The mental health of gamers (also me)


Gamer Life General Discussion

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Belle Sorciere wrote:
Sissyl wrote:
Not to mention personality disorders are a rather outdated concept. In all likelihood, they are other disorders or neurophychological handicaps.

Fortunately, the DSM-5 dragged psychiatry into the 20th century by eliminating the concept of personality disorders as "axis 2 disorders." I believe they're all axis 1 now, which is where mental illness goes.

I'm not in love with it yet. But there is an elegance there that was missing from IV. It will be years until I'm as comfortable with it as I am with IV. And by then we'll be up to VI.


Freehold DM wrote:
Belle Sorciere wrote:
Sissyl wrote:
Not to mention personality disorders are a rather outdated concept. In all likelihood, they are other disorders or neurophychological handicaps.

Fortunately, the DSM-5 dragged psychiatry into the 20th century by eliminating the concept of personality disorders as "axis 2 disorders." I believe they're all axis 1 now, which is where mental illness goes.

I'm not in love with it yet. But there is an elegance there that was missing from IV. It will be years until I'm as comfortable with it as I am with IV. And by then we'll be up to VI.

Yeah, none of the therapists I've seen have so much as touched the DSM-5. They still rely on the DSM-IV for all their stuff, and one actually told me that the APA actually rejected the DSM-5 and wasn't going to use it.

Not suggesting that you'd do that, just I can see professionals being more comfortable with DSM-IV. I prefer the DSM-5 for lots of reasons, but I'm a client not a professional. :)


Also their exists a DSM-ID for use with persons with ID/DD...

An alternative exists the PDM which very few people know much about...but it is based on psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Some are better reading than others.


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Belle Sorciere wrote:
Freehold DM wrote:
Belle Sorciere wrote:
Sissyl wrote:
Not to mention personality disorders are a rather outdated concept. In all likelihood, they are other disorders or neurophychological handicaps.

Fortunately, the DSM-5 dragged psychiatry into the 20th century by eliminating the concept of personality disorders as "axis 2 disorders." I believe they're all axis 1 now, which is where mental illness goes.

I'm not in love with it yet. But there is an elegance there that was missing from IV. It will be years until I'm as comfortable with it as I am with IV. And by then we'll be up to VI.

Yeah, none of the therapists I've seen have so much as touched the DSM-5. They still rely on the DSM-IV for all their stuff, and one actually told me that the APA actually rejected the DSM-5 and wasn't going to use it.

Not suggesting that you'd do that, just I can see professionals being more comfortable with DSM-IV. I prefer the DSM-5 for lots of reasons, but I'm a client not a professional. :)

*derisive snort* You gotta be s@!$ting me.

I want to smack at least one of your therapists. Refusing to be current with the latest goings-on in the field is what leads to people trying to make their kids be not-gay and other nonsense.

The APA will cave. Too much work has been put into the V to drop it. There will be more than few professional fights, but they will accept it eventually, or turn it into an addendum to the IV in some way.


KenderKin wrote:

Also their exists a DSM-ID for use with persons with ID/DD...

An alternative exists the PDM which very few people know much about...but it is based on psychodynamic psychotherapy.

Some are better reading than others.

PDM huh? I'll ask about it tomorrow. Someone's gotta have it.


Freehold DM wrote:

*derisive snort* You gotta be s!$$ting me.

I want to smack at least one of your therapists. Refusing to be current with the latest goings-on in the field is what leads to people trying to make their kids be not-gay and other nonsense.

The APA will cave. Too much work has been put into the V to drop it. There will be more than few professional fights, but they will accept it eventually, or turn it into an addendum to the IV in some way.

Yeah, it'd be nice if anyone I've seen in the past year or so was familiar with the DSM-5 (not that I go through that many professionals in a year, seeing them is just a side effect of getting on disability).

The therapist I did intake with last week and with whom I start this week pulled out an old dog-eared DSM-IV to point out some things about one of my diagnoses. I was just kind of disappointed, but it wasn't too big of a deal.


Freehold DM wrote:
KenderKin wrote:


An alternative exists the PDM

PDM huh? I'll ask about it tomorrow. Someone's gotta have it.

link

The revision is coming! PDM 2


I've got anxiety/depression, ADHD and autism*.

I tend to overempathize to an insane degree, and will feel horribly, horribly guilty at the slightest inconvenience I cause to others.
My anxiety sometimes tends to get bad enough I have to take some tranquilizer type pills the director prescribed.
I've got more personalities and "masks" then I can count, wearing a diffrent behavior for every person I meet. The last "mask" I wore seems to just stick around, lacking any default when people aren't around.
i was lucky enough to have a special Ed teacher in middle school that taught me social issues, like standing about an inch from somone's face isn't acceptable, becuase until I was actually told these things, I didn't pick it up at all.
I'm rather bad at picking up what I'm supposed to do in any situation. People's emotions are often open and easy for me to read, but what I'm supposed to do about them is really hard to find out.
I've got basically no willpower, only continuing to do something as long as it's immidatly entertaining or rewarding, or soemthing I feel like I have to do, like work- and if the line between work and time at home isn't perfectly clear, not even that.

... Too much metaphor in that post. Wish I could've been clearer.

* used to be classed as asburgurs, and I haven't technically been diagnosed with autism after the classification for asburgurs stopped being a thing.


thegreenteagamer wrote:

It's not just schizo. My BP hit me like a Mack Truck in the middle of my second decade. I was diagnosed relatively early, but it's gotten progressively worse since then.

There's very likely a link between bipolar disorder and schizophrenia when the former includes mania with psychotic episodes. It could be that that particular "flavor" of bipolar disorder is in fact a lesser form of full-blown schizophrenia, or that it's otherwise related. That's the thing about mental illnesses: they run in packs and you can never quite find the edges.


Aranna wrote:

Ok I guess I needed to answer my own question. Most of my information comes from googling so it may be inaccurate.

I answered the first question with an online test; Am I really a social chameleon? at 80% out of 100 I am definitely Yes there. Oddly as I read the questions I would have answered more strongly in High School than I do now. Perhaps getting close to 100.

And that fits with what I am reading about Borderline Personality Disorder, a total lack of self. Something I suffered from in High School. BUT I seem to have found a sense of 'self' later in life. So I may still be a social chameleon but I am recovered and no longer suffering from BPD. Many thanks to the Lord Jesus for my sense of identity.

For what it's worth, far more women are diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and far more men with antisocial personality disorder (psychopathy/sociopathy). In fact, it's been shown in at least one study that I know of that clinicians have a bias on the matter. If they see a patient dossier with a certain cluster of symptoms and that patient happens to be a man, they are more likely to claim he has ASPD. But if the hypothetical patient is a woman with all the same symptoms, suddenly she's borderline instead. Not always of course, but I believe there was a statistically significant difference.

Now in your case you took an online test which would eliminate that sort of bias. And it's also true that some mental illnesses have a greater chance occur in one sex than the other (usually males - lucky us). But it's likewise possible that, as a woman (I assume you're a woman), you have been socialized to more readily recognize traditionally borderline traits in yourself and in other women. Just like men think, consciously or not, that we are more prone to being antisocial.

And please do not take this as being condescending at all, because every single person is subject to biases like these. (If you want to really depress yourself, read about stereotpye threat to see just how profound an impact these seemingly subtle signals can have on almost everything we do).

This ended up being a bit more rambling and long-winded than I intended. Mostly, my point is that I think women are over diagnosed as being borderline, and men as antisocial. Who knows? Maybe they are the same - or at least very similar - conditions, wherein men are socialized to display it and act out in one way, and women another.

And most importantly, again, having one symptom of a mental illness is not enough to make a diagnosis. That's something that you need to discuss with a professional.


I tend to find Robert Hare's commentary on ASPD persuasive:

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/antisocial-personality-disorder/psychopathy -and-antisocial-personality-disorder-case-diagnostic-confusion


Confusion also exists over bipolar and schizophrenia because the root word in schizophrenia means "split mind".

As I said before if I want to know about someone I make time to talk to them (I might look at their history later on), but honestly persons with the exact same diagnosis present in very different ways and one important factor in treatment that the diagnoses never touches is the persons personality structure.....


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Sort of feel that my SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and mild psychopathic personality traits are pretty light compared to what other folks are living with. My wife is bipolar, and I admit there have been some trying times, but we manage.

Part of why I am such a big proponent of TTRPG's is the good they can do, in regards to our topic here, and the more general sense. (alas, they can also be huge stress-ors or cause issues of their own, but I dare say that is not the majority of experiences for most gamers, but it does happen).

Also, hats off to everyone for sharing, from the OP onward, I know all too well it not easy to talk about those facts of our lives that are often the opposite of perfect or ideal.

Lastly, a big "kudos" to the Paizo Community, and those involved, staff and not, for making this a safe space to chat, even about topics that are difficult or very personal.


Schizo means different, as in severed, split off, alien, not merely split. The Multiple Personality Disorder was a consequence of that thinking, and is a rare diagnosis today, for very good reason. Schizophrenia means different soul.


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GM_Beernorg wrote:

Sort of feel that my SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and mild psychopathic personality traits are pretty light compared to what other folks are living with. My wife is bipolar, and I admit there have been some trying times, but we manage.

Part of why I am such a big proponent of TTRPG's is the good they can do, in regards to our topic here, and the more general sense. (alas, they can also be huge stress-ors or cause issues of their own, but I dare say that is not the majority of experiences for most gamers, but it does happen).

Also, hats off to everyone for sharing, from the OP onward, I know all too well it not easy to talk about those facts of our lives that are often the opposite of perfect or ideal.

Lastly, a big "kudos" to the Paizo Community, and those involved, staff and not, for making this a safe space to chat, even about topics that are difficult or very personal.

Have you heard the theory the SAD is an evolutionary trait? Actually most mental illnesses could be considered some kind of evolutionary "misfire," but in the case of SAD the idea was that it got our early ancestors in the proper survival mindset. That is, spring and summer are the time to work our butts off, while fall and (most of all) winter are when we need to hunker down. Not to make light of the condition at all mind you - I just find theories like that really interesting.

But yeah more importantly to your other point, I think it's so essential to actually be able to talk about these often incredibly uncomfortable subjects. I don't think it's possible to overstate how damaging and destructive the stigma of mental illness is. If our society treated these conditions just like it did an infection or a broken limb, the lives of so many people would be so vastly improved. But at least we're making progress eh?

RPGs, immersive video games, movies - whatever can let you get out of your own head when you need that timeout. I am genuinely thankful to Paizo and all the awesome people who work so hard to make it such an enjoyable, awesome game.


Sissyl wrote:
Schizo means different, as in severed, split off, alien, not merely split. The Multiple Personality Disorder was a consequence of that thinking, and is a rare diagnosis today, for very good reason. Schizophrenia means different soul.

You're obviously very well informed on the subject of mental illness. Have you heard the more recent take that multiple personality disorder doesn't actually exist? There is a lot of proof to that effect, but I think the most damning is that the vast majority of MPD cases are diagnosed by a very small percentage of practitioners.

Psychologists and psychiatrists are subject to the same desire for accolades and recognition as anyone else, and unfortunately, having a patient with MPD is one way to achieve that. I hope that no professional would consciously decide to convince a patient that he or she had such a disorder, but if someone comes in with, let's say, depersonalization disorder, the doc may indeed decide that the patient is now a "different person."

Also, people with MPD have been shown through some pretty ingenious methods to actually maintain memories between their "alters."


That does make allot of sense, alas, in Western NY, we are known for, err, winter LOL, not the best climate choice for me it seems ;)


INTJ. I suffer from S.A.D. as well, though not as bad as when I was a teen. (Thank God!)And I live in So Cal, which helps. Also have social anxiety (which is another s.a.d.).

I grew up in a family of eight; had to share a room with 3 brothers, and I longed for a space to be by myself. I'm very much an introvert, almost a recluse now. Except for 2 cats, but there's nothing wrong with that, right? RIGHT??! lol

My extreme need for "down time" fostered my imagination, and I write. I was also the GM 90% of the time, and my rich inner world served me well there, too.

God bless you all!


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Terquem wrote:

It sometimes worries me how many disorders psych majors suffer from...

I graduated high school, only, enlisted in the US navy, was fired from the navy when I was diagnosed with a personality disorder.

Or maybe the truth is that in this high stress manic society that we've created, that finds new ways to eliminate the essence of childhood, that burdens us with debt if we go to college without be scholarship or rich, that most of us are simply suffering from disorders that never get diagnosed?

Which means that as a psych major you're at least aware of your problems to a greater degree than most of us.


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GM_Beernorg wrote:
That does make allot of sense, alas, in Western NY, we are known for, err, winter LOL, not the best climate choice for me it seems ;)

Yeah, I guess the idea is that humans started out in warmer climes. Just a subtle evolutionary hint that we should have kept our butts out of places where the air gets so cold it can hurt your face? But screw evolution, we got coats and hockey and snowmen now.

On the topic of evolution; obsessive-compulsive disorder is probably my biggest day-to-day issue. Interestingly, women with no prior history of OCD who become pregnant are known to suddenly develop the disorder on a temporary basis. And here's the weird thing - people with permanent OCD such as myself are shown to have much higher levels of oxytocin in our systems.

What do those two seemingly unrelated facts have in common? Well, oxytocin is the stuff that lets humans bond with one another, and women get a huge rush of it when they are pregnant. Ya know, so they can love their baby or whatever. If oxytocin also triggers obsessive compulsive disorder, than think of it this way: a pregnant woman, as well as a woman with a newborn child, absolutely has to be super careful about all sorts of things. Disease, spoiled food, the cold, wolf attacks, etc. So it's possible that people like me (and despite me being a dude) are in that constant "be ultra wary of everything and, like, just keep checking just in case" mode.

That's the kind of thing I geek out over...


Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:


Or maybe the truth is that in this high stress manic society that we've created, that finds new ways to eliminate the essence of childhood, that burdens us with debt if we go to college without be scholarship or rich, that most of us are simply suffering from disorders that never get diagnosed?

Or the sad thing is this IS the opperator specifications of the human brain. Its normal and it bites.


Otherwhere wrote:

INTJ. I suffer from S.A.D. as well, though not as bad as when I was a teen. (Thank God!)And I live in So Cal, which helps. Also have social anxiety (which is another s.a.d.).

I grew up in a family of eight; had to share a room with 3 brothers, and I longed for a space to be by myself. I'm very much an introvert, almost a recluse now. Except for 2 cats, but there's nothing wrong with that, right? RIGHT??! lol

My extreme need for "down time" fostered my imagination, and I write. I was also the GM 90% of the time, and my rich inner world served me well there, too.

God bless you all!

Woo, a fellow INTJ! As I'm sure you'll agree (and everyone else should), it's clearly the best personality type to have.

Joking aside, and not to play psychologist, but have you read about schizoid personality disorder? It shares some similarities with the INTJ category, but could I guess be considered more severe and difficult to cope with.

Also like you I'm a GM every chance I can get. Obviously because I know how the game should be run, and what's best for everyone. (Back to joking there).

I also have two cats. You would be a worthy opponent...


Generic Villain wrote:
Sissyl wrote:
Schizo means different, as in severed, split off, alien, not merely split. The Multiple Personality Disorder was a consequence of that thinking, and is a rare diagnosis today, for very good reason. Schizophrenia means different soul.

You're obviously very well informed on the subject of mental illness. Have you heard the more recent take that multiple personality disorder doesn't actually exist? There is a lot of proof to that effect, but I think the most damning is that the vast majority of MPD cases are diagnosed by a very small percentage of practitioners.

Psychologists and psychiatrists are subject to the same desire for accolades and recognition as anyone else, and unfortunately, having a patient with MPD is one way to achieve that. I hope that no professional would consciously decide to convince a patient that he or she had such a disorder, but if someone comes in with, let's say, depersonalization disorder, the doc may indeed decide that the patient is now a "different person."

Also, people with MPD have been shown through some pretty ingenious methods to actually maintain memories between their "alters."

The MPD craze has been over for more than twenty years. It died under a flurry of court cases where doctors had persuaded patients to pretend to have MPD in the early nineties. Not only that, it was started by the movie Three Faces of Eve and the book (I think) Sybil. After it crashed, suddenly having a MPD patient was no longer a claim to fame but a liability, leading to very few such diagnoses. It is worth noting that it is not only a few practitioners that use it, it's also a very small pool of patients indeed outside the old US.

The problem with going the today mostly ideology-driven route of diagnosing MPD is that, as you say, people who often have OTHER serious diagnoses get no help at all. Most often, they have anxiety issues like depersonalization or derealization, functional symptoms (like "fake" seizures, vertigo, pain, etc), or the like. Today, those are often called Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID. Science is slowly coming to understand those disorders, which is a good thing.

Oh, and when I tried the Myers-Briggs test some fifteen years ago, I was sharply INFP. I have no idea if that has remained.


Sissyl wrote:


The MPD craze has been over for more than twenty years. It died under a flurry of court cases where doctors had persuaded patients to pretend to have MPD in the early nineties. Not only that, it was started by the movie Three Faces of Eve and the book (I think) Sybil. After it crashed, suddenly having a MPD patient was no longer a claim to fame but a liability, leading to very few such diagnoses.

I agree that in the professional field, MPD has pretty much been discredited. But in the world of pop culture it is very much alive and well. Movies like Identity and tv shows like Bates Motel (both of which are really entertaining in my opinion) have kept it going in the American zeitgeist, and that alone means that "cases" of MPD will continue to pop up. There are spikes of MPD cases every time it is the subject of some hit show, book, or movie. I mean, a lot of people still think schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder are the same thing when they have literally nothing in common.

I would also agree that a psychologist having an MPD patient is no longer the claim to fame it used to be. But I would argue that's not always the case. For example, I worked with a school psychologist who had a student with conversion disorder who had convinced herself she was paralyzed. Like MPD, conversion disorder is a diagnosis that's become rare these days, but I could tell the psychologist was pretty psyched (excuse the pun) to have someone with such an unusual and rare condition. I have to imagine that there are still practitioners who would be thrilled to have someone with MPD walk into their office. If only for the novelty of it... as depressing as that sounds.

Anyway I think I pretty much agree with everything you said. But again, I'm OCD so I have to nit pick ;)


Nits are there for picking. =)


MPD craze.
Repressed memory craze
RSA craze....


Craisin craze...couldn't help myself.


Arazyr wrote:

I'm pretty boring. Other than being generally "weird" - odd sense of humor, interested in most geeky stuff, etc. - my the biggest thing about me is that I am very introverted. I am perfectly happy, most of the time, to be alone. I could happily go for days without seeing another person. Even if I'm surrounded by people, as long as I don't have to interact with them, I'm fine. I can interact when I need to, but it takes energy.

I doubt this is anywhere near a mental health issue, though.

Occasionally, I wonder about OCD or ADD or other things, but seldom very seriously. I certainly haven't been diagnosed with anything...

The simple fact that you're happy being introverted is key. If you are comfortable enough in your own skin most of the time and not tormented by your eccentricities/foibles, then it's a safe bet you've got a clean bill of mental health. It would be a different matter if, for example, you had panic attacks in a crowd or suffered severe anxiety when it comes to social interactions.

I guess my point is, to have a mental disorder... you have to actually be disordered. Something that detracts from your quality of life in a significant way. Like me, sometimes I get lower back pain. It sucks for a week or two but then I get over it. If on the other hand the pain was chronic, crippling, and kept me from enjoying my life, THAT would be something to see a doctor about.

Just my two cents of course.


Persons with MPD are like foxes. You could have a fox in your neighborhood and not know it.
1: Only one personality goes to the psychologist.
2: There are a lot of possible reasons why they have memory blackouts.
3: Some of the alien abduction cases might really be MPD.
4: They dress and act so differently, they might never be recognised as the same person.
5: MPD may be diagnosed as a delusional malady, especially if the other personality is a different sex, race, or species.


Generic Villain wrote:
Woo, a fellow INTJ!

I'm also an INTJ - I'd guess INTJ's are well-represented in the gamer community. If others want to know what INTJ is, here's a good link: INTJ Description


I'm extroverted.

Liberty's Edge

So that's what were calling it these days, huh Freehold?


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I am INTP. You would be unlikely to find anything other than 'N' personalities on a fantasy gaming site.


Tormsskull wrote:


I'm also an INTJ - I'd guess INTJ's are well-represented in the gamer community. If others want to know what INTJ is, here's a good link: INTJ Description

All people need to know about INTJs is that we're awesome.

Heh.


Last time I did Myers-Briggs typing, I was INFP (although just in the border of I).

So counting Sissyl that's another that's got multiple representation.


Goth Guru wrote:

Persons with MPD are like foxes. You could have a fox in your neighborhood and not know it.

1: Only one personality goes to the psychologist.
2: There are a lot of possible reasons why they have memory blackouts.
3: Some of the alien abduction cases might really be MPD.
4: They dress and act so differently, they might never be recognised as the same person.
5: MPD may be diagnosed as a delusional malady, especially if the other personality is a different sex, race, or species.

MPD patients also do not have more than one personality. This, like strange dynamics of amnesia, is only a Hollywood disorder. As you say, memory blackouts come for various reasons, like substance abuse, PTSD and other anxiety disorders. Repressed memories are not a thing.

MPD is not a disorder. DID is one, which sorts under the anxiety spectrum, not the psychosis spectrum.


KenderKin wrote:

MPD craze.

Repressed memory craze
RSA craze....

And lets not forget combining aspergers and autism into the same thing and saying "oo look! Autism just spiked 1,000 percent!"

and the tabula rasa debacle

and insane over-prescription of ADD medication (and medication in general)

Psychiatry just doesn't have any of the usual, objective ways of telling when its gone horribly horribly wrong from reality because you can't see whats going on inside someone elses skull. Without that it is very easy to veer off from reality and hard to find your way back. The fastest rate of advancement it can hope for is one retirement party at a time.


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BigNorseWolf wrote:

And lets not forget combining aspergers and autism into the same thing and saying "oo look! Autism just spiked 1,000 percent!"

and the tabula rasa debacle

and insane over-prescription of ADD medication (and medication in general)

Psychiatry just doesn't have any of the usual, objective ways of telling when its gone horribly horribly wrong from reality because you can't see whats going on inside someone elses skull. Without that it is very easy to veer off from reality and hard to find your way back. The fastest rate of advancement it can hope for is one retirement party at a time.

I simultaneously agree with, and disagree with, most all your points. It's very disconcerting.

Or to be more accurate I think you're stating facts, but in a really depressing light. Now as a diehard pessimist, I respect that. But regarding autism/Asperger's, it's important to remember: for much of the history of psychology, someone with these conditions would have been labeled feeble-minded, simple, retarded, or whatever other now-offensive term was in vogue. They would likely be sent off to live in some very not-nice state-run facility. Yet today? We now know that autism is a unique condition, and that people who have it fall along a spectrum. That's progress.

Is over-medication a problem? It very well might be. I don't know enough about the subject to speak with any authority. But I will say this: there are also many people in this nation who could desperately benefit from psychoactive medication, yet for whatever reason, go without. So I think it could also be argued that under-medication is a problem in the US.

As to your last point, yes. Yes psychiatry is very definitely a difficult field, because how can anyone objectively decide what's going on in the human mind? Hell, show me 100 psychologists, psychiatrists, and neurologists (and just for fun, one complete stoner), and I guarantee each one will have a totally different definition of what the human mind even is. But! Modern psychology is still very much in its infancy. If we mark its birth as 1879 with Wilhelm Wundt, that means it's not only about 140 years old. And that's including the three decades in America where the whole "let's ignore thoughts and emotions and only focus on behavior" fad dominated. For all the false starts and screw ups, I think the field is still a profound force for good.

BigNorseWolf wrote:

Or the sad thing is this IS the opperator specifications of the human brain. Its normal and it bites.

...But yeah, like I said I'm a pessimist. And this I agree with without rebuttal.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

ISTJ. Just to act as counterbalnce to all these crazy Ns.

Liberty's Edge

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It's amazing how many people still believe in the pseudoscience party game bull crap that is the MBTI.


Paul Watson wrote:
ISTJ. Just to act as counterbalnce to all these crazy Ns.

Your presence will be tolerated... for now.


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Overmedication is a problem, in some ways, yes. Perhaps. It is also true that undermedication is a problem.

Overmedication should be defined along the lines of "the number of people taking the drug without being helped by it", and undermedication would be "number of people who would be helped by the drug but don't get it". If you accept these definitions, I would say that overmedication, though it exists, is relatively rare. If someone is not helped by a drug, they keep taking it because a) they are forced to, b) because they win something that isn't a help to them (addiction), or c) they can't be bothered to stop. Addiction is in psychiatric medicine limited to central stimulants and bensodiazepines, none of the other groups have that problem. Ergo, overmedication is not going to be a big issue. It is also a matter of side effects. The most maligned group is antidepressants, in general they have rather mild side effects, well worth trying even if the diagnosis may not be 100% certain.

Undermedication is far more severe. Someone who needs medication doesn't get it. They suffer from their condition even if it could actually be helped.

There is a very vocal movement to discredit psychiatry. Before repeating their claims (which are a mixture of baseless, false and actively harmful), think about those who could get help but will not because so many keep harping about overmedication.


Krensky wrote:
It's amazing how many people still believe in the pseudoscience party game bull crap that is the MBTI.

But they made it so much fun!

As a "personality test" it doesn't pathologize and everyone feels good about the results.

The idea of a continuum between introversion and extroversion is good to know,

If you already know yourself then you gain nothing from the MBTI...which makes me wonder how it offends you? Maybe you took it and gained nothing and feel cheated.

They now even use it in business and to help people work together, like I said it is entertainment and fun to do.


Overmedication is a very real problem in the U.S. That's thanks to Big Pharma and their lobbying influence. New "diseases" are created simply so that they can legally sell their product, since "only a drug [or surgery] may treat a disease."

And - yeah - there are people who could benefit from certain meds but don't get access to them.

Both of the above primarily stem from $$$ focus rather than a health focus.

On a different note: whatever happened to the soul (psyche) in psychology?

Liberty's Edge

KenderKin wrote:
Krensky wrote:
It's amazing how many people still believe in the pseudoscience party game bull crap that is the MBTI.

But they made it so much fun!

As a "personality test" it doesn't pathologize and everyone feels good about the results.

The idea of a continuum between introversion and extroversion is good to know,

If you already know yourself then you gain nothing from the MBTI...which makes me wonder how it offends you? Maybe you took it and gained nothing and feel cheated.

They now even use it in business and to help people work together, like I said it is entertainment and fun to do.

I'm offended by it for the same reasons frenology or astrology or homeopathy offend me.

They're hogwash. Pseudoscientific bullcrap.

It's based on some folks interpretation of Jung's unsupported ramblings. It has no predictive or diagnostic value, it's not even consistent. Take it again a few days later and you'll generally get a different result!

Liberty's Edge

While it's not a mental illness, I am autistic, as well having harsh anxiety and depression, (which most certainly are.) I find that fantasy as a whole is a special interest of mine, encompassing not only tabletops, but also fictional worlds as a whole, especially those that are steeped in lore, such as that of the Elder Scrolls series. I pride myself in knowing a great deal of trifling information about the history of Golarion, which occasionally comes up in my local PFS games, much to my pleasure.

I find that the game itself can both alleviate and occasionally increase my stress and depression. I get very heavily involved in the game, and when something horrible happens, I often take the toll. In the only instance where I've ever seen a PC die, it seemed I was the only one to be hurt by it, and it wasn't even my character. When something horrible and traumatic happens to my characters, I tend to go into a deeply depressive state for a few days. However, this being said, it helps me escape from the undeniably awful world we live in, and gives me a chance to find some solace from the day-to-day stressors.


Just read the INTJ description, which describes me to a tea, except I do pretty well with social situations and small talk, but that could be a learned behavior for me I suppose. As a kid and preteen, I was not nearly so outgoing or social, that seemed to kick in around 14 or so, strange.


Krensky wrote:

I'm offended by it for the same reasons frenology or astrology or homeopathy offend me.

They're hogwash. Pseudoscientific bullcrap.

It's based on some folks interpretation of Jung's unsupported ramblings. It has no predictive or diagnostic value, it's not even consistent. Take it again a few days later and you'll generally get a different result!

Well, to each their own. I found my INTJ profile to be very accurate. I've taken the same one on three different occasions (spread out over a few years) and have always come up INTJ.

Besides, I don't think that the descriptors do anything harmful. Some people read them and find them very fitting, others don't think so.

I've used the personality test with co-workers and read the section about interacting with their personality types and have found it very helpful.


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Otherwhere wrote:

Overmedication is a very real problem in the U.S. That's thanks to Big Pharma and their lobbying influence. New "diseases" are created simply so that they can legally sell their product, since "only a drug [or surgery] may treat a disease."

And - yeah - there are people who could benefit from certain meds but don't get access to them.

Both of the above primarily stem from $$$ focus rather than a health focus.

On a different note: whatever happened to the soul (psyche) in psychology?

Which disease has been created so Big Pharma can sell their drugs?


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Generic Villian wrote:
We now know that autism is a unique condition, and that people who have it fall along a spectrum. That's progress.

This sums up the entire problem. Change is not necessarily progress.

We do not know or understand that it is a spectrum. Psychologists are viewing it as if it were one. That the two get conflated is the entire problem with psychiatry.. There is nothing to indicate that current psychological theories are in any way more accurate than the previous ones.

We don't know what causes autism, we don't know what causes aspergers, so putting them together on the same "spectrum" because they have some behaviors in common is the equivalent of saying that sharks and dolphins must be closely related. Yes they have a few traits in common, but biology is a complex thing and has far more than one way to get the same result: there are lots of ways to wind up with a hairless cat.

Its one thing when its a party game mbjntncissvu but these decisions have serious consequences. 25% of boys meeting the standards for add is not an epidemic, it means that a good chunk of what people call add is really the brain working normally. You say there's a 10,000% increase in autism because you changed a definition and all of a sudden the anti vaxers don't look so crazy. People give this stuff a lot of legal power and its not nearly good enough to place that much trust in. At best, its providing precision with no way of testing accuracy.

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