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INTP—introverted, intuitive, thinking, and perceiving—is one of the 16 personality types described by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). People who score as an INTP personality type are often described as quiet and analytical. They enjoy spending time alone, thinking about how things work, and coming up with solutions to problems.

INTPs have a rich inner world and would rather focus their attention on their internal thoughts rather than the external world. They typically do not have a wide social circle, but they do tend to be close to a select group of people. 

The INTP personality type is known as the logician because their thoughts and behaviors are based on logic. There are two INTP subtypes:

• INTP-A: The “assertive logician” tends to be more comfortable with themselves and more confident than an INTP-T. They are also more satisfied with their circumstances.
• INTP-T: The “turbulent logician” feels less confidence, comfort with themselves, and satisfaction than an INTP-A.

Key INTP Characteristics

What is someone with an INTP personality type like? Here are a few key characteristics:

• INTPs are quiet, reserved, and thoughtful. As introverts, they prefer to socialize with a small group of close friends with whom they share common interests and connections.
• An INTP enjoys thinking about theoretical concepts and tends to value intellect over emotion. They are logical and base decisions on objective information rather than subjective feelings.
• When analyzing data and making decisions, an INTP is highly logical and objective.
• INTPs tend to be flexible and good at thinking “outside of the box.”
• People with the INTP personality type think about the big picture rather than focusing on every tiny detail.
• INTPs like to keep their options open and feel limited by structure and planning.

INTP Cognitive Functions

The MBTI is based on psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s theory, which suggests that personality comprises several cognitive functions. The hierarchy of these functions establishes personality and behavioral patterns.

The dominant function is the one that plays the largest role in personality, although it is also supported by the auxiliary. The tertiary function is less developed, but still exerts some influence and becomes more pronounced as a person strengthens this area. The inferior function is largely unconscious and represents an area of weakness.

Here are the four levels of cognitive functions for an INTP.

Dominant: Introverted Thinking

This function focuses on how people take in information about the world. INTPs try to understand how things work. typically deconstructing things or ideas to see how things fit and function together.

INTPs tend to be highly logical and efficient thinkers. They like to have a complete understanding of something before they share an opinion or take action.

Auxiliary: Extraverted Intuition

INTPs explore what-ifs and possibilities, using insight, imagination, and experiences to form ideas. INTPs often go over what they know, seeking patterns until they can achieve a flash of inspiration or insight into a problem. They tend to spend a great deal of time thinking about the future and imagining all the possibilities.

Tertiary: Introverted Sensing

INTPs tend to be very detail-oriented, carefully categorizing all of the many facts and experiences they take in. As they collect new information, INTPs compare and contrast it with what they already know in order to make predictions about what they believe will happen next.

Inferior: Extraverted Feeling

INTPs tend to seek harmony in groups. While they are introverted, INTPs can be quite outgoing when they are around people with whom they are familiar and comfortable. In situations where they feel stress, however, INTPs shut down their feelings and struggle to connect with others. Under stress, they tend to rely on logic rather than feelings.

Personal Relationships With INTPs

As introverts, INTPs prefer spending time alone for the most part. Unlike extroverts, who gain energy from interacting with a wide group of people, introverts must expend energy in social situations.

After being around a lot of people, INTPs might feel like they need to be by themselves to recharge and find balance. While they may be shy around people they do not know well, INTPs tend to be warm and friendly with their close group of family and friends.

Because INTPs enjoy solitude and deep thinking, they sometimes strike others as aloof and detached. At times, people with this personality type can get lost in their own thoughts and lose track of the outside world. INTPs love ideas and place a high value on intelligence and knowledge.

In social situations, INTPs tend to be quite easy-going and tolerant. However, they can become unyielding when their beliefs or convictions are challenged. Their high emphasis on logic can make it difficult for INTPs to not correct others when their arguments aren’t rational or logical. Because they rely on their own minds, INTPs can also be very difficult to persuade.

Career Paths for the INTP

Because they enjoy theoretical and abstract concepts, INTPs often do particularly well in science-related careers. They are logical and have strong reasoning skills, but are also excellent at thinking creatively.

INTPs can be very independent and place a great deal of emphasis on personal freedom and autonomy. In some cases, they can be aggravated by authority figures, particularly those that they feel are trying to suppress their ability to think and act for themselves. Because of this, INTPs typically do best in careers that have a great deal of flexibility and independence.

Tips for Interacting With INTPs

If you have an INTP in your life, here are a few tips for interacting with them based on the nature of your relationship.

Friendships With INTPs

Shared interests are one of the best paths to forming a friendship with an INTP. They tend to value intellect over all else and can be very slow to form friendships. While this often leads to fewer friendships, the ones that an INTP does gain tend to be very close. Remember that your INTP friends may not be the best at dealing with excess emotions, but they love to bond over deep conversations and shared passions.

Parenting INTPs

If your child is an INTP, remember that they may respond better to reason and logic rather than emotion. Encourage your child to develop their intellectual interests and look for situations that may help them foster friendships. This can be an area where a child struggles, but putting them in contact with other kids with the same interests can be helpful.

Relationships

INTPs tend to live inside their minds, so they can be quite difficult to get to know. Even in romance, they often hold back until they feel that the other person has proven themselves worthy of hearing their innermost thoughts and feelings.

Although INTPs enjoy romance in the context of deeply committed relationships, they do not play games. So, if you are in a romantic relationship with an INTP, be honest and forthright.

Because INTPs are not good at understanding the emotional needs of others, you may need to be very direct about what you need and expect in that regard. INTPs also struggle to share their feelings, so you may need to pay attention to subtle signals that your partner is sending.

Collectivist cultures prioritize the needs and goals of the group as a whole over the needs and desires of each individual. In such societies, relationships with other members of the group and the interconnectedness among its people play a central role in each person’s identity.

Collectivism contrasts with individualism, in which personal needs take precedence.

Traits of Collectivist Cultures

In collectivistic cultures, people are considered “good” if they are generous, helpful, dependable, and attentive to the needs of others. This contrasts with individualistic cultures, which often place a greater emphasis on assertiveness and independence.

Collectivist cultures generally share these characteristics:

• Individuals define themselves in relation to others (for example, “I am a member of…”).
• Communication is often indirect to avoid potential conflict or embarrassment.
• Group loyalty is encouraged.
• Decisions are based on what is best for the group.
• Compromise is favored when a decision must be made to achieve greater levels of peace.
• Working as part of a group and supporting others are essential.
• Common goals are more important than individual pursuits.
• The rights of families and communities come before those of the individual.

Individualism vs. Collectivism

Collectivism stresses the importance of the community and places great value on unity, selflessness, and altruism. Individualism focuses on individual rights and concerns, independence, and personal identity.

These pervasive cultural differences can influence many aspects of society, from the way people shop, dress, and learn to how they conduct business.

For example, workers in a collectivist culture tend to sacrifice their own happiness for the greater good of the group. Those from individualistic cultures, on the other hand, may feel that their own well-being and goals carry greater weight.

The Impact of Collectivism

Collective cultures affect the people within them a few different ways.

Self-Perception

Culture influences self-concept. Although members of individualistic cultures might describe themselves in terms of personality traits and characteristics (e.g., “I am smart, funny, athletic, and kind”), those from collectivist cultures are more likely to describe themselves in terms of their social relationships and roles (e.g., “I am a good parent, sibling, and friend”).

Strong Relationships

Collectivist cultures are associated with low relational mobility, a term that describes the opportunities that individuals in a society have to form relationships with people of their choosing.

Low relational mobility means that relationships are stable, strong, and long-lasting. These relationships are usually formed due to factors such as family and geographical area, rather than personal choice.

In a collectivist culture, building relationships with new people can be difficult, partly because meeting them is, too. Strangers are more likely to remain strangers in a collectivistic culture than in an individualistic culture.

Paradoxically, this means that people in individualistic cultures devote more effort and energy toward actively maintaining close relationships, often through increased self-disclosure and greater intimacy.

Unlike collectivist cultures where stable relationships are expected, relationships in individualistic cultures tend to be more fraught and fragile. People must make a greater effort to maintain these relationships.

Conformity

Cultural differences also influence the motivation to either stand out or fit in with the rest of the group. For instance, one study found that, in a collectivist culture, people submitting an online review are less likely to go against the average rating or express emotions in their review.

Conformity also appears within certain industries. According to research published in the Journal of Economic Growth, descendants of pre-industrial agricultural groups tend to favor collectivist cultures, working in more routine occupations as opposed to driving innovation.

Potential Pitfalls of Collectivism

There are some potential drawbacks of collective cultures.

Social Anxiety

Research shows that collectivistic cultures may foster socially reticent and withdrawn behaviors. In one study, students from Asian cultures (collectivist) displayed higher levels of social anxiety than students from European cultures (individualist).

However, it may not be collectivist values alone that contributed to this. After analyzing the data, the researchers suggested that some of the increase in anxiety could be attributed to Asian American students having greater difficulty in being able to recognize and read emotion.

Less Social Support

People in collectivist cultures tend to be more cautious about sharing their personal problems with their friends. Research shows that they are also cautious when sharing their knowledge within the workplace (even when working in teams), often only doing so if incentivized or if they are highly altruistic.

Instead, people often seek out what is known as implicit social support. This involves spending time with supportive people without actually opening up about or addressing the source of the stress.

Maybe you quit smoking three months ago and you still feel bad. Will you ever stop craving cigarettes? First of all, it’s great that you’ve taken the step to quit—it’s not easy and that’s a fantastic achievement. If you’re feeling like you should be “over” cigarettes by now, try not to put that kind of pressure on yourself. 

Ask any former smoker if they’re still triggered by the time of day, places, activities, emotions, and other people who smoke. Chances are, they’ll tell you that they’ve had a craving for a cigarette even a year after they quit. 

We know that sounds discouraging but let’s talk about what drives those urges and some ways that you can cope with cigarette cravings during your recovery.

Will I Crave Cigarettes Forever?

Right after you quit smoking, you go into nicotine withdrawal. During this time, having cravings for cigarettes throughout the day—which can be really intense—is totally normal. Cravings and the other symptoms of withdrawal should start to get better three to four weeks after you stop smoking.

The longer you go without smoking, the less frequent and intense your cravings will be. That said, don’t be surprised if you still get a craving for a cigarette months later. One study found that people reported getting cigarette cravings six months after they quit.

But hang in there! Another study found that people who quit smoking were much less likely to get cigarette cravings after hitting the one-year mark.

Why Am I Craving Cigarettes?

There are a lot of things you’ll encounter in your daily life during your recovery that could trigger a craving for a cigarette. For example: 

• Alcohol use
• Being in a place where they used to smoke
• Depressed mood
• Seeing someone smoke

If you’re having cravings months after you quit smoking, you’re probably getting triggered by your environment—either the one inside you (your thoughts and feelings) or the one outside of you (your home, work, etc.). Your emotions—think happiness, sadness, and boredom—are strong drivers of cigarette cravings. When you’re having big feelings, you might notice you all of a sudden want to smoke. 

The world outside you can also make you want to smoke, and you might not make the connection right away. For example, if you always get a craving for a cigarette when you have a glass of wine with dinner it might be because you would smoke when drinking alcohol.

Can’t figure out why being in a car makes you want to smoke? Think back to your smoking days—did you always have a cigarette in hand when you were driving?

Your brain has associated certain activities with smoking, so when you do them after you quit, your body and mind are still expecting a cigarette. 

Being around certain people can also trigger cigarette cravings–for example, maybe you used to smoke with a friend or with a specific coworker on your break at work

Try not to get down on yourself about the fact that your body made these associations with smoking. Research has shown that your genes may also play a role in cigarette cravings—and that’s not something you have any control over. You might be more likely than someone else to have longer-lasting cravings after quitting because of your genetics.

Remind yourself that you’re working on changing how you respond to your smoking triggers. With time and practice, those thoughts—and the urges that come with them—will fade. 

How to Get Rid of Cigarette Cravings

Just like you did in the first days of smoking cessation, one of the first things you want to do to try to curb cravings is find a way to get your mind off smoking. Pretty much everyone who quits smoking goes through this phase of recovery.

Rest Up and Get Ready

As much as you can, you want to be rested and ready to start your smoking cessation journey. Coming from a prepared and supported place will make it a little easier to get through the challenges of quitting smoking and resisting cravings. 

Think about the activities that relax and rejuvenate you and make them a priority in your day. 

Make a Self-Care Plan 

Staying nourished and sleeping well can ease physical and emotional tension. Daily exercise, even a short walk, can lift your mood and energy levels, and will also support your body as it heals from years of smoking.

If you feel like your cravings are getting more intense, take it as a sign that you need to take time for more self-care. 

Focus on Why You Want to Quit

Think back to when you made the decision you made to stop smoking. 

Maybe there was a specific moment when you said, “That’s it, it’s time to quit!” Was a scary talk about your health with your doctor a wake-up call? 

Or were there a bunch of little things in life building up over the years? Were you embarrassed when you couldn’t stop coughing during an important meeting at work? Were you hurt when you went in for a hug and your child said your breath stinks? Was there a tough conversation with your partner about your budget where you realized just how much you spend on cigarettes every month?

When you get the urge for a cigarette, it can feel like that’s the only thing in the world that matters. In that moment, shifting your focus back to the reasons you don’t want to smoke anymore can give you some perspective. 

It’s also an opportunity to shift from the negative consequences of smoking to the positive opportunities you’ll have when you quit. So, instead of using these things to make yourself feel bad about smoking, use them to inspire and excite you about how good you’ll feel when you quit. 

Let’s say you get the urge to smoke. Instead of taking a look at your bank account and beating yourself up about all the money you’ve spent on cigarettes over the year, think about a savings goal you have. For example, you might say, “I might want to go buy a pack of cigarettes now but I’d much rather save the money so we can take the kids to Disney next year.” 

Another example? Instead of being hard on yourself about the harm cigarettes have done to your health, think about the health benefits of quitting smoking. It might even be something as simple as, “In a few months, I bet my skin will look so much better!” 

Change Your Habits

Think back to what triggers your cravings—driving to work? Seeing a certain friend for Sunday brunch? A fight with your partner? 

One of the most challenging—but potentially interesting—parts of quitting smoking is trying to change what your brain associates with cigarettes. If you think of it more like a game, it might even feel a little fun. 

Once you figure out that something is a smoking trigger for you, avoiding it altogether might be the first step. But you can’t avoid places and people forever. Instead, you’ll want to change your brain and body’s association with those triggers. 

You don’t have to upend your entire life all at once with these changes, though. Just make little changes, one at a time. For example, if you always want to smoke when you get in the car to drive to work, try taking a different route to get there. Not only does this “shake up” your brain’s exceptions, but it also gives you something to focus on—you don’t want to get lost and be late!

If there’s a person you always used to smoke with, you’ll want to find something else that you two can share that doesn’t have anything to do with cigarettes. So, instead of having a “smoke break” at work together, maybe you take a walk. 

If the person is still smoking and you’re not sure that you want to be around them when they do, you can still find a way to stay connected. Instead of taking a smoke break, maybe you can take a “meme break” and text them a funny gif or link at that time of day as a lighthearted way to check-in. 

If the urge to smoke catches you off guard, don’t panic. Your goal is to stay present in the moment without acting on the craving. If you’re finding this hard to do, tap into strategies like mindfulness meditation or breathing exercises.

Another strategy to keep in your back pocket for when you need to get through a cigarette craving? The five Ds of smoking cessation: delay, distract, drink water, deep breathing, and discuss.

Ask For Support

Before you quit, you want to make a plan for what you’ll do when the urge to smoke comes up. A key part of this will be making sure you’re not alone in your journey.  

Figure out who you can turn to—a trusted family member or friend. Who in your life can offer encouragement while you wait for the craving to pass?

You might also want to join a support group for quitting smoking, either in person or online. You might also find that a quit-smoking app on your phone is a helpful tool.

Talk to Your Doctor

Keep your doctor in the loop about your plan to quit smoking. They can be another layer in your support system and can step in if you find that your coping strategies for cravings aren’t working well enough. 

You may find that nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) helps you get through cigarette cravings. NRT gives your body small doses of nicotine without the toxic chemicals in cigarettes. It comes in lozenges, mouth sprays, gum, and patches. You and your doctor can talk about which one would be best for you.

There are also prescription medications to help you quit smoking such as Zyban (bupropion) and Chantix (varenicline tartrate). However, these tend to be most effective when taken before you quit smoking—so that’s why you want to tell your doctor about your plan before you stop. 

Face Your Fear

If you’re afraid to quit smoking—or afraid you won’t succeed—pause and take a deep breath. It’s normal to feel unsure and even anxious about making a huge change in your life—even if you know it’s a positive one. 

It sounds cliche, but it’s the truth: as with many other challenging times in our lives, we can only take it one day at a time.

Be Kind to Yourself

If you have a craving for a cigarette, it does not mean you’ve failed at quitting or that you’re doomed to fail. It also does not mean that you need to punish yourself if you get the urge to smoke.

Think about it—negative feelings are a pretty big trigger for a craving, right? Putting yourself down for having a craving can be counterproductive because it just makes you feel worse.

You also don’t want to punish yourself for having a craving by taking something positive away—for example, saying, “No latte for you today, you wanted to smoke this morning!”

You might feel like punishment is going to push you to “do better,” but when you take away something positive in your life that you have to look forward to, you’re just making another empty place in your life that you might end up feeling like a cigarette could fill.  

There are several theories about what causes depression. The condition most likely results from a complex interplay of individual factors, but one long-prevalent explanation suggested that abnormal brain chemistry plays a primary role.

More recent findings indicate that depression is likely not the result of chemical imbalances in the brain. However, the belief that chemical imbalances are responsible for causing depression is widely held by the American public. One survey found that nearly 85% of respondents believed that such imbalances were the likely cause of depression.

Sometimes, people with depression relate the condition to a specific factor, such as a traumatic event in their life. However, it’s not uncommon for people who are depressed to be confused about the cause. They may even feel they don’t have “a reason” to be depressed.

In these cases, learning about the theories of what causes depression can be helpful. Here’s an overview of what is known (and not yet known) about how the brain’s chemistry may influence depression.

Brain Chemicals and Depression

Previously, it was suggested that, for some people, having too little of certain substances in the brain (called neurotransmitters) could contribute to the onset or worsening of depression. According to this idea, restoring the balance of brain chemicals could help alleviate symptoms.

This is where the different classes of antidepressant medications may come in. Many antidepressants alter levels of certain neurotransmitters in the brain.

The most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants, known as SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, block the reabsorption of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that can affect mood. The “serotonin hypothesis” suggested that low levels of this neurotransmitter were linked to depression. The idea was that increasing serotonin levels could help improve mood and relieve symptoms of depression.

Recent Evidence

The belief that depression is caused by chemical imbalances has been declining in the scientific and medical community for some time. A study published in a 2023 issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry found further reason to doubt this explanation. The research indicated there is little evidence to suggest that depression is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain.

While such findings challenge the idea that a serotonin deficiency is responsible for causing depression, it doesn’t mean that mental health treatments are ineffective. More research is needed to fully understand what causes depression, how antidepressants affect the condition, and what other treatments may also be effective for managing symptoms of depression.

The 2023 study also found a strong connection between traumatic life events and the onset of depression. This suggests that depression is caused by complex factors, including environmental variables, and cannot be reduced to simply a chemical imbalance in the brain.

Depression Is Complex

Even with the help of medications that affect specific neurotransmitters in the brain, depression is a highly complex condition to treat. What proves to be an effective treatment for one person with depression may not work for someone else. Even something that has worked well for someone in the past may become less effective or even stop working for reasons researchers are still trying to understand.

Researchers continue to try to understand the mechanisms of depression, including brain chemicals, in hopes of finding explanations for these complexities and developing more effective treatments.

Depression Discussion Guide

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What Are Neurotransmitters?

Put simply, neurotransmitters are chemical messengers in the brain. The nerve cells of the brain use neurotransmitters to communicate with each other, and the messages they send are believed to play a role in mood regulation.

The space between two nerve cells is called the synapse. When cells want to communicate, neurotransmitters can be packaged up and released from the end (axon) of a presynaptic cell. As a packet of neurotransmitters crosses the space, it can be taken up by receptors for a specific chemical on postsynaptic cells (dendrite). For example, serotonin receptors pick up serotonin molecules.

If there are any excess molecules in the space, the presynaptic cell will gather them back up (reuptake) and reprocess them to use in another communication. Each type of neurotransmitter can carry a different message and plays a unique role in creating an individual’s brain chemistry.

The chemical theory of depression suggested that imbalances in brain chemistry were a primary cause of depression. However, recent findings found no evidence to support this idea.

The Role of Key Neurotransmitters

The three neurotransmitters that are often implicated in depression are:

Other neurotransmitters, including glutamate, GABA, and acetylcholine, can send messages within the brain. Researchers are still learning about the role these brain chemicals play in depression and other conditions, such as Alzheimer’s, fibromyalgia, and sleep disorders.

Dopamine

Dopamine creates positive feelings associated with reward or reinforcement that motivate us to continue with a task or activity. Dopamine is believed to play an essential role in a variety of conditions affecting the brain, including Parkinson’s and schizophrenia.

There is also evidence that reduced dopamine levels can contribute to depression in some people. When other treatments have failed, medications that affect the dopamine system are often added and can be helpful for some people with depression.

Norepinephrine

Norepinephrine is both a neurotransmitter and a hormone. It plays a role in the “fight or flight response” along with adrenaline. It helps send messages from one nerve cell to the next.

Schildkraut proposed depression occurs when there is too little norepinephrine in specific brain circuits. Alternatively, mania results when too much of this neurotransmitter is in the brain.

There is evidence that supports the hypothesis; however, it has not gone unchallenged by researchers. For one, changes in norepinephrine levels do not affect mood in every person. Further, medications specifically targeting norepinephrine may alleviate depression in some people but not others.

Serotonin

Another neurotransmitter is serotonin or the “feel good” chemical. In addition to helping regulate your mood, serotonin has a number of different jobs throughout the body from your gut to blood clotting to sexual function.

In relation to its role in depression, serotonin has taken center stage in the past few decades thanks to the advent of antidepressant medications like Prozac (fluoxetine) and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). As their name implies, these medications specifically act on serotonin molecules.

Newer antidepressants called serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) like Effexor (venlafaxine) target both serotonin and norepinephrine. Tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) also affect norepinephrine and serotonin, but they have the added effect of influencing histamine and acetylcholine. These substances produce side effects, such as dry mouth, blurry vision, constipation, and urinary hesitancy.

SSRIs, on the other hand, do not affect histamine and acetylcholine, don’t have the same side effects, and are safer from a cardiovascular standpoint. Therefore, doctors, psychiatrists, and people with depression tend to prefer them to older classes of antidepressants like TCAs.

Causes of Low Neurotransmitter Levels

While recent findings found no evidence to support the idea that chemical imbalances are responsible for causing depression, many people do find relief from taking antidepressants that impact neurotransmitter levels. An important question is what might cause the low levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine in the first place?

Low levels of neurotransmitters can result when there is a breakdown anywhere in the process. Research has indicated several potential causes of chemical imbalances in the brain, including:

• Molecules that help make neurotransmitters (specific enzymes) are in short supply
• Not enough receptor sites to receive the neurotransmitter
• Presynaptic cells are taking the neurotransmitter back up before it has a chance to reach the receptor cell
• Too few of the molecules that build neurotransmitters (chemical precursors)
• Too little of a specific neurotransmitter (for example, serotonin) is being produced

Several emerging theories are concerned with the factors that promote lowered levels, such as cellular (specifically mitochondrial) stress. However, one of the main challenges for researchers and doctors hoping to connect depression to low levels of specific brain chemicals is that they don’t have a way to consistently and accurately measure them.

Current and Future Depression Treatments

Understanding the chemistry of depression may help people better understand the treatments available. Psychotherapy is helpful for some people with depression, but others also find greater relief when these treatments are used alongside medications.

To complicate treatment further, medication does not always work for people with depression. One study evaluating the effectiveness of currently available antidepressants found that these medications only work in about 60% of people with depression.

Whatever might be causing your symptoms, depression affects your internal and external life. Therefore, medication alone may not be sufficient to address all the ways in which depression can affect you.

Research suggests that neurotransmitter levels can be affected by factors other than medication and that psychotherapy can help a person learn about them. For example, stress may contribute to low levels of certain neurotransmitters.

While taking an antidepressant medication might help with the symptoms, it doesn’t necessarily address the other underlying causes of depression. In this situation, therapy to improve stress management, heal from emotional wounds, learn to regulate emotions, and improve thinking patterns could potentially be helpful.

Depression Treatments on the Horizon

Researchers are studying other molecular pathways in the brain (including the glutaminergic, cholinergic, and opioid systems) to see their role in depression. It may be that rather than a simple deficiency in one specific brain chemical being the causative factor, some depression symptoms could be related to the relative levels of each type of neurotransmitter in different brain regions.

Rather than being a simple equation of some unknown factor causing low levels of one or more neurotransmitters and these low levels creating the symptoms of depression, the actual basis of depression is much more complex.

While this complexity is often evident to people living with depression, medical professionals and researchers are still trying to understand the intricate nature of diagnosing and treating the condition.

For example, in addition to the role of neurotransmitters, we know there are multiple factors involved in causing depression, ranging from genetic factors and childhood experiences to our present day-to-day lives and relationships. Even inflammation is being explored as a potential contributing factor.

Combatting the Chemical Imbalance Stigma

Acknowledging the limitations of our current knowledge of depression and its treatment is important. In recent years, some researchers have expressed concerns that pharmaceutical companies marketing antidepressant medications may have misled consumers by oversimplifying or misrepresenting the research into the brain chemistry of depression.

Several studies have found that when told depression is caused by a chemical imbalance, people tend to feel less confident in their ability to manage the condition. Other studies have found that when depression is framed as a disease of the brain, people are more likely to feel the need to avoid a person with depression (usually out of fear that they are dangerous).

Not all the research has been negative, though. Several studies included in a 2012 meta-analysis indicated that one of the most effective ways to address and challenge social stigma around mental illness is to educate and discuss conditions and treatment—which includes being upfront and honest about what is still unknown or not well understood.

Future Directions

Accepting how little we truly know about the chemistry of depression can help us maintain perspective and expectations for the medications used to treat depression. For people who are trying to find the right treatment, understanding the complex chemistry can be reassuring when a particular drug doesn’t work for them or if they need to try more than one antidepressant.

Understanding the complexity of depression can also be helpful for those who have been offered hurtful advice, such as being told to “just snap out of it.” It is no easier for someone to forget they are depressed than it would be for someone with diabetes to lower their blood sugar by simply not thinking about it.

Being realistic about the limitations of our knowledge can help us remember that, for the time being, there is no one treatment that will work for everyone with depression. More often than not, an interdisciplinary approach is needed. At the very least, every person dealing with depression needs and deserves a support team.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a complex, multilayered condition that’s as difficult to diagnose as it is to treat. One of its paradoxes involves lying. People with BPD fear abandonment and have trouble maintaining relationships. Nevertheless, they tend to lie, which ruins trust and intimacy, fosters resentment, and harms the very relationships they fear losing. Many family members and friends of those with BPD cite lying as a major problem in their relationships.

Is Lying a Symptom of BPD?

Despite its frequent occurrence with BPD, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR) does not list lying as a diagnostic criterion of BPD. That’s partly because lying in BPD is generally not pathological; instead, it’s a misguided attempt to avoid abandonment.

Paradoxically, the consequences of lying are particularly tough for a person with BPD. Lying harms the very relationships they fear losing. They tend to sabotage the relationships they desperately fear losing.

The Connection Between BPD and Lying

Lying, like other signs and symptoms of the condition, tends to occur because the person with BPD is unable to regulate their feelings and impulses. It’s an act borne out of pain and fear. Often, people with BPD even believe their own lies.

Here are a few of the issues at the root of lying in BPD.

Intense Emotions

People with BPD experience intense emotions that they can’t regulate; this often distorts their perceptions. They tend to view things through a strictly emotional lens that characterizes people and situations as either good or bad, with no middle ground.

They look for details that confirm what they feel and ignore those that don’t. Either way, the result looks like deceit, and it can be very frustrating for friends and family members.

Impulsivity

BPD is also associated with impulsivity, the tendency to do things without thinking about the consequences. Sometimes, lying occurs when the person with BPD is just not thinking before responding.

Shame

People with BPD often experience deeply entrenched shame. Lying may be one way to conceal mistakes or weaknesses that involve feelings of shame and guilt.

Distorted Self-Perceptions

A person with BPD typically has an unstable self-identity. Sometimes, lies help them bridge the gap between their true identity and the one they’ve adopted for the time being.

Rejection Sensitivity

People with BPD are very sensitive to rejection. They may lie or exaggerate to cover mistakes or to maintain an overly positive image so that others will not reject them.

The Biology of Lying

Based on an imaging technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), researchers have found that deception is linked to the activation of the prefrontal cortex, which sits at the very front of the brain. The prefrontal cortex plays an important part in determining personality, planning cognitive tasks, and regulating social and emotional behavior. 

Interestingly, the prefrontal cortex is activated whether the deception is related to emotional or neutral deception (for example, lying about something to avoid a negative reaction versus lying about what you ate for breakfast). However, the basis of lying, such as whether the lie is meant to help or harm the person who is lying, may affect whether other regions of the brain are involved. 

Lying and Relationships

Whatever the reason for lying, it can be extremely detrimental to relationships of any kind. Often, friends and family members come to distrust the person with BPD and withdraw from them—precisely what the person with BPD typically fears most. Lying jeopardizes an essential support system and harms everyone involved.

Romantic Relationships

People with borderline personality disorder have difficulty maintaining relationships and tend toward quantity rather than quality. Nevertheless, a healthy, fulfilling romantic relationship with someone who has BPD is possible; in fact, some people are attracted to the emotionality, intensity, and excitement of such a relationship.

The key is knowing all you can about the disorder. Symptoms that can affect your relationship include impulsivity, lying, fear of abandonment, and instability. Your loved one may go from obsessively loving you (idealization) to seemingly hating you (devaluation) in a phenomenon known as splitting; this reflects the tendency to see people as all good or all bad. Couples counseling can help you navigate these issues together.

How to Cope With BPD and Lying

BPD and its associated behaviors, such as lying, can cause a great deal of stress. The first line of defense is information. Read all you can about the condition. Resources, both online and in print, abound. Find support groups, blogs, articles, and books. For example, the National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder offers a list of recommended books on BPD.

Try to address the root of the lying, not the lie itself. It likely stems from fear that you’ll walk away from the person or think negatively of them. Reassuring the person that you will not abandon them may help.

When talking to a person with BPD, stay as calm and unemotional as you can. Address the lie directly with facts, not emotion.

Most importantly, seek support. Your loved one’s lying, even though it’s probably not malicious, can take a toll on your own mental health. Speak with a counselor, find support groups, and chat with the person’s healthcare provider to find healthy ways to cope.

Is Treatment for BPD Effective?

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), a structured outpatient program developed by Marsha Linehan, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Washington, is considered the most effective treatment for BPD. Rather than making the person with BPD feel as though their emotions aren’t valid or important, DBT teaches skills to help the person cope with them in healthy, productive ways.

Typically, DBT involves both group and individual therapy, sometimes along with phone or video coaching, and supplemented with reading materials and workbooks. The person with BPD monitors their own symptoms and skills application, and their coach tracks their progress.

Dialectical behavior therapy is based on the philosophy of dialectics, which maintains that nothing is all bad or all good, and openness to ideas other than your own is important.