thegiftednessjournal

[thegiftednessjournal]

born to have countless hobbies and talents forced to quit anything i'm not immediately perfect at

[thegiftednessjournal]

the tragically beautiful pipeline from high-functioning child to burnt-out adult with a laundry pile of hobbies itching to be cleaned and used again but the adult is just too exhausted to do anything more than pick them up from the pile to check if they are dirty enough only to find out... they always will be dirty now that the adult has lost the bandwidth to do laundry

[thegiftednessjournal]

the curse of giftedness and executive dysfunction

You can either be bored to death your whole life, like a lazy cat.

OR you can be stressed out and exhausted your whole life, like an overstimulated kitty

There is no middle way

Oh yeah, and nobody believes you are smart because school is not your natural territory :/

[thegiftednessjournal]

Former gifted kid doesn’t immediately understand her homework and breaks down at her work desk (three dead, five injured)

[thegiftednessjournal]

Giftedness: A Double Edged Sword.

Perfectionism, complexity of thought, hyperfocus.

These key traits of giftedness are what the neurotypicals see as:

“A job well done”, “good grades”, and “determination”. While that is true, it also can feel like:

never being good enough, overthinking, and lack of focus..

The things that give us potential for great success also give us the potential to fall behind the crowd. We are overwhelmed by our own brains, they are loud, in this case, by telling us we are never good enough. 

Perfectionism: Perfectionism may pop up for multiple reasons, perhaps  it's the fact that your brain sees all the details so you know all the flaws in others. If your brain constantly sees flaws in other people whether it be their thoughts or actions, you know you don’t want to do the same, however hard it may be. 

Imagine, You're sitting watching a workout, you see that the person heavily over rotated their foot so you take a mental note that you wouldn't do that because that's why they wobbled at the end. But what your neurotypical friend sitting next to you sees is:

1. We are watching an Olympic athlete.

2. He created this move - never been seen before. 

3. He barely twisted his foot,  barely wobbled. 

4. The judges were impressed, they did not dock points for the over rotation. 

5. He's doing gymnastics - you've never even tried gymnastics

They're the best, but you still feel the need to do better.  That's what perfectionism feels like @TheGiftednessJournal 2025

[thegiftednessjournal]

“Why I Hate The Term 'Gifted'.”  

Gifted as a word hold a TON of baggage. If you look on forums about giftedness, once a week someone comes along and says “You’re not special, if you were truly “gifted” you wouldn't have all these problems.” “Stop blaming being smart for your depression, you're just attention seeking!” “Shut up, your not better than everyone else because you got good grades in middle school” 

The amount of sadness i feel just writting these, i almost want to cry. None of this is true, giftedness is a real neurodivergence, it's not just “being smart” IQ does not always equal intelligence. Education does not determine Giftedness, yes it helps to have a good education where you can nurture your “gifts”, but if you're telling me that it's BECAUSE of your education, then this will give you more information than you knew existed about giftedness.

Giftedness used to be characterized in schools by grades and even “potential”. There are many reasons this is wrong…

Kids grow up getting their report cards and hearing,  “You’re so smart, you should teach the class!” “You’re going to change the world someday.” into burning out in high school and college and thinking that they were lied to, thinking that “maybe I’m not smart”. For many, that goes deeper than feeling dumb for a couple hours, it spirals to depression, anxiety, and isolation. They get told to come out of class with the other kids and go to these classes for all the “smart kids”

[thegiftednessjournal]

Si

[thegiftednessjournal]

"If I could explain giftedness to someone who's never heard of it, I'd say..." 

People often tell gifted folks they are “smart” or have so much potential. In the past, to find gifted students they would ask them about how motivated they were to succeed as a measurement. That’s not even CLOSE to what giftedness is, giftedness is a three dimensional world (literally, neurotypical people usually think in “two dimensions” while gifted folks think in three dimensional).  On “The Gifted Neurodivergent Podcast” she did an exercise that you can try right now. 

     Imagine a playing card. Is it a flat picture or does it have depth? Is it just an image, or can you flip the picture around and look at the back or the side. 

If you say that it's just flat, you're a “two dimensional” thinker. But if you said you can move it around, you think in three dimensions.  This doesn't just go for pictures though, in the gifted mind, every thought is three dimensional. 

For some, the question “Did you do the laundry today” Might not be a yes or no question, our brain says:

“Well i put the clothes in the washer last night but decided i couldn't finish it, so I did the rest this morning and i'm actually in the process of folding it right now but the towels were still wet and i havent put the folded clothes away yet.. So..  I DON’T KNOW, STOP ASKING ME QUESTIONS!   (Maybe *slightly* exaggerated, maybe it’s my past experiences talking haha)

To which your non gifted friends or family say “It's a yes or no question. You don't have to provide every detail!!!”   You aren't trying to be annoying, but everything has so many layers that you don't know what the right answer is, you don’t know how to think as simply as everyone else. Or more accurately which part of the question they wanted you to answer, did you know it was in process and you were asking if I finished? Were you asking if I did it today or yesterday?. Don’t even get me started on when the answer is SUPPOSED to be a paragraph long.. 

The word “intensity” is often used as a more inclusive word for gifted individuals. It doesn’t seem as much like a bragging right. Giftedness isn’t just being smart, it is asynchronous development of the mind. (Your mind has developed a quicker pace and will continue to be that level of disconnected from your physical age) For me, I was told in second or third grade that I read at a twelfth grade level. I have also been described as “being 24 since I was 6 months old” by my father. It isn't just about being “smart” though, the source of intelligence comes from the INTENSITY of our minds. The intensity doesn't just come across in good grades. We have intensity in all or most areas of our life.

 Intense emotions: Always being told that you're too emotional and “It's not a big deal!”

Sensory Intensity: the lights are too bright, the sound of the electricity is too loud etc. 

Intense Personality: Always feeling like your full personality doesn't fit. Anywhere that you go.

Intense Cognitive Ability: Your brain works, finds patterns, and solves problems at a much faster pace.

Intense Focus: When engaging in intellectually engaging or hyperfixation hobbies, switching focus is difficult and jarring. Usually you're still thinking about it during the new task.

Intense Sense of Morality: When someone isn’t punished for an action or justice isn’t served, it bothers you greatly.

Intense Thoughts: Even when you don’t know what you’re thinking about, your brain is loud, you realize what those thoughts are when you go to talk to someone about anything and you talk about realizations you've had that you've never heard or thought about before

Now that we know about intensity it makes alot more sense why when we grow up being called smart and we make it our personality, it hurts so much to fail a class (in some cases that failure could still be as high as an A- maybe even an A if super duper pressured)