I. My diagnosis occurred recently. I find my personality type explains a lot of my mood variations. What about you?

Posted By Weirdo87 on 14 Mar 2010 03:41 AM
Are most ENFPs this screwed up? (no offence)

@:Weirdo87, what you said is really offensive and I think you should apologize. This thread is serious. Suggesting that having been diagnosed with a mental disorders is equivalent of being 'screwed up' is both offensive and  unintelligent. It shows that you have no idea what you are talking about. Views like yours are stigmatizing and counter productive for this thread and for mental health problems in general. A few people of this community were brave enough to open up about their mental health issues, asking if anyone else have problems too, and you offend them, showing very little insight by saying that they are screwed up. 

@Danstar: I'm sorry to hear that you were diagnosed with Bipolar type 1, and hope you are able to keep it in check with medication and therapy.  

Posted By Psyko on 14 Mar 2010 04:33 AM

Posted By Weirdo87 on 14 Mar 2010 03:41 AM
Are most ENFPs this screwed up? (no offence)

@:Weirdo87, what you said is really offensive and I think you should apologize. This thread is serious. Suggesting that having been diagnosed with a mental disorders is equivalent of being 'screwed up' is both offensive and  unintelligent. It shows that you have no idea what you are talking about. Views like yours are stigmatizing and counter productive for this thread and for mental health problems in general. A few people of this community were brave enough to open up about their mental health issues, asking if anyone else have problems too, and you offend them, showing very little insight by saying that they are screwed up. 

Hence why I said, "no offence." I still prefer the succinct way of phrasing my comment, but since you so obviously failed to understand what I said, allow me to translate it into a sprawling beige blob for you:

I notice that all four ENFPs who have posted on this thread have either been diagnosed with a mental disorder (I profusely apologize if there is a more politically correct term that I am neglecting to use) or have reason to believe that they have a mental disorder. This could be taken as anecdotal evidence suggesting that ENFPs, as a group, are more prone to have mental disorders than the general population. Does anyone know of any research investigating what kind of link there may or may not be between one's personality type and one's likelihood of having a mental disorder?

@Weirdo: I did understand what you said, I just don't think it is acceptable to say something really offensive even if you try to mitigate by saying 'no offence'. You didn't explain the logic of your thought or phrase it in a way that your question could be taken seriously. You made a statement about them being screwed up and asked if that is true for all NFs.

Deducing that there's ENFP overrepresentation in the prevalence of having mental disorders after learning that four members of this forum has had some experience with mental health problems, is plain stupid. I repeat, you have four - 4!!! - individuals here reporting having been diagnosed with or experienced others wanting to have their mental health status checked, before you present it as evidence (or launch a theory that this can be used as evidence,) that ENFPs are more prone to suffer from mental health disorders than the general population....    Statistics 101 anyone?

Myers-Briggs isn't widely accepted as a measurement of personality in the community of psychologists or psychiatrists. I doubt there's been a study that has tried to confirm or deny your hypothesis, since your question is very broad and generally not interesting.

Hey danstar - thanks for sharing, it was really brave of you!

I was never officially diagnosed with bipolar, although I self-diagnosed myself at one point in my life. All the symptoms seemed there - it was horrible. I was officially diagnosed with depression at that time, though, but I chose not to take any meds (personal beliefs).

It took some time and a really good, solid group of people around me, but with the proper support/encouragement, my life has done a 180. Even when I have a bad day, I can separate it from identifying me as a person and therefore don’t let it get me down. So I hope you continue to come and post, everyone seems to support one another so well here!

----------------------------------

About the personality type explaining mood variations - remember, it’s just a preference, not an absolute! I might’ve agreed with that idea a few years ago, but not so much today. I think F’s tend to blame themselves for everything, so it was nice to think something else was the cause of my heartache/issues but once I figured out the root cause, it was that much easier to work through it/move on. Trick was not to F my way through everything, because since I wasn't in the right state, I was wrong 9/10 times (previously in my mind, “I feel so strongly about this” = "This is what I value" or “I am right”. WRONG!)

And I second that article Alysaria put up. I was going to say something, but she did it ever so much more succinctly.

Hey Weirdo87 - no personal offense taken, but one word - filter  

*passes around some fresh homemade cookies...anyone? 

Cookies! And homemade too!

*munch, munch*
Oh, where were my manners! Bon appetit!

Fs blaming everything on them. Hm. I think, more specifically, this is a Fi (xxFP) thing, turning it inwardly. So ENFP, INFP, ESFP, ISFP...
I don't think it is that hard for the ESFPs, though, when you live in the moment you have no time to blame yourself. Ne-ing is different, seeking out the possibilties. Negative thinking can occour, and negative thoughts then feed other negative thoughts... couple that with not wanting to blame it on someone else and also believing that something or someone must always be the cause of thinghs, and you can end up blaming yourself quickly... INFPs must have it hard.

Another thing is that i googled harry potter characters mbti.... harry is typed ISFP (Fi,Se) - one could see your point clearly, as he is often blaming himself for getting others into danger. Remus Lupin came out as INFP (Fi,Ne), and he blames himself for putting others into danger because of his condition, especially Tonks and his unborn child. (Remus is a werewolf, and thinks that by having a child he carry on this condition onto the child)
So, in short, harry is blaming himself because he puts others into danger in the present moment, while remus is blaming himself that he could endanger the life of his son by maybe carrying on his condition to his son - a Se vs. Ne thing.
Btw, In the end, it worked out alright, since teddy lupin isn't a werewolf like his father.

Posted By TheJan on 16 Mar 2010 05:17 AM
By the way, your signature is strange. If a squirrel is there, it will hear the tree falling. If noone was there to hear it, then the squirrel could not have been killed, since the squirrel could not have been there in the first place.

It's a play on the philosophical question, "If a tree falls in the woods, but no one's around to hear it, does it still make a sound?" It's supposed to show the absurdity of saying that the fall yields no effect just because no one's around to take note of it. Not that funny, but whatever.

Posted By Psyko on 17 Mar 2010 11:55 AM

@Weirdo: I did understand what you said, I just don't think it is acceptable to say something really offensive even if you try to mitigate by saying 'no offence'.

How would you prefer me to say offensive things?

Posted By Psyko on 17 Mar 2010 11:55 AM

You made a statement about them being screwed up and asked if that is true for all NFs.
 

I made no statement: it was a question. And I did not say all NFs: I said most ENFPs. It should have been clear to you that I was wondering about a possible trend among ENFPs, not equating the personality type with mental disfunction.

Posted By Psyko on 17 Mar 2010 11:55 AM

Deducing that there's ENFP overrepresentation in the prevalence of having mental disorders after learning that four members of this forum has had some experience with mental health problems, is plain stupid. I repeat, you have four - 4!!! - individuals here reporting having been diagnosed with or experienced others wanting to have their mental health status checked, before you present it as evidence (or launch a theory that this can be used as evidence,) that ENFPs are more prone to suffer from mental health disorders than the general population....    Statistics 101 anyone?

Four may have struck you as a small number, but, for a forum of this size, it seemed rather large to me. And, if you were paying attention, I made certain to refer to this as mere anecdotal evidence. I don't actually believe that having a certain MBTI personality could be an indicator of an increased risk for mental disorders--I just thought it might be an interesting conversation topic (which, clearly, it is).

Posted By ashla on 17 Mar 2010 02:04 PM

Hey Weirdo87 - no personal offense taken, but one word - filter  

Filter? What's the fun in filtering what I say?

Posted By Weirdo87 on 18 Mar 2010 01:30 AM

Filter? What's the fun in filtering what I say?

Can't tell if you're being facetious now or if this is somehow part of a twisted experiment, but at any rate, my response would be that, as mentioned previously, this is a more serious thread, and your fun came at the expense of others. We're willing to play, but please direct it to the appropriate threads

I have an INTP friend who is the same way (though he is many years older than you), so I understand what you meant and just took it at face value. But out of respect for all the different types out there, practicing an extra layer of sensitivity is always welcome.

Posted By ashla on 18 Mar 2010 01:47 AM

Posted By Weirdo87 on 18 Mar 2010 01:30 AM

Filter? What's the fun in filtering what I say?

Can't tell if you're being facetious now or if this is somehow part of a twisted experiment, but at any rate, my response would be that, as mentioned previously, this is a more serious thread, and your fun came at the expense of others. We're willing to play, but please direct it to the appropriate threads

I have an INTP friend who is the same way (though he is many years older than you), so I understand what you meant and just took it at face value. But out of respect for all the different types out there, practicing an extra layer of sensitivity is always welcome.

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