Here's how your personality type is impacting your health.
Is it helping you stay healthy, or getting in the way?
Happy Wednesday, everyone.
Dr. Alice Burron here from The Health Navigator Group. 👋🏼 Today we’re talking about an easily overlooked facet of health decision making: our personalities.
We know that personality effects almost all of our behaviors. But have you ever considered how your personality might be driving how you manage your health?
Think about it. Why do some people handle health decisions with ease while others struggle? Or why do some people diligently manage their health while others don’t?
Sure, context and circumstance play a role — but ultimately, personality drives behavior.
Knowing your temperament will help you recognize when your personality enables you to stay healthy and when it gets in the way.
Today’s letter is a slightly modified excerpt from my upcoming book, which will be out early next year. I have a section dedicated to this part of our behavioral health, and how deeply impacts our approach to healing.
Let’s dive in.
What is your general personality type?
If you don’t know, you will in less than five minutes — I’ve compiled the following list to help you do just that. Take a look at the list below and decide which of the two options in each category relates best to you.
There is no correct answer, of course. We all fall into every one of these categories at one time or another, and there are gradients to each type.
Regardless, we each have a dominant behavior, and once you begin to understand yourself, you can begin to see what drives your health management.
The best of all worlds is what we should aim for – the right amount of each trait.
Although it’s impossible to have the ‘perfect’ temperament, this understanding can help us course-correct if one personality trait dominates how you manage your health.
Let’s get into it.
Proactive vs. Reactive
💪🏼 Proactive: If you’re proactive, you actively manage your health by taking preventive measures like scheduling regular checkups and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This approach can significantly reduce your risk of illness, as many potential issues can be prevented.
However, being too proactive might lead to unnecessary efforts, such as seeking interventions for unlikely conditions. This can result in wasted time, money, and resources on treatments or preventive measures that aren’t genuinely needed for maintaining optimal health.
💫 Reactive: Reactive individuals address health issues quickly as they arise. They will not let conditions fester for long.
However, being reactive can lead to overreliance on and utilization of medical interventions while reducing the utilization of lifestyle and complementary interventions. This approach might delay early diagnosis and subsequent treatment of preventable conditions.
Analytical vs. Intuitive
📚 Analytical: Analytical individuals manage health using detailed information, diving into data, and exploring various options when it comes to their health.
Although this thorough approach seems beneficial when managing health, it can also lead to pursuing health management approaches that aren’t necessarily helpful or needed. It might also lead to overanalyzing, which could delay action.
💛 Intuitive: If you’re intuitive, you rely on gut feelings and heartfelt emotions to drive health behaviors.
Take exercise, for example. An intuitive would exercise because their gut instinct tells them to – their bodies are speaking. Intuitive personalities have a higher self-awareness and sense of what to do when managing their health. However, they also may miss or overlook critical information and signs that aren’t intuitive. Back to the exercise example, maybe exercise isn’t a good idea because they have an undiagnosed heart condition. Intuitives are at a risk of missing the facts because the feelings dominate.
Cautious vs. Risk-Taking
🛟 Cautious: Cautious personalities tend to be risk-averse, so they follow established medical guidance and advice and avoid risky behaviors.
Although this minimizes some dangers, it might also lead us to miss the counter-perspective and create a one-sided viewpoint. It might also lead someone to avoid beneficial treatments due to perceived risks.
🏄♀️ Risk-Taking: Risk-takers are open to out-of-the-box ways to manage their health. You’ll find them exploring alternative treatments and new health trends, which may help them discover effective solutions others overlook.
However, they may also engage in unsafe health practices or disregard professional advice.
Social vs. Independent
💃 Social: If you’re social, you value social support and seek advice from family and friends, and are more likely to seek other’s opinions. The flip side is that you also are more likely to be swayed to participate or partake in health management practices that could potentially compromise your health.
For example, let’s say your coworkers all use a daily protein shake to lose weight for six weeks. Because you are social and want to lose weight, you decide it would be a good idea to join your coworkers. During that time, you see your doctor and find that protein shakes aren’t good for you because of your kidney condition. The social aspect tipped your decisions to participate to the point that you didn’t consider the risks it might have on your kidney condition.
💻 Independent: Independent folks prefer to manage their health independently, so if that’s you, you may probably base your health management on personal research. This autonomy gives you a tailored health management approach, but beware that it may also cause you to miss out on valuable perspectives or support from others.
Optimistic vs. Pessimistic
✨ Optimistic: If you’re an optimist, you generally maintain a positive outlook on your health. Optimists generally feel like they have control over their well-being. However, you might underestimate health risks because of your positivity, potentially delaying care.
🙁 Pessimistic: With a more cautious or negative outlook, you may be vigilant about health and seek prompt medical attention. This vigilance can sometimes lead to unnecessary stress or avoidance of necessary care. It may also impede the total healing capacity because of worry and disbelief that healing is possible. It can also make you a skeptic, which can be healthy if kept in check. But it can also narrow your options to manage your health entirely. For example, pessimists might not believe doctors can help them much and seek their care less frequently.
Structured vs. Flexible
🔲 Structured: If you are structured, you thrive on routines and schedules, ensuring consistent health maintenance and adherence to treatment plans. Additionally, if a new routine is required, if you’re confident in it, you will easily adapt to it. However, you might struggle with adapting to new health management plans if they throw off your routine or structured way of thinking.
🌊 Flexible: If you are flexible, you are adaptable and can adjust your health strategies based on changing circumstances. While this responsiveness is beneficial, it may sometimes lead to a lack of consistency in maintaining regular health practices. Or you may want to continue to try new health management tactics when they’re not helpful or needed because you’re so open that anything goes.
Can you start to see how your personality traits impact how you manage your health?
Your personality may lead you down one path of health navigation… but other forks in the road could lead you down a better path to healing. Now you know when your personality tendency is leading you down the path to better healing and when it’s not.
This is one of my favorite ways to engage with clients because we often forget other options are available. Sometimes we don’t even realize we’re more cautious than risk-taking, which can shake up the health game plan!
Whatever the case for you, keep it in mind as you traverse your health journey.
Tell me, were you surprised by your results? Will this information inform you when you tend to make less-than-optimal health decisions?
Stay in touch - I’d like to know what you think. (Otherwise, how would I know if real humans are out there reading my newsletters?)
Wishing you the best health possible,
Dr. Alice
A little more about Dr. Alice Burron and The Health Navigator Group:
You can find more about The Health Navigator Group at our website: www.thehealthnavigator.org
On Instagram: @the.health.navigator
Learn more about Dr. Alice Burron at her website: draliceburron.com
View her personal Instagram: @dr_burron
And connect on LinkedIn, if you want to be professional about it. 👓
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