The Parkinson Personality

      

 I have always been someone who questions myself why I do things, say things, feel things, and why things happen as they do in my life. I also spend a lot of time wondering why people react to me in the ways they do, especially when it is feels uncomfortable or negative.

            This may be, as Janice Walton-Hadlock suggests, because the “fight or flight” response is permanently turned on, or as the Chinese and energy healers might say, triple warmer is working overtime inside of me. Janice says that it is always this way for the PDer. In other words, perhaps I am in an anxious state when I am asking these questions. She suggests it is part of a Parkinson personality, a personality type that is pervasive in our population.

            My brain does buzz with a steady stream of thoughts; sometimes worries, but my interest in the personal are not all a bad thing. Recently, I dug up Riso and Hudson’s books on personality types because I remembered reading and enjoying one of their books 25 years ago. Now, as then, I want to understand myself better.

            The book to start with is Discovering Your Personality Type, which contains a questionnaire with 144 questions. It tells you how to assess yourself to learn which is your personality type and what is your “wing.”  Each of the nine types has two possible wings, so it is possible to fine-tune the result to one of 27 types.

            I remember finding Riso and Hudson’s descriptions of types in healthy, average and unhealthy modes to be illuminating for myself and in understanding my family. I also liked the potential for growth, which they call integration, or decline, which they call disintegration. The personality types are arranged on the ancient enneagram symbol and by following its pattern of movement one can learn something of your possible goal in life.              

            The second book I have is Personality Types, which contains in depth analyses of the types.

            After taking the questionnaire it was revealed that I am a number 5 with a 4 wing. Now if that corresponds with a Parkinson’s Personality I wouldn’t be surprised. But a HEALTHY 5 with a 4 wing or a 5 who is moving towards an 8… that would be different. 

           How does one get healthy? That’s what this blog is about. Learning about all aspects of your own personality is certainly helpful in becoming healthy.

            I'm wondering. Am I getting there?