scaredikklegoth

I am a type 5 and an INT/FP and both accurately predict certain behavioural, social and mental difficulties, such as addiction, that I have had and offer possible ways to counteract these negative aspects of my personality. Has anyone else found these types of things useful? Not as a dogma, I'm not saying that this sort of pigeonhole testing is 100% infallible, but as part of your fight for sobriety.

ScottFromWI

I found that the most useful tool in my quest to get and stay sober was acceptance. Trying to figure out "why" kept leading me back down rabbit holes of trying to fix the problem and return to "normal" drinking. Which of course is impossible for us.

Certainly understanding your personality can be helpful to re-frame your process and help you become more self-aware. But it doesn't change the fact that addiction is illogical and can't be "figured out".

scaredikklegoth

You're right, it really is a simple equation that's difficult to achieve and that's that. Don't drink; simple enough. Just not easy.

Derringer

Have you thought about some books on sobriety / recovery ?

ICETHEKING

Although I certainly respect each opinion, I couldn't disagree more. The idea that trying to understand our addiction only leads us down the " rabbit hole" is one persons opinion and is subjective. A wise man once said the unexamined life is not worth living. I personally believe that seeking the truth is what ultimately sets us free. After 5 years of being sober that is my honest opinion. I would urge you to seek answers anywhere that you can find them!

MesaMan

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Goth ~

I've taken the M-B Assessment 2 times a few Decades apart. First time to provide insight into the Work Department I was in so that we'd understand other Personalities, and mebbe do better as a Team. The 2nd time, after sobering up, was on-line a few Years ago. Same results. Along with my BFF [an invaluable Counselor informally], I'm/we're both this 'rare' type who can almost see Outcomes with Clairvoyance. That is, we can each plot Trends, and thus predict where situation 'x' is going to wind up. This combo of Characteristics - which I've forgotten already - was typically seen in only ~2% of the overall Population.

M-B was very helpful because it provided insight into my frustration level, and my eventually-24/7 Boozing as a dysfunctional mechanism re: things I could 'see' that others couldn't. Just in the last few Years of my advanced age, this insight alone has been extremely valuable. Not insofar as deciding to take/not take steps to sober up, but to more-deeply understand Alcoholic Dysfunction. And, thus, avoid it to cope. Now, I'm in superb condition coping-wise. Life 'stuff' rolls off my Back, and I really limit what I take on to attempt to 'fix'. If deeper understanding of Life Stuff causes a Person to not drink out of frustration, guess what? You sort of 'automatically' avoid Alcohol because the anesthesia/avoidance it provides is neither attractive, nor necessary. 'The thrill is gone', as the old B.B. King Song goes.

So, obviously, I advocate using the Assessments you mention as Tools to help understand yourself while throwing everything you can muster into achieving Sobriety. <-- What it takes, IMO...
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Stayingsassy

At times I use knowledge of myself and my personality quirks to avoid drinking, knowing as I do that alcohol ignites certain parts of me to cause certain chaos and difficulty for everyone.

I think knowing yourself can help.

I know I have mood issues due to PMDD which worsen with alcohol, I know I am an introvert so the “fun” of booze is usually drinking alone for hours, I know that I’m impulsive and tend toward addiction in all realms of life. Knowing this helps me reaffirm that I can’t be moderate with many things, and helps me avoid it.

columbus

I've studied the Enneagram (used to think I was a 5 with a 4 wing, but now feel more at home as a 4 with a 5 wing).

Above and beyond any insight it can offer for one' drinking pattern, it is simply fascinating on its own.

sortofhomecomin

I am interested in the Myers-Briggs typology and I find it generally useful but I can't say it has any impact on my sobriety (or currently, lack thereof). I don't know if I've ever seen any reliable evidence that addiction is more prevalent in some personality types than others,.

sortofhomecomin

INTJ or ENTJ?

August252015

I study Fr Richard Rohr of the CAC every morning as part of my spiritual program. Right now, he is doing a series on the Enneagram types as part of spirituality- and i believe it is definitely applicable to my recovery in the ways I am learning. It's very cool.

You can look up the Center For Active Contemplation if you are interested in his emails and meditations. They range very broadly and include diff wisdom traditions and also addiction and recovery.

MesaMan

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Sortof ~

I'm on the Road right now, and that info is back at the House. I'll post it if/when I can...

columbus

Richard Rohr's book, "A Spring Within Us," has changed my life forever. Cannot recommend it highly enough. It also has several chapters on the Enneagram, which finally brought home the truth of the method for me.

August252015

IME, I was determined to figure out the "why." In short, it kept me drinking for a long time because I wanted to find any other reason than I was an alcoholic and couldn't drink.

Once sober, and as someone intrigued w psychology and many things about our brains and emotions and so on, I have sought to understand that why - so it will help my current sober life. But I cannot focus on the why if it will begin to encourage me to float away from the bottom line that I'm an alcoholic and can't drink like a normal person.

My $0.02.

awuh1

I started a thread about Myers-Briggs several years ago and gave a link so you could take a short version of the test and post your type. Over 200 people from soberrecovery took the test and posted their results. You can see the results here...
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...rs-briggs.html (Personality Test - Myers Briggs)

Personally I find the test very useful. The ancient Greek wisdom of the Delphi Oracle states.... "Know thyself". Understanding how events effect us individually can be quite helpful in preventing relapse. That being said it's not the be all end all of sobriety. Even more useful for me has been its helpfulness in understanding others.

The Myers Briggs test is based on the work of Carl Jung, who is referred to in the text of Alcoholic Anonymous. The first member of AA, Bill Wilson, described Carl Jung as the "first link in the chain of events that lead to the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous".

For those interested in a somewhat deeper dive into Carl Jung's thinking on alcoholism I'd highly recommend Jung's very brief letter to Bill Wilson. Its one of the best things ever written on the subject IMO.

DayTrader

Man, that one there is a killer.... "If I can only figure out whyyyyy I drink I can figure out a way to control it or stop it."

In my case, it was pretty-much sheer arrogance. I'll figure it out, I'll understand it, I'll control it, I'll be fine. In a way, all that investigation helped me to ignore THAT I was still drinking. Kinda easy to not face something because you're so busy trying to figure it out.... In the financial planning world we call it "paralysis by analysis." Avoiding DOING anything about an existing problem by staying in the investigation phase - and writing it off as some sort of sick scientific investigation while, at the same time, your present reality is wholly unacceptable.

August252015

What, DT, are you calling me arrogant? The nerve.

Ha. Totally with you.

And thanks for the M-B link repost awuh - I first took it interviewing for my first sales job out of college. ENTJ. Subsequent tests (I believe all pre-hardcore drinking) got the same but with slightly closer margins on J/P. I'm going to look again.

I found learning about the connection btw Bill/Jung fascinating.

August252015

I just did it. Yep, ENFJ now. It makes perfect sense when I read the full analysis (or, full to the extent it is available via this link & test). And certainly some differences, tho some more subtle, than when I was a fabulous drunk. Looking back, I see the conflation of these things that have a closer margin, in its past and present forms. I love this stuff!

Oh YEAH. I'm still an alcoholic and still have no business drinking.

awuh1

I agree that analysis paralysis is a mistake many make, particularly those seeking to find a way, somehow, to drink moderately when all the evidence points to that impossibility.

I believe that the ability to stop after one drink is largely a biological problem. No amount of analysis will help with that. It requires acceptance.

What goes into the decision to take that first drink, can be helped by examining the past decisions to do so in light of all the evidence that points to a likely horrendous outcome. This is where the knowledge about past mistakes and how we made them can be useful.

Then of course there is the spiritual side of it all were Bill and Jung seemed to be in complete agreement. BTW here is a link to view that letter (A TRUE TREASURE IMO) https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums...ng-letter.html

Aellyce

I am in the mental health profession, so naturally have a lot of skepticism toward these types of "pop psychology" assessments. However, I found both the MBTI and the Enneagram very useful in understanding my motives, strengths, fears, challenges and so on. I first got into them in my early 30s, long before I wanted to tackle my drinking problem, so they neither prevented nor treated the alcoholism. But any knowledge/tool that helps to understand maladaptive patterns and how to use strengths to beat them is very valuable in my book. I don't think introspection can cure addiction of any kind, but it is certainly useful when we are already sober and work on self-improvement. I see it like getting to the root cause of destructive patterns instead of merely treating the symptoms. Use anything that is not harmful and helps maintain the sober state!

One area where these personality assessments and reports can get counterproductive sometimes is when people overidentify with the "types" and project traits onto themselves that are not necessarily there or not dominant. Or when they blame their personality for bad choices, accept the bad choices as inevitable, instead of changing them. Also, they can sometimes turn into obsessions for some and they attribute every challenge they experience to what they've read in these assessments. A bit similar to what I sometimes see in addiction recovery circles, where every negative behavior is put down as addict behavior and somehow related to the past addiction. Reality is definitely not that simple IMO.

I'm a 5w4 and INTJ/P by the way and I like these because I happen to be quite a stereotype for both. But I do not believe the traits are set in stone and we have no power over them. One way I used these tests in the past was trying to actually go against my natural currents and develop other desirable features I am not that gifted with but see in others in abundance. Make myself more balanced and expand my toolkit, so to speak. Another cool application can be finding like-minded people.