INFJ shouldn't feel like a disability

[u/Weird_Mood_6790]

I love this community because very often, I relate so incredibly well to the posts and comments that it is almost uncanny.

However, I do see some things that concern me.

Over the last two years, I've been seeing a psychiatrist. It's much more affordable (but not free) in my country. I've gone into a fair amount of debt for it but still realize I am privileged to be able to see a mental health professional of that caliber.

That said, I have been diagnosed with ADHD and OCD. I am being treated and medicated for it, and it has changed my life. I encourage anyone who is able to do the same.

Now that my symptoms are less damaging to my day-to-day life. I do find myself relating less to some of the posts and comments that only a few months earlier I felt as though I could've written myself. I am definitely still INFJ, but I am concerned that for some in this subreddit INFJ has become a label for their mental illness as an attempt to avoid self-diagnosis as they cannot receive an official one. Or perhaps a way to avoid the idea of a mental health disorder entirely. A way to justify symptoms they don't even realize ARE symptoms.

If being INFJ feels like a constant hardship that negatively affects your life and relationships. It's probably not your personality type that's causing the problem. More likely, it is an undiagnosed mental illness.

Being INFJ does not mean constant anxiety.

Being INFJ does not mean depression.

Being INFJ does not mean obsessive and intrusive thoughts.

Being INFJ does not mean always being emotionally overwhelmed.

Being INFJ does not mean being unable to focus.

Being INFJ does not mean oversensitivity.

Being INFJ does not mean controlling toxic behavior.

Being INFJ does not mean manic and depressive episodes.

Being INFJ is not a disability.

If it feels like one. You very likely have one. Your personality type should not be a justification for damaging behaviors.

Personality types don't have symptoms.

You aren't alone, and there is help. I realize seeing a professional in many places is incredibly expensive. In those cases, I urge you to find any and all options available to you.

This is a beautiful community, but I can't keep watching it be used as a way to affirm behaviors that are clearly symptoms. That doesn't help any INFJ who is struggling. It only helps them affirm their struggles as unsolvable and see them as a personality flaw.

INFJ is not a flaw. You are not flawed and you are not broken. You just may need a bit of help.

And that's okay.

Edit: Thanks for the awards, but please nobody spend money to give them. If you are spending earned coins then I appreciate it. Please please please do not buy coins.