Specific answers for general questions?

[Hadoblado]

This is another "I am INTP I do X, you are INTP do you do X?" thread.

I have depression and I just went to the doctors for a check up, she kept asking the most open-ended questions without an iota of context. Questions like:

- Do you think quickly?
My cognition is fine but my process is ponderous. What are you inferring from my answer? do you think I may be retarded? Are you looking for evidence of self-esteem?
- Do you think in an unusual way?
She seemed frustrated when I tried to answer her question accurately. When prodded she explained that she was really looking for whether I was having thought of violence towards others. W^T^F?

So on the way home I was thinking about why I was so bothered by her broad stroke technique, and other example of this. I also hate psychometric tests that measure correlates, as I can see myself being miscategorised as I take it. By answering honestly, I have been diagnosed with dyslexia despite being the fastest verbal reader in my psych class at uni, and displaying absolutely zero of the actual symptoms of dyslexia. The test asked for correlated information, like the speed and neatness of my handwriting, instead of asking whether I can read/write/do math/whatever.

It sort of feels like I am an outlier, and therefore constantly miscategorised in other people's world view. I don't like putting across a false impression, and when someone is so liberal with their inference that they make massive mistakes in their perception of me, it is frustrating.

You?

 

[intpz]

I do know what you mean, and if you've read some of my posts, I'm in that situation very often due to my family, as well as other people I meet. Consider the fact that the majority of population respect and enforce rules, while we are the complete opposite - we break the rules and despise them. Therefore, if you don't act like the majority, you are different, and if you are different, you are a mental. I believe that each INTP and ENTP could be "diagnosed" with more than one mental illness, probably at least 2 or even 3 mental illnesses. It is somewhat similar to the witch hunters during the middle ages - you don't obey the authority (church) and don't act like the majority (...learn?), you're fucked.

Not showing your differences is the best way of fighting "the system." However, we (or at least I) do want to show them and express ourselves. I believe I am depressed as well, but I never went to a psychologist and I don't want to. Perhaps, if I lived in an English-speaking country, I would wanna go just to speak, but that would be the case if I wouldn't have anybody to talk about anything and my life would suck due to financial problems (right now both cases are true, thus the depression). I don't seek to rewire my mindset to things like "respect others for no apparent reason" or "be grateful for what you have." I like reality and logic, therefore I use logic to perceive the reality according to what is happening on Earth, not what is supposed to be happening according to an idealistic dream or what i want to be happening, or what someone else wants to be happening.

By the way, I was "diagnosed" with dyslexia by the teachers (lol?) as well, even though I could read better and faster in 1st grade, than some people in 12th grade could. On the other hand, we didn't read in the first grade, we had to repeatedly write columns and lines of letters, which I always found to be useless and pointless. I guess that would be 2nd grade... Or no... I think we were writing WORDS in the 2nd grade. 3rd grade? Who knows.

 

[Hadoblado]

Now that I think of it, it's sort of ironic that I got misdiagnosed, as my sister actually has a form of dyslexia (it's optical I think, she can't not see magic eyes), but was not diagnosed until after completing school. I'm not sure how innately intelligent she is, but I believe it's possible that her being unable to read gave her a self-perception of being unintelligent, which ultimately lead to her becoming bogan scum (no offence any bogans that may be trawling the forum XD).

 

[Proletar]

I was also diagnosed with ADD, and now that I think of it, I'm not sure that I have it. I just get bored doing things that I don't care about, and thereby present poor results in such activities.

Now that I think of it, I'm not sure that ADD really exists as more than a wrongfull piece of perception from the established psychiatrits. Fuck them.

 

[snafupants]

Psychologists and therapists are usually trained to conduct initial interviews in a semi-structured fashion to get a flavor for the thinking processes, cognitive distortions, general demeanor and response style, and possible psychopathology of the client. I can understand how this could be irritating for a client desperate to be heard or understood. My guess is that her questions were merely rote and mindless, and plucked from a DSM checklist or didactic psychological textbook. Basically any reaction is of clinical importance to these people. Say you voice your frustration at the therapist, well, that's telling in itself. If you say nothing, yes, that's going down on the notepad. The whole process makes me feel uncomfortable because therapists theoretically achieve more sessions, compensation, and kickbacks by protracting the process. Just like the larger medical context to psychiatry, there's more of an incentive for profit and self-glorification than philanthropy. OK, this is becoming too abstractly diatribe-like. Essentially I would try to take the therapist's behavior in a relatively positive, or at least realistic, light. More likely than not she's some ditzy shrink who wanted to streamline the session in order to see more clients that day.

 

[BigApplePi]

I would think there are skilled psychologists and unskilled ones. Go with what snafu said. Sounds possible.

I would also think introverts who are fond of thinking but not themselves skilled at paying attention to what is outside of them can be occupied with any ol' topic and perhaps take that topic deeply and seriously. So when a psychologist comes along and they don't know what that topic is, all their judgments will relate to you as to your "topic-being" nature even though they don't know what that topic is and haven't quizzed you to find out. That will naturally give rise to "abnormality" judgments. For an INTP that isn't abnormal at all. It's just unusual to outsiders.

Whew. I'm sure that could be said more concisely.

 

[Hadoblado]

It was just a general practitioner, and she's a lovely old lady that I doubt would have ulterior motives. I'm almost certain my issue lies in her method more than her motive. That aside, I believe Snafu to have the right idea about the origin of the questions asked.

The questions seem to phrased in such a way that they are meaningless to people that do not have the trait they are looking for. It would perhaps be very straightforward for a person with violent thoughts to respond to questions about strange thoughts, if, like me, you have no such thoughts however, then the question is meaningless and frustrating.

 

[crippli]

A psychologist will try to understand you. But they won't give much, if anything of themselves. It's rather one sided. So unless you know specifically what you want from them, say a drug, and work towards that end, I don't see much likelihood they will be able to help you. The questions sort of confirms that. Blind shots in the dark. To show up at work and get paid.

These are rough tool workers. I'd imagine an artist with passion for their interest for the mind could help you. Hard to find though, people with a love for precision in complexity.