As an INTP I feel misunderstood by people in general and as an INTP female I feel particularly misunderstood by psychologists.
As a child my weirdness, curiosity, independence, and competitiveness were celebrated but once I started coming into my own as a person my dissatisfaction with the answers people had to offer regarding my questions about morality, mortality, and experience led to a phase of some trauma and questionable decision making because I felt I needed to test the limits for myself to get the (existential?) answers I needed about myself and about life in general.
In being fueled by curiosity I picked up some coping mechanisms (mind loops, substance use, questionable communication and relationship patterns) that probably are not the most healthy and also a few that have really helped (breathwork, nutrition, chiropractic, actively cultivating empathy).
I am 26 now and just finally finished my degree after a few years of health problems, a broken engagement, and world travel. While I finally have a handle on the health side of things I feel like my distrust of psychologists due to previous bad experiences is holding me back from getting some valuable help. I would be very open to therapy and readily pay out of pocket if I could find a compatible therapist who has a high degree of patience with my trust and communication issues.
It seems that attractive, opinionated women with a history of drug use and relationship problems get thrown into this Borderline Personality Disorder box these days (which -- imo -- is just a re-branding of the outdated and questionable "female hysteria"). I don't have a problem with being labeled as a Borderline if I fit the criteria but I really feel that there are some other underlying things going on that fuel this instability that have less to do with out of control emotions or past trauma and more to do with the fact that I have serious sensory processing problems, issues making decisions and concentrating on things I don't care about, and low confidence because I know I am not stupid but I continually fail at the 3D part of life. [I recently wrote an article on this here: http://www.xojane.com/issues/fighting-about-the-jodi-arias-trial-with-my-mom-led-me-to-seek-an-official-aspergers-diagnosis
My youngest sister was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism and Auditory Processing Disorder and I suspect my (dyslexic, 16-hour-workday-for-fun engineer) dad may have Asperger's although there's no way he would ever be open to the idea. I showed classic signs of Asperger's from a young age (can't make eye contact, picking at my hands, obsessive counting and organizing, little empathy or interest in other children) but because I did so well academically nobody thought anything was wrong.
Bottom line: do any of you guys share this feeling of being misunderstood by therapists and how have you navigated your search if eventually you found someone you clicked with who has been beneficial to you?
As a child my weirdness, curiosity, independence, and competitiveness were celebrated but once I started coming into my own as a person my dissatisfaction with the answers people had to offer regarding my questions about morality, mortality, and experience led to a phase of some trauma and questionable decision making because I felt I needed to test the limits for myself to get the (existential?) answers I needed about myself and about life in general.
In being fueled by curiosity I picked up some coping mechanisms (mind loops, substance use, questionable communication and relationship patterns) that probably are not the most healthy and also a few that have really helped (breathwork, nutrition, chiropractic, actively cultivating empathy).
I am 26 now and just finally finished my degree after a few years of health problems, a broken engagement, and world travel. While I finally have a handle on the health side of things I feel like my distrust of psychologists due to previous bad experiences is holding me back from getting some valuable help. I would be very open to therapy and readily pay out of pocket if I could find a compatible therapist who has a high degree of patience with my trust and communication issues.
It seems that attractive, opinionated women with a history of drug use and relationship problems get thrown into this Borderline Personality Disorder box these days (which -- imo -- is just a re-branding of the outdated and questionable "female hysteria"). I don't have a problem with being labeled as a Borderline if I fit the criteria but I really feel that there are some other underlying things going on that fuel this instability that have less to do with out of control emotions or past trauma and more to do with the fact that I have serious sensory processing problems, issues making decisions and concentrating on things I don't care about, and low confidence because I know I am not stupid but I continually fail at the 3D part of life. [I recently wrote an article on this here: http://www.xojane.com/issues/fighting-about-the-jodi-arias-trial-with-my-mom-led-me-to-seek-an-official-aspergers-diagnosis
My youngest sister was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism and Auditory Processing Disorder and I suspect my (dyslexic, 16-hour-workday-for-fun engineer) dad may have Asperger's although there's no way he would ever be open to the idea. I showed classic signs of Asperger's from a young age (can't make eye contact, picking at my hands, obsessive counting and organizing, little empathy or interest in other children) but because I did so well academically nobody thought anything was wrong.
Bottom line: do any of you guys share this feeling of being misunderstood by therapists and how have you navigated your search if eventually you found someone you clicked with who has been beneficial to you?