ENTP Depression (A complete guide)

In this article, we will discuss the ENTP Depression. ENTP is a personality type and because each personality type is different the way a person deals with depression can be different too. To get to know about ENTP depression, we will first look at the personality characteristics of the ENTP personality type, then we will move on to talk about how the symptoms of depression may look like for this personality type. We will also look at ways for ENTP personality type people to overcome or help someone known with this personality to overcome depression. 

What is ENTP Depression?

Depression in the ENTP personality type may surge from their tendency to overthink, be an idealist, sometimes narcissistic, rationalist thinker. Depression may differ from person to person depending on the personality of the person. Let us read on to understand what it looks like for an ENTP personality. 

What is the ENTP personality type?

The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an introspective self-report questionnaire to find the personality type of a person. It indicates differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. The test attempts to assign four categories: introversion or extraversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, judging, or perceiving. One letter from each category is taken to produce a four-letter test result, like “INFJ” or “ENFP”. 

One such personality type is the ENTP which when expanded to its full form is Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.  

Characteristics of a person with the ENTP personality

ENTPs are well known as “The Innovator”, “The Visionary” and “The Debater” mainly because they are considered to be idea-oriented.

They are great at conversations and like to engage in talks with people who differ from their point of view because this lets them have a debate. 

They are more future-oriented rather than focusing on the present. Because they are not very detail-oriented, they may find it difficult to complete tasks or stick to tasks that require a lot of their time and consistent efforts. 

While making major decisions, they take their time to see what happens. ENTPs are curious creatures and focus on understanding the world around them. They are constantly absorbing new information and ideas and quickly arriving at conclusions. They are able to understand new things quite quickly.

They are usually friendly and easy to get along with. But, these debaters can sometimes clingy so vehemently to their ideas or plans that they lose sight of their close relationships.

One common myth about ENTPs is that they love to argue simply without any base for their arguments. While people with this personality type are often willing to play the devil’s advocate at times, they enjoy debates as a way of exploring a topic, learning what other people believe, and helping others see the other side of the story. They look forward to expanding their world-view in the process of having intense conversations. 

ENTPs can dwell too much time in their philosophical world which can push them into a dark place.  

What does depression feel like for a person with an ENTP personality? 

ENTPs tend to overthink a lot as a personality trait. Overthinking and rumination of thoughts can lead to depression or worsen the state of depression. 

ENTPs love making sense of the world on their own terms, which entails them spending a lot of their time trying to analyze, assess, and reassess thoughts. Spending a lot of time with their own thoughts could lead to reflective, meaningful inferences but also could lead to depression.   

Trying to rationalize all their thoughts and emotions can be tiresome for a person with this personality type which can lead to emotional and mental exhaustion and depression. 

A person with an ENTP personality may be more prone to having an existential crisis leading to depression. An existential crisis may arise along with depressive tendencies where the person thinks too much about the meaning and purpose of their lives. 

Being idealists, ENTPs have high expectations from their own selves and people related to them or colleagues. When these expectations are not met, it leads to suffering and pain that could have been avoided. ENTPs may be utterly dejected and depressed when they internalize their suffering. 

Except for these ENTP personality-specific possibilities leading to depression, there is not much difference in what a person with depression may go through. 

The ICD 10 explains depression in the following manner, “In typical depressive episodes of all three varieties described below (mild) moderate, and severe, the individual usually suffers from depressed mood, loss of interest and enjoyment, and reduced energy leading to increased fatiguability and diminished activity. Marked tiredness after the only slight effort is common. Other common symptoms are:”

• “reduced concentration and attention;
• reduced self-esteem and self-confidence;
• ideas of guilt and unworthiness (even in a mild type of episode);
• bleak and pessimistic views of the future;
• ideas or acts of self-harm or suicide;
• disturbed sleep;
• diminished appetite.”

Apart from these symptoms, this leading classification of mental health syndromes and disorders also specifies the typical somatic or physical symptoms of depression, which is a case where the other symptoms are not that prominent, like in masked depression or agitated depression, may be very important, as they may be the only symptoms that something is wrong at all.

The somatic symptoms of depression are described as the following in the ICD 10:

“loss of interest or pleasure in activities that are normally enjoyable; lack of emotional reactivity to normally pleasurable surroundings and events; waking in the morning 2 hours or more before the usual time; depression worse in the morning; objective evidence of definite psycho-motor retardation or agitation (remarked on or reported by other people); marked loss of appetite; weight loss (often defined as 5% or more of body weight in the past month); marked loss of libido. Usually, this somatic syndrome is not regarded as present unless about four of these symptoms are definitely present.”

Ways to overcome depression for ENTP personality type

Open up about your emotions

It might be difficult to do so especially for a person with an ENTP personality who often gets scared of feeling vulnerable. People with this personality may think it is a good idea to isolate themselves from the outside world when they are feeling low. Or, because they are extroverts, they might even socially mingle well but not disclose the chaos in their inner world to the outside world. In a socially amiable person, depression might not be evidently seen. Therefore, the onus of sharing and expression comes solely onto the person because people can’t pick clues from their behavior and help them out. This is an important part of recovery. Sharing and expression unload a lot of burdens. 

Don’t be obsessed with productivity

Take joy in leisure time. Spend time doing things your mind and body would like to do for relaxation. Being in a state of constant productivity could lead to exhaustion. The need to be productive all the time also puts a lot of performance pressure on the person with an ENTP personality. Devoting time for self-care should be part of the daily routine and should be done guilt-free.

Leisure time activities and self-care activities could be the same or different. For example, one might like to write during their leisure time which can also be a self-care activity because of its reflective and healing benefits. On the other hand, someone’s leisure time activity will be playing a sport which can be healing for some people but a little time of inner quietude apart from playing a sport will be beneficial.   

Thinking is an overpowering aspect of the ENTP which can result in the person being logical all the time while undermining their emotions. Instead of neglecting their own feelings, the ENTP needs to learn to accept them and take notice of what they are really going through. 

While working on acceptance of emotions is important, applying logic can be used in their favor. The way in which the ENTP can benefit from their factual and logical minds is by doing research into a better understanding of depression and why they are experiencing it. Taking the time to learn more about it, can help the ENTP accept it much more openly. Instead of trying to bury these feelings, they can work towards understanding them and accepting that pushing them aside is not going to actually help solve the problem.    

Consult a psychiatrist 

A psychiatrist can prescribe medication, for example, antidepressants based on the severity of the condition of the person. Antidepressants are an important part of recovery and going to a professional should not be delayed. 

Seek mental health therapy 

Consulting a counselor/ psychotherapist is essential in mental health issues. This, most often, goes hand in hand with medication based on the severity of depression. 

A counselor can bring in newer ways of perception, help the person to emote better while engaging in healthy boundary-making. The counselor can also help the person eradicate irrational thoughts and beliefs that inhibit the person’s well-being. The counselor and the client, together, also work on and construct healthier coping mechanisms against stressors for the client. 

Improve lifestyle choices and work towards good health

Health is a concept with many interlinkages and it is also all-encompassing. One can’t expect to have good mental health if their physical health is deteriorating and vice-versa. Exercising, healthy eating habits, good sound sleep, and practicing mindfulness, along with any medication/therapy if need be, can help attain victory over any condition, including depression. 

BetterHelp: A Better Alternative

Those who are seeking therapy online may also be interested in BetterHelp. BetterHelp offers plenty of formats of therapy, ranging from live chats, live audio sessions and live video sessions. In addition, unlimited messaging through texting, audio messages and even video messages are available here.

BetterHelp also offers couples therapy and therapy for teenagers in its platform. Furthermore, group sessions can also be found in this platform, covering more than twenty different topics related to mental health and mental illness. The pricing of BetterHelp is also pretty cost-effective, especially considering the fact that the platform offers financial aid to most users.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the ENTP Depression. ENTP is a personality type and because each personality type is different the way a person deals with depression can be different too. To get to know about ENTP depression, we first looked at the personality characteristics of the ENTP personality type, then we moved on to talk about how the symptoms of depression may look like for this personality type. We also looked at ways for ENTP personality type people to overcome or help someone known with this personality to overcome depression.

Frequently Asked Questions: ENTP Depression

References 

https://personalitygrowth.com/

https://www.verywellmind.com/the-entp-personality-type-and-characteristics-2795982#:~:text=An%20Overview%20of%20the%20ENTP%20Personality%20Type&text=People%20with%20this%20personality%20type,%22%20and%20%22the%20debater.%22