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r/INTP•
CleanCleanClean

INTP Psychological Disorders?

As an INTP, have you been diagnosed with any psychological disorders? If you decide to share, please note if it is a self-diagnosis or if you were diagnosed by a professional.

I have ADD, and it has come to define many parts of my life. It is a constant struggle and plays a central role in many of my decisions and behaviors. My doctor diagnosed the disorder early in high school.

I was diagnosed with clinical depression in college. Also I am beginning to wonder if I have mild OCD (self-diagnosis ... I'm going to speak with a professional soon).

Posted Jan 4, 2010, 8:48 PM UTC

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cyberwiz01•

I would almost say that ADD is a defining attribute of most INTPs. I've been diagnosed with it. Didn't care and just went on with my life. It hasn't really affected me negatively. I just realize my nature and try to work around it.

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CleanCleanCleanOP•

I wish I could say the same, but I am glad to see that you have been able to avoid the pitfalls that can come with ADD.

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CobaltBlue•

No ADD: I would say the opposite in fact - concentrating on one thing to the exclusion of all else. No OCD either. My dysthymia and depression are, however, becoming more problematic.

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daschne8•

that is a symptom of add its called hyperfocus.

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CobaltBlue•

hmmm... I don't think so. That may also be a common thing with ADHD, but ADHD is primarily characterized by hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and inattentiveness, all of which are pretty much opposite of me. It says it's also a symptom of autism-spectrum disorders, and Asperger's seems more like me than ADHD.

I find it very strange though that a condition marked mainly by inattentiveness would result in the ability to "hyperfocus" on one thing.

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CleanCleanCleanOP•

You may want to look into it. ADD has symptoms that are counter-intuitive to its namesake. My most prominent symptom is hyperfocusing. Difficultly paying attention in class or while performing a monotonous activity are just the icing on the cake; in fact, they are the easiest part of ADD to deal with, for me.

I highly recommend the book "ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life." It's more than just a book about organization, it has good information to help you understand ADD and how to deal with it.

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daschne8•

Hyperfocus is not recognised by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) and no article using the term appears in PubMed. Psychiatry describes only the distraction aspect of hyperfocus, referring to ADHD as 'inattentiveness and impulsiveness'.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperfocus

ADD is also a broad generalization of conditions and can be caused by a variety of defects in the brain. Or alot of people are simply hyper and get mis diagnosed.

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sje46•

Eh. I don't even concentrate a lot either. Maybe I'm not really INTP, but I've taken a few of these tests, and they all say INTP.

I have dysthymia, though.

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DpThought0•

Almost all of the INTPs that I know (including myself) have self-diagnosed some OCD issues, but I don't know anyone who has actually gone and get checked out, at least yet. The OCD issues I would say I experience are very mild and actually kind of fun to deal with. Like a brain puzzle or something.

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CleanCleanCleanOP•

How do you mean? How does it manifest itself in your daily life? I mentioned OCD because I am such a perfectionist, and also because I sometimes have difficulty ignoring a task that distracts me (just goes to show how related it is to ADD) even if there is something more important to be done.

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DpThought0•

I have a whole slew of food issues, regarding the order in which I eat my food and generally being around people who eat. That's primarily my day-to-day stuff. It doesn't seem to negatively affect relationships or anything, as many people don't even notice, even though I think about it the entire time I eat. Doesn't really affect work, except that I never take lunch breaks around people and some find that a bit odd.

If I run into a problem that I can't immediately solve I kind of go into obsessive perfectionist mode, where every thought is about solving the problem. Sometimes I will actually need to recite and repeat things in my head to kind of give my subconscious a chance to work.

Recent example - I'm the entire IT dept. where I work and we had lightning strike a tree about 40 feet from the main building with all of the servers and most of the networking equipment. The tree was directly over the conduit that carries copper phone wire between buildings, so the whole phone system cooked and pretty much everything that was near that circuit cooked along with it.

I found out about this at 10 AM on a Saturday and by Tuesday of that week I had been pretty much unable to think of anything else. I mean, I ate, but I didn't sleep all that much as I would mentally be going over the network diagrams over and over and over, which didn't serve much of a purpose as I knew what needed to be replaced by the end of the first day.

In order to think of anything else, I had to continually mentally recite some stuff I have memorized just in case. I would set a goal of X repetitions, or sometimes X amount of time and do it for that long. If I could do it uninterrupted, I was done and could kind of have a break, so to speak. If anything interrupted me or if I was unable to repeat them in order or if I messed up whatever I was reciting, I would have to start over again.

I've done this a lot over the years, and luckily I have a short list of things that I recite and know them really well, so it's not difficult to do. I find that just being able to focus on the repetition takes all the pressure of everything else away - the only pressure is to complete a mental ritual that is actually not all that hard to do, and once I'm done my head is much more clear and I find it way easier to focus. Of course, that doesn't necessarily last all that long and I might need to recite stuff again later that day, but it certainly helps in the meantime.

97% of the problems I deal with on a day-to-day basis would not need to have any kind of repetition or reciting or anything. It's fairly uncommon for me to have to do that, but when it happens it's not the kind of thing that other folks even notice.

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theinternet•

Are we all just going to drug ourselves so we can fit the mold that society has determined to be correct?

I understand and agree with taking drugs if one finds they benefit in doing so. And I think it's great that we even have that choice.

But just because I'm not a social butterfly (I can fake it quite well though I don't have the social stamina my wife does) and have what some here are calling 'hyper focus' doesn't mean that I find my quality of life lacking in anyway, I like who I am.

There's no real point to this post, I just thought I would just throw the question out there.

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CleanCleanCleanOP•

I do. Unfortunately the problems I had with ADD lead to severe depression. I was having difficulty functioning as a human being. For me, medication is a necessary part of my daily life. I do, however, understand where you're coming from.

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brandnewset•

Self medicating with mary jane for lots of years now here.

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[deleted]•

It's my non-professional opinion that a) a lot of the disorders people are tying to being an INTP are suited much more generally to certain types of people besides INTP's and b) that the mainstream tries way too hard to diagnose anyone who is different with some kind of "disorder".

That being said, I suffer mild to severe depression quite frequently, with manic periods being intermittent. According to some independent reading, a lot of my severe paranoia, hypersensitivity to competition and perceived "rivalry" and extreme detachment from reality are all indicative of early schizophrenia.

But, in the end, I can pull disorders out of my ass all day, and probably end up being diagnosed with them (after all, it's fairly common for people to insist they have a disorder and change their story accordingly to get diagnosed with that disorder). What actually matters, though, is what I make of life, and I've only been tempted to talk to anyone about it when I thought I was a risk to myself or others. Although, in this case, I really appreciate you asking, because being able to release my feeling around someone, even if it's the angry hivemind of Reddit, makes me feel better. (:

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CleanCleanCleanOP•

I agree with a lot of what you said. Left-handedness, for example, used to be viewed as a "disorder." The more I learn to live with my ADD and find strategies for dealing with it, the less I think of it as a disorder and more as just a different way of doing things.

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[deleted]•

Yep, exactly.

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rhfsINTP•

I have ADD and it played a huge role in my life up until a few months ago when I finally got some proper medication. I wonder if it's really that common in INTPs or what.

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CleanCleanCleanOP•

I have tried a few medications but they either did not help or had side-effects that made the benefits not worth it. What did you end up settling on?

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rhfsINTP•

Strattera. I wasn't able to take any of the stereotypical stuff like Adderal due to extended medical reasons.

But anyway it's had amazing effects for me personally, I hope you're able to find something similar.

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RicardoReis•

Oof. It really didn't help in my case.

The only thing that did was amphetamines. I decided to go back to not taking meds and dealing with ADD (inattentive kind, not hyper kind) with exercise. That works pretty well and keeps my weight down too.

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daschne8•

ADD(the real kind) possibly bipoler, depression.

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gronky•

I'm pretty ADD, and have Tourette's syndrome. In addition to motor and vocal tics which I can usually supress, I have mental tics which can be difficult to stop if I don't have something to focus on.

The other diagnosis I received more recently is that I have a temporal lobe deficiency, meaning I have difficulty with time and space. In other words I'm just not very coordinated. One of the symptoms described, that stood out to me, is that I hold a pencil with three fingers. Apparently most people hold a pencil with two fingers?

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CleanCleanCleanOP•

I dunno ... I use 3. Who uses 2?

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dakk12•

ADD and Dyslexia. The ADD is a constant presence, the dyslexia is mild.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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EvilPettingZoo42•

Nothing diagnosed, nothing suspected. I get down from time to time, but I doubt it's clinical depression.

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[deleted]•

I have actual OCD as opposed to just perfectionism, along with a lot of anxiety.

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brunoclement•

Clinical depression as well.

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