Hi CT first of all thank you so much for all your amazing knowledge and articles. I’ve been a fan of yours for literally over 10 years now.
I know they conflict but I really strongly identify with both Type 1 and Type 3. I’m wondering how to manage having both traits in training and nutrition because they point in different directions.
On the one hand, I have a lot of Type 3 traits (predictably) because I’ve been diagnosed with severe anxiety and perfectionism.
I love mastering skills. I love diligently working hard at something for a long time.
I like having a structured plan to get my work done.
I really want to control situations.
I can be shy and introverted when I first meet people in that I find it difficult to open up and be myself.
I want to avoid conflicts when I’m afraid of disappointing others.
On the other hand, I also have a lot of Type 1 traits.
I love learning new things and having new experiences in all areas of my life. I try to always learn something new every day and I’m always seeking out new experiences.
I’m very outgoing in that I like talking to new people and going out and doing new things.
When I’m comfortable (i.e. not anxious), I always become the leader in whatever social situation I’m in. I love being the leader because it feels good. It’s only when I feel uncomfortable that I’m not.
When I open up, I’m very talkative and I feel confident.
I’m really competitive. Like even playing on a rec softball, I’m dying to do my absolute best.
For training, I’ve always gravitated towards high intensity low volume. I love lifting in the 3-5RM. I love sprinting hate jogging. I love pushing myself as hard as I can per each workout (I’ve had to learn the importance of rest days and dialing it back with age). But I’m prone to taking on way too much work and continuing to push myself day after day even when I’m getting burnt out.
When I had my best period of training, for a few years I was lifting heavy 2-3 days a week and boxing the other 3 days that week. I loved the intensity of boxing in hard heavy bag work, the conditioning drills and mitt work but found sparring stressful (as I eventually got a severe concussion).
Am I mix a of these two? How can I learn to manage the conflict? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
I am going to let let this thread slide. But as I said many times I do NOT want to make neurotype diagnostic online. First it’s not always 100% accurate especially with more complex cases and also because it’s a service I offer.
Were you always like that or were you different when you were a kid? Did you suffer a MAJOR stress in your past?
That’s completely fair CT. I apologize. I did run multiple searches on these forums and looked on your thibarmy website to see what you had said about mixes of 1 and 3 in the past before posting. I was hoping to find an applicable past answer so I wouldn’t have to post this. I reached out because having these contradictory feelings is hard for me and I was hoping that your expertise could help me. I am also happy to delete this thread if you feel that is more respectful.
I’m not sure that I completely understand your question. What do you mean by “like that”? I think the answer is both. I’ve always had anxiety since I was a child but also ended up suffering a major stress in my past as I had a literal mental breakdown a few years ago from the accumulation of numerous sources of stress (family, career, relationships, etc). I’ve had a shitstorm of personal problems and stress in my life for the past few years which made my anxiety and perfectionism way worse. The period of best training I mentioned earlier was before this shitstorm happened but I still had anxiety and perfectionism back then.
There are no mixes. But it is possible to have traits of two types, for example because of your upbringing. I had a client who was a 1B BUT had many type 3 behavior traits because of the way he was brought up (traditional Chinese family, very structured, disciplined, etc.). A big stressful event can also change the neurotype by negatively affecting the GABA or serotonin systems. My wife for example is a 1B, but she had 3 back-to-back-to-back stressful events (loss of our first child while she was 8 weeks pregnant, losing her career as a police officer and me breaking up with her… I got back with her a bit later). Since then she became more anxious and needs to control things a lot more.
Yeah that’s what I mean. Not unlike my wife. She was (still is) a 1B. But the perfect storm of stressful events depleted her GABA which made her a lot more anxious.
Being structured, needing to be in control wanting to avoid conflicts are subconscious measures to decrease anxiety. So yeah, you tend to see them more in Type 3 and 2Bs since they normally have the highest level of anxiety, but anybody who depletes their GABA or serotonin, can suffer from anxiety and will develop the subconscious mechanisms mentioned above.
In my wife’s case it got really bad (she had a nervous breakdown and then started to have panic attacks). Restoring her GABA fixed all of that but she still has some type 3 traits. But essentially what you described in your first post is exactly like my wife.
So you are likely a Type 1B with depleted GABA because of excessive and recurring stress which gives you anxiety due to the incapacity to slow your brain down when it gets too amped up.