Eating Disorder Talk

We’ve all spent too much time playing around with personality tests on the internet - What ice cream flavour would you be? What Disney princess are you? and How virginal are you? are some of the best (time wasters) out there.

But what if your personality type could predict or indicate why you have an eating disorder? What if you could take this diagnosis of personality and apply it to getting healthy because in black and white, a test was telling you what your weaknesses and strengths were?

I came across the Enneagram series a while back and the questions bounced around in my head. So here I go, your guinea pig. I’ve taken the 10 minute test and my results are:

Type 6: The Guardian is my strongest type, followed immediately by Types 1 and 7, the Achiever and Optimist. What does that mean? Using the descriptions from the series, you can believe I’m firstly:

• a hard-headed thinker who is focussed on securing the well-being of others.
• loyal, trustworthy, able to work without need of special recognition for long periods.
• suspicious, moody, slow to trust and forgive.
• at times paranoid due to a heightened sense of awareness, which leads to anxiety.

I’m secondly:

• a creative thinker with the ability to see the silver lining, who chooses to use this behaviour to charm and please others.
• concerned with others’ happiness, sometimes above my own, for the fact that it makes me happy, if I’ve made others happy.
• A capable and responsible problem solver, who can become addicted easily to self-gratifying experiences as a method of escapism.
• Critical and hurtful when feeling as though I’ve been taken advantage of.
• Purposeful and efficient, sacrificial to meet a goal, an idealist.
• Obsessed with the correct way that tasks can be accomplished.
• Privy to a harsh inner critic, who leads me to guilt and irritability for not meeting my own high standards.

Now, from your own thoughts, feelings, research, etc., how similar are you to my results? Do you think that your own results would differ greatly? Try the test, let me know. After you’ve done that, check out the fifth part in the Enneagram Series, Working on Yourself and the sixth and final part of the series, Working with Others.