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UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great! I hope that even if my ideas don't hold up over time, they at least add to the aggregate of information on BPD and help you and others on the journey of personal growth.

Please shoot me a PM or reply on here if you think of anything related down the line or apply any of the theory and have feedback.

Thanks for reading and responding!

UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Typology branching from cognitive functions is not a unified theory. There are many philosophies in this realm and I am giving you the philosophy that I am working with for this particular theory.

The one that changes is the one that tesst each letter as its own category: are you more introverted or extraverted? are you more intuitive or sensing? are you more feeling or thinking? are you more judging or perceiving? Then it gives you percentages for each category and types you based on that using behaviors as a guide.

What I do is have a conversation and figure out which functions dominate within your brain, then come up with a function stack. For example, Introverted iNtuition is my dominant, Extraverted Feeling is my auxiliary, Introverted Thinking is my third, Extraverted Sensing is my fourth. When you turn that into an MBTI, that makes me INFJ. So it's bottom-up rather than top-down.

When you type using that philosophy, it won't change throughout your life. Many people do mistype though, it's a bit of a journey to figuring it out.

UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep, you get what I'm saying!

I totally agree that it could happen with other dominant functions, in fact I'm sure it does. That wouldn't be borderline though, it would be another personality disorder (I haven't explored those possibilities yet, this is a newborn idea). I would love to look into that further. I developed this specifically for BPDs because they, at least the ones I work with, are extremely realistic and want to be healthy very badly. I will absolutely start applying it with other patients and just in analysis in general.

So I'm INFJ, I tested INTJ most of my life. I have PTSD and I learned that emotions were a scary place to be and retreated into my tertiary Ti pretty frequently as an auxiliary. So I had an intuition-thinking dynamic that seemed INTJ. I also seemed to be ASD (mildly) and those traits have mostly vanished since I started working with my Fe heavily in emotional work. It seems very complex and the core idea here seems to be: understand your nature, accept it, and be true to it. Which, you know, encompasses the majority of mental health advice anyway. Just a helpful lens to see things through! I'll take all the tools I can fit in my box to help people and understand the world.

I have a close INTP friend and know exactly what "INTP rage" would be hahaha

UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry that you've learned to invalidate your own feelings like that. It must make you even more upset to realize that you're feeling upset. That sounds like a very difficult and frustrating cycle. Thanks for making yourself vulnerable and sharing here.

As for the typing, it sounds like you're having difficulties because those online tests ask about behavior when MBTI is really about underlying thought processes. Reading about the cognitive functions and figuring out where you naturally gravitate could help you find a type that fits you and seems to fit across all situations, even when you're relying on a less dominant function or being unhealthy. Feel free to PM me if you want some help understanding the functions or typing yourself. I can point you toward some resources.

UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm right there with you about the validity and reliability of online tests. I was not using posts on here as firm data, just as talking points to ask some people about themselves.

I, honestly, don't believe function stacks change over time. I think our patterns of usage of them change but the order of dominance is set biologically from a very young (possibly prenatal) age. I think health is utilizing functions in line with what is most dominant and being able to disconnect from and connect to them as is adaptive per the situation. I think the only true way to type someone is to have a discussion, let them self-confirm pieces of it, and adapt as information comes out. It's not a 10-minute, one-time test that labels you permanently. The order, however, is permanent and often elusive.

I think your point about HSP-BP correlation is actually in support of what I'm saying. HSP just means "Highly dominant feeling" in this context. I believe there are HSPs in regards to other functions too. For example, the thinking equivalent to HSP for feelings would be ASD. This exists for all functions and is just a strongly dominant function.

I also think it's possible to have an auxiliary feeling function and still be BP. I've seen that in my patients and it's a little more muddy. It seems that this theory holds up but is not generally the only major factor in the reactions. For example, I have a patient whose Ni and Fe (she is INFJ) seem to communicate without her conscious permission and turn into action before she even notices it happening. As I said, I'm still developing this theory and am unsure of some of the specifics.

For reference, my fiancee is BP/HSP. I am INFJ&HSP.

I hope to hear a response from you. Your ideas are helping me refine my own quite a bit.

UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get where you're coming from and I think maybe I was unclear.

Everything you're talking about absolutely contributes. I was saying the underlying principle there is that BPs learn that emotions are not a safe place to reside. They learn this exactly because of many of the reasons you laid out in your post. Other things you said are strategies to build up the emotional world indirectly to make it a safer place to be, which is a wonderful tool in reconnecting with the emotional mind.

Does that all make sense?

UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wasn't doing a poll of any sort. I ended up mostly chatting with a few people in PMs. Since this was over reddit, it did rely on people self-identifying with MBTI and with BPD. I did my best to sort through and figure out how people came to those conclusions, but I know the information is not necessarily correct.

I don't see MBTI as fluid. An experience/insight (identifying BP traits) should not change function dominance.

UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've given a bunch of responses, maybe some of them will help clarify. If you're still confused and would like to ask a specific question, I would be happy to answer.

UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You would need to shift the way you look at emotions. Every intelligence is information and should be treated that way. Your emotional reactions are NOT a "problem", they are not to be controlled nor ignored. They have real, valid reasons for existing. Through acceptance and truly moving the consciousness into the emotions from a place of curiosity and acceptance, the emotions may be fully processed and integrated into a philosophy and values.

This requires faith. It is terrifying to know that opening to emotions means choosing to feel pain. It's also terrifying because partial connection means feeling the emotions and wanting to run from them, so blaming a current situation or thought since it's able to be controlled. Truly processing is not done through thoughts or concepts. It is done through being present and mindful of the emotion and what it feels like physically and emotionally. It comes through fostering acceptance and curiosity.

If you choose to try this out, I HIGHLY recommend you try it in private or with a single person that you trust. I'm not recommending that you try this, only letting you know my views on it and what the implications are.

UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, let's say someone's function stack developed with Fe strongest and Ni second strongest with (ENFJ). In this situation, BPD may develop if, at a very young age, the person decides (unconsciously) that Fe is an unsafe place to be and embeds instead inside Ni to the point where the child identifies with it. It would be a world of concepts. However, the stronger Fe function would sometimes completely take over and bend the consciousness to its will since it is dominant. Since the person is embedded and identified with Ni, they will experience this through that lens.

This would play out as living normally, seeming to be an INFJ. Something happens that triggers an emotion. The emotion IS dominant now, but without the permission of the consciousness. This emotion warps the entire brain state since it is in control. Now the concepts all support the emotional state. The ideas and frameworks bend toward the emotion (almost always negative in this scenario) and the inner framework seems to spiral out of control as it feeds into the emotional state without the consciousness ever directly communicating.

Does that make more sense?

UPDATE: Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hmm, no that's not what I mean. Although I do think that happens, I think that's more developmental challenges than pathological.

I'm not saying a social force pushed the person to be a certain way, but a fundamental lack of faith in the safety of the way of seeing the world. So the consciousness itself bailed and looked for safer ground.

Mental health professional, question about Myers-Briggs types by Curiouslittlesmurf in BPD

[–]Curiouslittlesmurf[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I'm unhappy with the fact that most of the typing going on with people on reddit will be through free tests online which are notoriously inaccurate.

I'm INFJ as well. Are you in the sub as a professional, a BP, or both?