# Can hormonal imbalances change your personality type?



## speeder (Dec 2, 2011)

Today I saw yet another mbti test ad, and I took the test, and this test had a nice spider chart, and my personality ended being INTP, but the P in the graph was 55% (And thus 45% J).

And I remembered that other tests are never accurate if I am P, or J, in fact I don't know if I am P or J, because tests never result into one, or another, and those that provide percentage always end around the 50% regarding P or J.

I commented this on reddit, and people said that it is bullshit, because INTP and INTJ have 100% opposite functions (I don't understand functions, by the way).

But some people tried to give examples of INTP behaviour and INTJ behaviour, and to my unhappyness I noticed that ALL behaviours fit me...

Except thinking more about it, I noticed that the behaviours although ALL fit me, they don't fit all the time, I switch between them, and seemly the switch is correlated with my thyroid disease (I have hashimoto disease, I know for about 10 years already of it, but only a month ago a doctor agreed in give my synthetic T4).

Sometimes the disease make my metabolism too slow, on those days I get extremely messy, I don't feel like doing stuff, and I do things that are my main priority, also I spend lots of time wasting time thinking for the sake of thinking, doing nothing important, discovering things, writing into Personality Cafe forums when I should be working, etc...

Days when my metabolism is fast, I do everything that I should do, I organize my entire home, take all trash out, work blazing fast, and only dwell in important thoughts that have real world applications (even if in far future... I made lots of contingency plans for some stuff I am expecting to happen).

On the slow metabolism days I am more prone to help everyone and be more warm with people, on fast metabolism days I use all my known body skills to get straight to the point, if a beggar or a salesperson nag me on the street, I look at them in a way that make them regret ever approaching me, I walk in a pose that people open a path for me in the sidewalk, and I have thoughts that when I am "slow" again and I remember them, I conclude that I was thinking like some sort of machievellan bastard dictator.


So I am wondering... Can hormones also affect your personality like that? In my case seemly hormones control if I am P or J, while all other variables (I, N and T) are fixed, right now that I am more in a useless but interesting thoughts mood, I am thinking of this as something rather fascinating, specially if we can find what controls what in a personality (ie: seemly the brain structure decide INT and the hormone system the P/J ?)


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## Raichu (Aug 24, 2012)

Well firstly, I highly recommend looking up the functions. It seriously helps. There's a lot more to being a judger or perceiver than just how productive you are.

Secondly, I don't think things like that can actually change your personality type, but I do think they can make you _seem_ like a different type.

Let's take myself, for example. When I first heard about the MBTI, I thought I was a feeler. This is largely because I have a very bad case of social anxiety, and so I would act a lot differently at school than I acted at home. At home, I was sarcastic and cheeky and a little bit rude. At school, I was very sweet. I only said nice things, and I never got in trouble, and I never swore, and I actually even pretended to be offended by swear words, because that's what people expected of me, and I didn't want to rock the boat.

So I had this "how do I type myself" dilemma, where I didn't know whether to answer the questions as home-me or school-me. And I ended up going with school-me, which was THE WRONG CHOICE because when I was at school, I was very uncomfortable and very unhealthy. The "real me" was how I acted when I was happy and relaxed, which was when I was home.

So the question is, how do you act when you're at your best? When you're messy and procrastinating, is it because you're laid-back and don't mind? Or is it because you don't have the energy or willpower to do what you want/need to? When you're friendlier, is it because you're in an overall better mood? Or because of something like being too nervous not to be, like I was? When you're acting like a machiavellian bastard dictator, is it because you feel more confident and in charge? Or is it because you're crabby and full of negativity?

When you feel like you're acting like an INTJ, do you think you're acting like a healthy INTJ, or an unhealthy INTJ? When you're acting like an INTP, are you acting like a healthy INTP, or an unhealthy one?

These are the questions you have to be asking yourself. Don't base your personality on how you think and act when something is wrong. Your personality is how you think and act when you're lighthearted and comfortable and everything is right.


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## Tridentus (Dec 14, 2009)

You should _*completely*_ reframe how you look at what mbti is.

mbti is all about cognitive processes- i.e. your functions. That is literally all it's about. Behaviours _are not what_ mbti is about. Never. Ever. Behaviour _can have_ an indirect causal relationship to how your functions make you frame your world, but they have no direct relationship to type.

If you're asking "can hormonal imbalances change your answer to an mbti quiz?", well yes, but that is because mbti tests only test "potential indirect consequences of function order".


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## AijA (Mar 24, 2013)

speeder said:


> I commented this on reddit, and people said that it is bullshit, because INTP and INTJ have 100% opposite functions (I don't understand functions, by the way).


Get this one done. You need to understand functions to understand differences between INTP and INTJ. 
But imho you sound like INTP.


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## shameless (Apr 21, 2014)

I believe so, when I was for example post pregnancy for about two years each of my daughters I was a wishy washy mess. 

I also think that your environment can impact it too. 

I was probably perceived by many in my psycho states as an ENFP when I have been in my worst mental states. (thats not a pun at ENFPs, I am just saying thats what I probably would have been like in terms of a multitude of heightened manic behavior & bad things manifesting themselves.


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## shameless (Apr 21, 2014)

I should maybe state that I get INTP all the time and I do not identify with the majority of the INTP threads in the INTP group. (a few I like and respect but I can't say I get them, even tho I constantly get that result)

I don't have a doubt I am NT but I think both my E/I & my P/J fluctuate quite a bit.


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## HAL (May 10, 2014)

On MDMA... I just want to see and do _everything_! And I _love_ everyone! I just want to talk with them and properly _connect_.

Some would say I get a huge dose of 'extraversion' and 'feeling' from the hormone imbalance caused by the drug.

So, hmm, maybe your personality can be temporarily changed by hormone imbalance?

I must say though, I'm usually a strong advocate of what @Tridentus says. I hate it when people say they can just 'change' personality. However, drugs definitely did make me a whole lot different. Hmmmm...


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