giftedsupport

[giftedsupport]

Y'all, can we please talk bout gifted vocal stims? Bffr, my brain is literally scratching from imitatin Michael Jackson as he says that he's no narcissist n that he's just tryin mirror shit to test a fuckin camera😭😭😭

Gonna be real, I have never heard of vocal stims being related to giftedness? They can be related to autism, which can be related to giftedness, but they're not directly related to giftedness, afaik

[giftedsupport]

^gifted kid

Today I am doing this with a thought experiment:

Imagine arguing with a tech bro about whether a well-designed system is one with redundancy and backup-systems instead of a single point of failure, or one that simply has zero points of failure.

[giftedsupport]

I don't know about overwhelmed, but I do sometimes get a total rush of excitement from learning something new and interesting! Anybody else get a new knowledge rush?

Gifted kid culture is being happy when school trips. And anything new in this boring ass life, tbh.

I took a symbolic logic class in college. My classmates hated it, but honestly, it was fucking amazing. #justgiftedkidthings

[giftedsupport]

reading about gifted child discourse on tumblr as somebody not from the us is often so weird. we dont really have gifted classes here. i have a mensa membership. its mostly a boardgameclub for me. i definitivly did not peak in highschool and while it was academically easy, it was hell socially. i am almost 30 and i am rarely thinking about school. if i hadnt gotten the diagnosis of gifted and if i hadnt been a little girl, i might have gotten an autism diagnosis. the diagnosis doesnt change what comes with being a weird kid and then a weird adult but guess what,going to mensa events actually helps with that because there most people are open to weird people.

Yeah, I think part of the reason the discourse on giftedness here is so school-centric is partly because of the average age of tumblr users. School is what a lot of them are dealing with right now, and as you say, social life for the neurodiverse can be really hard during those years, so they need particular support in that area.

As a 39-year-old, I don't personally know anybody who's joined mensa, but I've found a good group of friends who are all undoubtedly gifted (and many of whom are also autistic or adhd). I think being "gifted" affected me more in school partly because you're always being compared to others your own age. Whereas once you leave college and enter the work world, you're getting compared to a MUCH broader range of people, so differences aren't as stark and othering. For instance, my best friend now is like 63, and I also have a bunch of friends in their early 30s. It's less about comparison to your age group, and more about finding people like you, whatever their age.

[giftedsupport]

This video is pitched as really woo-woo, but it's actually full of really great scientific discussion of twice-exceptionality, neurodivergency, creativity, ADHD, and more. Strongly recommend this video if you're interested in the discussion of giftedness, special education, and the definition of intelligence.

[giftedsupport]

(source)

[giftedsupport]

Thank you for this blog, it's really great!! It's so hard to talk about the struggles of giftedness because people tend to think you're humble bragging :/

...which is one of the struggles of giftedness. lol

[giftedsupport]

Gifted culture is... *Checks notes.* Rambling alone on intellectual knowledge you have like you is engaging in queer discourse on tiktok comments, but civilly.

Do you mean infodumping?

[giftedsupport]

I found out that I am profoundly gifted recently and have been struggling with an odd sense of guilt around it. Do you have any tips for working through this?

I understand feeling guilty about being gifted, and I'm trying to brainstorm all the reasons that might be happening. The culture often does not like some people to smarter than everybody else, so it could just be societal. But in my personal experience, I was kind of embarrassed about being gifted because my mom was a narcissist. (Sorry, this is gonna be a little complicated.)

My mom always had to feel superior. So on one hand, she was very proud of having gifted kids, because she could brag about us to other people (makes her feel superior). But on the other hand, she didn't feel she was gifted, which made her resent our giftedness (because it made her feel inferior). Even when I was identified officially as gifted in third grade, I remember having this talk with another gifted friend about how we could never ever ever make anybody else feel inferior and make it look like we were feeling superior about being smarter. Because I had already absorbed from my mother that to feel superior about being superior (to her) in any way was BAD.

That message kind of messed me up: I was subliminally taught that I was expected to Achieve (so mom could brag about me), but if I even felt a little proud of my own achievements, that meant I was Bad. It got to the point where people would be like, "Hey, remember when you won X award?" and I'd be like, "What are you talking about? I never won X award" and then I'd find out that I DID, but I suppressed my pride in that accomplishment so hard that I'd forgotten I'd done it.

I'm not trying to make this post all about me, but this is the best source I have to understand where feelings like this might be coming from. A lot of us are taught, either by jealous friends/family members or from society, that people who are gifted are therefore assholes about it, and that being gifted is therefore Bad and says Bad Things about your character. Which when you state it outright, is clearly absolute bullshit. But these messages sink deep into our psyches from early childhood, and they're hard to excavate.

The best I can do on the advice front is this:

Remind yourself frequently that there is nothing wrong with being gifted, and that you CAN be proud of your own accomplishments without being an asshole.

If it continues to really bother you, consider digging into your childhood and trying to figure out where these feelings may be coming from. This can be hard and the work of many years, because (for instance) kids never want to believe bad things about their parents: I didn't work out that my mom was emotionally abusive until I was in my 30s, and it was only after that that the puzzle pieces of my psyche started to fall into place.

So if you try to work it out for awhile and you can't, and either it's bothering you, or your guilt about your giftedness is negatively affecting your life, then I would recommend talking to a therapist about it so they can help you with a little expert outside perspective.

...

Congratulations on learning that you are gifted. I mean that. We're made to think that we aren't supposed to be proud of it, but you absolutely can be. Being gifted IS something to be proud of. And congratulations that you are learning new things about yourself, that you have the perception to realize when your feelings don't match the facts, and that you have the courage to face the mystery of your own mind and dig into the truth. The gifted community welcomes you.

[giftedsupport]

[giftedsupport]

Giftedness and depression is the worst combination you can put on a teenager. /notvent

:( I'm sorry to hear you're going through that. I can relate.

[giftedsupport]

Sorry for infodumping about my special interest out of nowhere, you said a keyword and it activated my unskippable dialogue

[giftedsupport]

As someone recently diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, one thing that’s been helping me grapple with the intense shame I have over all my “wasted potential” is accepting that potential doesn’t exist and never did.

This sounds so harsh, but please bare with me.

I procrastinated a lot growing up. I still procrastinate today, but less so. And yet, I got good grades. I could write an A+ paper that “knocked [my professor]’s socks off” in the hour before class and print it with sweat running down my face.

I was so used to hearing from teachers and family that if I just didn’t procrastinate and worked all the time, I could do anything! I had all this potential I wasn’t living up to!

And that’s true, as far as it goes, but that’s like saying if Usain Bolt just kept going he could be the fastest marathon runner in the world. Why does he stop at the end of the race??

If ANYONE could make their top speed/most productive setting the one they used all the time, anyone could do anything. But you can’t. Your top speed is not a speed you’re able to sustain.

Now, I’ve found that I do need to work on not procrastinating. Not because the product is better, even, but because it’s better for my mental health and physical health to not have a full, sweating, panicked breakdown over every task even if the task itself turns out excellently. It’s a shitty way to live! You feel bad ALL the time! And I don’t deserve to live like that anymore.

So all of this to say, I’m not wasting a ton of potential. I don’t have an ocean of productivity and accomplishments inside of me that I could easily, effortlessly access if I just sat down 8 hours a day and worked. There’s no fucking way. That’s not real. It’s an illusion. It’s fine not to live up to an illusion.

And if you have ADHD, I mean this from the bottom of my heart: you do not have limitless potential confounded by your laziness. You have the good potential of a good person, and you can access it with practice and work, but do not accept the story that you are choosing not to be all that you are or can be. You are just a human person.

[giftedsupport]

Gifted kid culture is being happy when school trips. And anything new in this boring ass life, tbh.

I took a symbolic logic class in college. My classmates hated it, but honestly, it was fucking amazing. #justgiftedkidthings

[giftedsupport]

I was tested as gifted in middle school by the Ohio Department of education. It's been two decades and I don't think I have any of the paperwork we may (or may not) have gotten from it. I was also sent to the state capital for testing in the arts. I was told I was gifted in art as well.

My wife was recently diagnosed as audhd and she brought up giftedness to me. She told me she thought I fit the profile. I did some reading on the topic and I do fit a lot of the emotional and intellectual aspects. I don't think in the same ways as a lot of other people but I'm definitely not autistic or ADHD. I don't fit those profiles.

So is the testing I received the same as being diagnosed gifted?

There is no universally agreed-upon definition of giftedness, either educationally or medically. The closest things we have are the kinds of evaluations you mention. If those evaluations said you were gifted, and you've read about giftedness and recognize it in yourself, you can absolutely just go ahead and take it as read that you're gifted!

As you point out, ADHD, autism, trauma, high sensitivity, and various other conditions all form an enormous venn diagram of symptoms. I think you're absolutely right that if you don't match well with ADHD or autism but do match a lot of the traits of giftedness, that's probably accurate.

[giftedsupport]

Hi, um, my name is Angel, I go by all pronouns and I might be a gifted person.

Many weeks ago I have heard about giftedness. And last week I went “hey, how bout I search about it and find out what it is?”

... Well, I don't even need to explain that my entire life was summarized with each symptom or sign that the sites told me.

High levels of creativity, boredom in class/low academic performance because of lack of brain stimulation, hiper emotional sensitivity, a little bit of sensory issues, non linear thinking, feelings of maladjustment and incompatibility with other people my age, asynchronous development, questioning of authority, strong sense of justice, insatiable curiosity, to the point I get excited over travelling and discoverin new things, even more than I should be... You name it, along with acting weird around the other kids, which my parents had to make me repress or else I'd get bullied a second time.

And, since giftedness is a very much invisible neurodivergence (to the point it gets watered down to “just smartness” 24/7) I don't think the teachers of the schools I attended over the years knew what was going on with my behaviour, specially after 1st grade, when teachers started to say “I don't give a fuck” to their students and stopped analysing how we act to focus on whether we get a 10 or not.

But whether I'm gifted or not, I ain't getting a diagnosis until I'm legal because everyone in my life just plain ignores any N.D. trait that is not autism or adhd, specially after fuckin tiktok.

I'm sorry you're having a tough time of it! Your school system sounds.... unfortunate. 😬

Here's the thing with diagnoses: for autism and giftedness, the only reason to get a diagnosis as an adult is for your own information. An ADHD diagnosis can get you meds, but there are no meds for ASD or giftedness. So most people who realize that they're gifted after they're adults don't actually get officially diagnosed, because there really isn't any point. If the description of giftedness really resonates with you that much, I honestly wouldn't bother with taking the time, trouble, and money to get an IQ test (which doesn't test for all the kinds of intelligence/giftedness anyway!). The main point of knowing you're gifted is to understand yourself and your own mind, and you can do that just fine with a self-diagnosis!

The upside to that is that you don't have to wait to find out whether you're gifted: it sounds like you know already! Here's to knowing thyself!

[giftedsupport]

“Social comparison” is one of the biggest traps when it comes to our happiness and well-being. It’s important to remind yourself that you don’t measure up with anyone, because you can’t accurately compare yourself to others. Everyone is on a different path.

Learn more: Social Comparison: The Trap Behind a “Keeping Up With The Joneses” Mentality