I resonate with a lot of what you said in the video. Where I always feel disconnected listening to content about being gifted, is they're never really was any expectations put on me, it was more along the lines of he is smart so he will figure it out. Report cards filled with "just apply himself" I fell into underperforming so fast it wasn't funny.
So when you search for a therapy, you can come across two kinds of problematic reaction: 1) the therapist tells you you are healthy and sound and you are capable solving your problems, and you make big deal out of nothing, and no therapy is needed or disimisses/diminishes your struggles in other way 2) the therapist see your big emotions or existential depression and says “you are bipolar/borderline/depressed…” and misdiagnoses you with some other mental health stuff (it is not uncommon that the severe one) and then tries to fix you by attempting to remove your gifted parts! This can cause in severe cases cPTSD (similarly to ABA approach to autistic ppl) So choose therapists carefully! They are good therapists out there, but they are sometimes not easy to find. They can be neurodiversity affirming, gifted informed or just not normative and willing to learn about giftedness from you. Both can work well, I personally go with the second option and it works great
Even alternative therapies as somatic experiencing can be more hurtful, if the therapist is uniformed of gifted stuff and unwilling to learn them from you.
I agree. I would recommend checking out TRE as it's a somatic therapy which you can learn (definitely worth having a couple of facilitated sessions) and then self-administer, to very powerful effect.
This is a great summary. I would add one reason for advanced wonderers - when you are allready destroyed by this and you go to a therapist or doctor, you may encounter additional one - a normative approach in psychology, therapy and medicine. This means that psychiatry and psychotherapy is supposed to compare their clients to an expert agreed norm (for instance according DSM criteria) that are considered to be equal to mental health. (To be normal = to be healthy, to be ouside of norm = pathology). Surely it is simplifyied, what I say, but in many cases there is unfortunately confused statistical norm (that reasonably does not include every healthy variations of population by its definition) and medical/therapeutic norm (that tells apart healthy functioning and the dysfunctional one)
The normative therapy approach causes, that neurodivergent folks are seen through pathology lens and giftedness is one form of neurodivergence among autism, ADHD etc. and even autism and ADHD are so often misdiagnosed even if they are in DSM and ICD, but giftedness is not there. This means just in theoretic way you have to be misdiagnosed somehow, because the doctor sees person, who is not normal, but they do not fit any nosology box 😱 wow! Are u happy?!? 🤪 I do not want scare someone off finding a therapy, because there are good therapists out there, who do not fall in this trap, but it good to be aware of this mild system bug :p
Idea for a symbol: Siamese cat Mostly because when you were talking about the intensity we live with, my first thought went to Siamese cats. The most notable thing about them is their intensity… of course I’m biased as a cat lover 😆
I'm desperately looking for folks to connect with as I'm feeling I'm living out there on another planet, disconnected from anything. Any suggestions where to meet gifted people when you're an introvert?😅
Interest-based clubs and volunteer opportunities are an option, as are classes (in person and online) and professional organizations. But the easiest route for an introvert is joining gifted groups on social media - like facebook.com/groups/wayfindinggifted :)
Yes, to all of this. I feel seen, thank you 🥹 I was raised in a fundamentalist religious household on top of this. This explains why that was harder for me compared to my other family members.
I resonate with a lot of what you said in the video. Where I always feel disconnected listening to content about being gifted, is they're never really was any expectations put on me, it was more along the lines of he is smart so he will figure it out. Report cards filled with "just apply himself" I fell into underperforming so fast it wasn't funny.
So when you search for a therapy, you can come across two kinds of problematic reaction: 1) the therapist tells you you are healthy and sound and you are capable solving your problems, and you make big deal out of nothing, and no therapy is needed or disimisses/diminishes your struggles in other way
2) the therapist see your big emotions or existential depression and says “you are bipolar/borderline/depressed…” and misdiagnoses you with some other mental health stuff (it is not uncommon that the severe one) and then tries to fix you by attempting to remove your gifted parts! This can cause in severe cases cPTSD (similarly to ABA approach to autistic ppl)
So choose therapists carefully! They are good therapists out there, but they are sometimes not easy to find.
They can be neurodiversity affirming, gifted informed or just not normative and willing to learn about giftedness from you. Both can work well, I personally go with the second option and it works great
Even alternative therapies as somatic experiencing can be more hurtful, if the therapist is uniformed of gifted stuff and unwilling to learn them from you.
I agree. I would recommend checking out TRE as it's a somatic therapy which you can learn (definitely worth having a couple of facilitated sessions) and then self-administer, to very powerful effect.
This is a great summary. I would add one reason for advanced wonderers - when you are allready destroyed by this and you go to a therapist or doctor, you may encounter additional one - a normative approach in psychology, therapy and medicine. This means that psychiatry and psychotherapy is supposed to compare their clients to an expert agreed norm (for instance according DSM criteria) that are considered to be equal to mental health.
(To be normal = to be healthy, to be ouside of norm = pathology).
Surely it is simplifyied, what I say, but in many cases there is unfortunately confused statistical norm (that reasonably does not include every healthy variations of population by its definition) and medical/therapeutic norm (that tells apart healthy functioning and the dysfunctional one)
Thanks - all great points!
This is a video that needed to be made. Thank you!
Wow this is so beautifully and clearly articulated, and really resonates with my experience - thank you so much for making this video!
Thanks so much for your kind remarks :)
The normative therapy approach causes, that neurodivergent folks are seen through pathology lens and giftedness is one form of neurodivergence among autism, ADHD etc. and even autism and ADHD are so often misdiagnosed even if they are in DSM and ICD, but giftedness is not there. This means just in theoretic way you have to be misdiagnosed somehow, because the doctor sees person, who is not normal, but they do not fit any nosology box 😱 wow! Are u happy?!? 🤪
I do not want scare someone off finding a therapy, because there are good therapists out there, who do not fall in this trap, but it good to be aware of this mild system bug :p
Idea for a symbol: Siamese cat
Mostly because when you were talking about the intensity we live with, my first thought went to Siamese cats. The most notable thing about them is their intensity… of course I’m biased as a cat lover 😆
I'm desperately looking for folks to connect with as I'm feeling I'm living out there on another planet, disconnected from anything. Any suggestions where to meet gifted people when you're an introvert?😅
Interest-based clubs and volunteer opportunities are an option, as are classes (in person and online) and professional organizations. But the easiest route for an introvert is joining gifted groups on social media - like facebook.com/groups/wayfindinggifted :)
Thank you for the video. Very helpful.
So glad to hear that!
maybe yor symbol should be a parrot plus a math formula. So - polly + math.
🤩
Yes, to all of this. I feel seen, thank you 🥹 I was raised in a fundamentalist religious household on top of this. This explains why that was harder for me compared to my other family members.