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MBTI poll on an ADHD forum

compulsiverambler

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What the chapter says about P vs. J is most interesting, because that's what I've struggled to understand the most. I think if I were a J, my dreadful disorganisation and trouble planning things, and other inattentive symptoms, would have bothered me even when they weren't yet completely destroying every aspect my life and everything I dreamed for myself. Even when I wasn't desperate to change and trying my best.

Js are motivated to try to be organised by an internal desire for order/certainty, which is always there and always going to cause distress if not met. I as a P am motivated to try to be organised by likely external consequences of doing so or failing to, and they're not always there and so not always present to cause distress. Js with ADHD are going to suffer earlier on in the process and in more situations than the Ps with ADHD.

So it might take longer for a P with ADHD to come out of denial and acknowledge how little control they have over their tendencies, because some of the time they're genuinely not as bothered about order as most people are (most people being Js). It's frightening at first to consider the problem may be with you and therefore unlikely to change, rather than with the environmnent not suiting you and therefore likely temporary.
 

sculpting

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My oldest son was diagnosed ADHD. He took meds for about six years but the side effects-the marked behavorial changes going on and off the meds, were severe enough to cause issues.

He is a super ENFP. The meds helped tone down the Ne spastic, but what was more important for him-they had a mood stablizing effect. As young as three he would snap into Te rages when the Ne flow got bumped. Only now, in the last two years-he is 13, has the spastic worn off, but more importantly, you can see him actively using Fi.

He gets, angry, but then calms himself, and the explosions no longer happen. He also drives me insane telling me I need to be nicer to other people-like not run yellow lights, give money to panhandlers, not talk on the cell phone in drive throughs, not cut off other drivers. Our Fi values do not appear to be in alignment.
 

compulsiverambler

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The meds helped tone down the Ne spastic, but what was more important for him-they had a mood stablizing effect. As young as three he would snap into Te rages when the Ne flow got bumped. Only now, in the last two years-he is 13, has the spastic worn off, but more importantly, you can see him actively using Fi.

He gets, angry, but then calms himself, and the explosions no longer happen.
Some people, especially professionals working with adults, want the next updated version of the criteria for ADHD to include signs of emotional dysregulation as the fourth core set of symptoms. Not all have it but it's very common and can be the most disabling thing for some. At least one region of the brain that help stabilise moods is often underdeveloped in ADHD, and combined with inadequate impulse inhibition that can lead to very self-destructive behaviour in severe cases. I imagine different types will be more upset and worried about different things, but all risk their moods spiralling out of control and proportion. Your son was lucky to have that benefit as mood symptoms are the least often successfully treated by current medications. Mine makes me worse! I have adjusted to it slowly though.
 

sunset5678

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Apr 5, 2009
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XNTJ
Lol...ENTJs too because we aren't afraid to use our intellect or imagination to come up with ways to get things done, we are a lot like ENFJs in the way of being able to motiv-
ate our peers and help them come up with solutions to things they are trying to get do-
ne so sometimes people see us as trouble because ideas can change things and throw
their carefully planned systems off balance. While we are distracted and daydreaming
sometimes we catch things like cliques starting at places that often go unnoticed by ot-
hers so even if we don't get in trouble or cause problems we're not always on authoriti-
es good side.
 

ergophobe

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Here's chapter from a book about how MBTI type and ADHD interact.

ADD in the Workplace Chapter Six - ADD and Personality Type at Work

Cool cite - thanks.

Some professionals who are knowledgeable about the Myers-Briggs personality types but who are not experts in ADD sometimes confuse preferences and tendencies. For example, among certain MBTI personality types there are individuals whose preferences is to be active and impulsive with little tolerance for detailed, mundane work. Such a person might be mistaken for one with ADD. In fact, there are those who mistakenly believe that ADD is a personality type rather than a neurological disorder. In a study of several hundred school children, however, the MBTI personality types that might be mistaken for ADD were found slightly more often among non-ADD students than among those with ADD!

Yes, well put. This helps differentiate a P preference from an ADD tendency.

He is a super ENFP. The meds helped tone down the Ne spastic, but what was more important for him-they had a mood stablizing effect. As young as three he would snap into Te rages when the Ne flow got bumped. Only now, in the last two years-he is 13, has the spastic worn off, but more importantly, you can see him actively using Fi.

Puppy - I'm guessing your son has the hyperactive kind. That usually wears off with age too. Glad he's feeling more in control of his emotions.


At least one region of the brain that help stabilise moods is often underdeveloped in ADHD, and combined with inadequate impulse inhibition that can lead to very self-destructive behaviour in severe cases. I imagine different types will be more upset and worried about different things, but all risk their moods spiralling out of control and proportion.

Yep! I think newer medications may be helping mood effects better too. Any thoughts?
 

compulsiverambler

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Yep! I think newer medications may be helping mood effects better too. Any thoughts?
I don't know. People react very differently to all of them. The clinical trials only record changes in inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity, so until they start looking at how they affect the emotional symptoms too, we can't really know which ones tend to be better for those.
 

Orangey

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This is kind of unrelated to the OP, but can a person have adult ADHD if they had good grades and were generally well-behaved as a child?
 

compulsiverambler

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This is kind of unrelated to the OP, but can a person have adult ADHD if they had good grades and were generally well-behaved as a child?
Yes. High intelligence and/or good support and hard work can compensate in the academic arena to the extent that grades can be quite good, just not as good or painlessly achieved as if the symptoms weren't getting in the way, especially in the younger years before demands for efficient productivity start coming too thick and fast. As for disruptive behaviour, if you look at the DSM-IV criteria, you'll notice that you don't have to have any symptoms of hyperactivity at all to get a valid diagnosis, because there are three subtypes, only two of which consist of hyperactivity. Plus in a few cases even where there is a natural inclination towards some level of hyperactivity, anxiety and depression, and personality factors and even physical ailments can suppress that to a large extent. Personally, I'm at my least fidgety and restless and fast-talking when anxious, and I was constantly anxious at school. Adrenaline slows me down. It's the other way round for most neurotypicals, so most people tend to misread my body language.
 

Orangey

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Yes. High intelligence and/or good support and hard work can compensate in the academic arena to the extent that grades can be quite good, just not as good or painlessly achieved as if the symptoms weren't getting in the way, especially in the younger years before demands for efficient productivity start coming too thick and fast. Also, if you look at the DSM-IV criteria, you'll notice that you don't have to have any symptoms of hyperactivity at all to get a valid diagnosis, because there are three subtypes, only two of which consist of hyperactivity. Plus in a few cases even where there is a natural inclination towards some level of hyperactivity, anxiety and depression, and personality factors and even physical ailments can suppress that to a large extent. Personally, I'm at my least fidgety and restless and talkative when anxious, and I was constantly anxious at school. Adrenaline slows me down. It's the other way round for most neurotypicals, so most people tend to misread my body language.

Thanks for the info. I've decided to see someone to either confirm or disconfirm adult ADHD (inattentive type), and in gathering material for my case, I went back through my childhood grades to see if there were any signs that I might possibly have been afflicted back in the day. Well, my elementary school grades were nearly perfect (except handwriting), and I don't remember ever having to put much effort into getting good grades or anything. But I faltered in middle school and early high school. I've heard that with girls of the inattentive type, their symptoms might not show up until early adolescence? I don't know...somehow I think my good track record in the 7-10 age range is going to be a big obstacle to diagnosis.
 

PoprocksAndCoke

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^Me too. Straight A student who won all the academic competitions, up until middle school.
 

compulsiverambler

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Thanks for the info. I've decided to see someone to either confirm or disconfirm adult ADHD (inattentive type), and in gathering material for my case, I went back through my childhood grades to see if there were any signs that I might possibly have been afflicted back in the day. Well, my elementary school grades were nearly perfect (except handwriting), and I don't remember ever having to put much effort into getting good grades or anything. But I faltered in middle school and early high school. I've heard that with girls of the inattentive type, their symptoms might not show up until early adolescence? I don't know...somehow I think my good track record in the 7-10 age range is going to be a big obstacle to diagnosis.
Don't just look at the grades. Other signs include be failing to listen properly even when motivated to, desperate to even, and being spoken to directly. Losing things frequently, being late frequently. Forgetting instructions too easily. Find out what all the signs and symptoms are. It could be something else, depression for example, absence seizures.

You're right, at the moment the criteria include at least some symptoms being present before the age of 7. This might get changed when the new criteria are written up, as there's no evidence that the symptoms are different in any other way when starting later in life. ADHD brains (certain parts of them) develop at a slower rate and often don't ever finish completely, leaving the person with a few cognitive skills only as good as an adolescent's by adulthood, and it's not known exactly how that happens. The way I see it, there's no reason a brain couldn't develop at a normal rate until a certain age and then start slowing right down. By adulthood, that person would have the same problems as someone with a more classic case history. Hopefully, if it does turn out that you have, in effect, ADHD with a late onset, you can find a doctor who'll treat you the same as any other patient with the same current symptoms. Not sure where you're from but my understanding is in the USA that shouldn't be too hard. :)
 

Orangey

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Don't just look at the grades. Other signs include be failing to listen properly even when motivated to, desperate to even, and being spoken to directly. Losing things frequently, being late frequently. Forgetting instructions too easily. Find out what all the signs and symptoms are. It could be something else, depression for example, absence seizures.

You're right, at the moment the criteria include at least some symptoms being present before the age of 7. This might get changed when the new criteria are written up, as there's no evidence that the symptoms are different in any other way when starting later in life. ADHD brains (certain parts of them) develop at a slower rate and often don't ever finish completely, leaving the person with a few cognitive skills only as good as an adolescent's by adulthood, and it's not known exactly how that happens. The way I see it, there's no reason a brain couldn't develop at a normal rate until a certain age and then start slowing right down. By adulthood, that person would have the same problems as someone with a more classic case history. Hopefully, if it does turn out that you have, in effect, ADHD with a late onset, you can find a doctor who'll treat you the same as any other patient with the same current symptoms. Not sure where you're from but my understanding is in the USA that shouldn't be too hard. :)

Well I don't really remember my childhood all that well, so what I thought or felt at the time is really all a mystery to me. Also, I didn't go to preschool or kidnergarten, so I don't have any sort of record for that age period (which would have been from 5-7).

My parents say I was always well liked by the teachers and well-behaved. I was always pretty messy, though, and there was an incident in the 3rd grade that might be indicative of ADHD-like symptoms. We were taking a state aptitude test, and the teacher (apparently) had instructed us to only complete one section of the test during the given time period. Well, apparently I just didn't even realize that these instructions had been given, and I finished the entire thing in one sitting (hyperfocus?). The teacher took me aside afterwards and told me that it looked like I was going to get bad grades because I couldn't follow simple instructions. Anyway, I was worried and told my parents, and they went down to the school and blah blah blah. I was pulled out of that school a week later.

And I was always sort of in la la land. I remember being yelled at by my parents a lot for "being careless" and "not caring enough to pay attention to what I'm doing" and "being disrespectful." Of course, one of the problems is that when I ask them about all of this now, they always deny it and insist that I was a perfect angel child. This won't be helpful to my diagnosis, either, I assume, because they need third-party confirmation, right?

Anyway, thanks for all of the good info, compulsiverambler.
 

compulsiverambler

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Well I don't really remember my childhood all that well, so what I thought or felt at the time is really all a mystery to me. Also, I didn't go to preschool or kidnergarten, so I don't have any sort of record for that age period (which would have been from 5-7).

My parents say I was always well liked by the teachers and well-behaved. I was always pretty messy, though, and there was an incident in the 3rd grade that might be indicative of ADHD-like symptoms. We were taking a state aptitude test, and the teacher (apparently) had instructed us to only complete one section of the test during the given time period. Well, apparently I just didn't even realize that these instructions had been given, and I finished the entire thing in one sitting (hyperfocus?). The teacher took me aside afterwards and told me that it looked like I was going to get bad grades because I couldn't follow simple instructions. Anyway, I was worried and told my parents, and they went down to the school and blah blah blah. I was pulled out of that school a week later.

And I was always sort of in la la land. I remember being yelled at by my parents a lot for "being careless" and "not caring enough to pay attention to what I'm doing" and "being disrespectful." Of course, one of the problems is that when I ask them about all of this now, they always deny it and insist that I was a perfect angel child. This won't be helpful to my diagnosis, either, I assume, because they need third-party confirmation, right?

Anyway, thanks for all of the good info, compulsiverambler.
If that does happen, try looking for footage that demonstrates what you're remembering. The weird thing with me was, my mum and I were both sure that I hadn't been hyperactive as a child except for excessive fidgeting, but then we watched a video of us all and we noticed I ran at every opportunity instead of walking anywhere. Neither of us remember that, and we were surprised at the difference in activity levels between me and my normal younger sister, who was always naughtier and extroverted and should have been the bouncier one because she was five years younger. All I remembered clearly were the inattentive symptoms, because they always caused more upset. I was diagnosed with the primarily inattentive subtype because my hyperactive symptoms had never met the full official criteria, as I think they would have if I hadn't had such anxiety, but whatever, it's all treated the same ways. But anyway, yeah the point is people do seem to forget what they were like, so it's worth looking for any evidence you can think of.

My teachers always told my parents I was an angel too. They never mentioned how much time I spent in the bathroom (as refuge) or how little I seemed able to get done per minute for no apparent reason or any of the other inattentive symptoms they'd moan at me for, because I was polite and obedient and with the kind of pupils I shared classrooms with, that tended to be their main concern. Don't let this stuff put you off getting checked out. Current symptoms count for a lot and there are neurocognitive tests as well that should help if they can't be sure at first. I had to have the tests because the picture was complicated as well.
 

FDG

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Yes, you should all get on amphetamines. That is surely going to be much healthier than some inattentivness.
 

ajblaise

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This is kind of unrelated to the OP, but can a person have adult ADHD if they had good grades and were generally well-behaved as a child?

People with high IQ and ADHD supposedly develop more coping methods to deal with it, so the ADHD can become more masked. That could be the case with you.

You might find this interesting:

INTELLIGENT BUT INATTENTIVE

Yet another obstacle to diagnosis is that many individuals—particularly those with high intelligence—develop coping strategies that mask ADHD impairments; they may perform adequately in school as children but meet with difficulties during college and adulthood. Thomas E. Brown, PhD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, noted that some adults seek evaluation and treatment for ADHD despite apparent career success—even completing law or medical degrees—because they feel they are not reaching their potential in their jobs and social relationships. These intelligent individuals, noted Dr. Brown, not only provide an opportunity to assess ways in which ADHD impairments interfere with cognitive functions but may shed light on the neuropsychologic nature of ADHD.

Dr. Brown and Yale colleague Donald Quinlan, PhD, collected data on 103 adults with ADHD (ages 18 to 63) who scored 120 or above on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, placing them in the top 9% of the population in terms of intelligence. Most of the patients were male (72%) and had predominantly inattentive or combined-type ADHD. Nearly all were high school graduates, while 56% had a bachelor's degree and 22% had a doctoral degree in medicine, law, or other fields. Yet 42% had dropped out of postsecondary education at least once; some had returned and dropped out multiple times because of difficulty meeting academic requirements. A similar proportion of subjects (41%) were significantly underemployed at evaluation, often in unskilled jobs.

"Despite superior IQ, many subjects showed impairments on IQ subtests sensitive to attention and concentration problems relative to their high scores on other verbal subtests," Dr. Brown reported. For example, on a test of verbal memory (the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised Logical Memory I), 77% of subjects scored below the 60th percentile and 23% scored below the 25th percentile.
ADHD in Adults: Are the Current Diagnostic Criteria Adequate?

Can I ask this though, what are you looking to get out of a formal diagnosis for this?

I went to get a diagnosis before for the sole reason to get a cheaper and a more reliable source of adderall in college. I probably do technically have ADHD Inattentive though.
 

compulsiverambler

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Yes, you should all get on amphetamines. That is surely going to be much healthier than some inattentivness.
Live in my brain for a day and then tell me what's preferable. And frankly, the numerous statistics comparing the outcome of those given the drugs versus those not given the drugs speak for themselves about how healthy the two options are.

You know the drugs used to treat ADHD are also used by some doctors to help brain injured patients recover, don't you? Not only do they alleviate the symptoms of post-concussive syndrome, which are the same symptoms ADHD patients have, but they think they help the damaged parts grow back more quickly. I don't think that's a coincidence. Especially as it's also been found that children given ADHD drugs are more likely to have their brain catch up to a normal stage of development by adulthood.
 
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