It is extremely difficult to find someone who truly gets you in this world when you are gifted or twice exceptional. Rarely finding someone with whom you can relate or who makes you feel understood, inevitably leads to loneliness. If you are identified as gifted you have a cohort of roughly 2% of the population.
Those who are considered “gifted” are especially likely to experience depression, particularly existential depression, a type of depression that centers around thoughts about life, death, and meaninglessness as the name might suggest.
For a period of time, any particular trait that removes you from the majority can create a feeling of isolation, aloneness and being misunderstood. Gifted people, intellectually, athletically, emotionally and many other ways can experience that sense of isolation for a period of time, or forever.
Gifted adults often develop their own method of learning and grasping concepts which can lead to conflict with others who don't use or understand their method. Gifted adults have normal feelings of anxiety, inadequacies and personal needs.
Intense and gifted people often feel bored and impatient in a relationship. If your partner does not meet your intellectual rigour and emotional depth, you end up feeling under-stimulated and alone, even when you are with someone. You are not only sensitive but also enthusiastic, excitable, and multi-passionate.
The problems gifted children sometimes face with socializing often stem from their asynchrony and educational setting. Asynchronous development, or uneven development, is often considered a core trait of giftedness. These students may be college age intellectually but still 12 in terms of their social skills.
Gifted, talented and creative adults face unique challenges, problems and difficulties while living their lives because of their high intelligence, overexcitabilities and multiple abilities. Gifted, Talented & Creative Adults need: multiple sources of stimulation for their curiosity, talents and abilities.
Gifted adults' innate ability to think abstractly may lead them to consider and deeply question issues such as death, freedom, and the human condition. These thoughts can lead to feelings of hopelessness and meaninglessness. Substance use or addictive behaviors.
They can have trouble adapting socially.
Being gifted means having different psychosocial needs. Social development and social skills can occur differently in gifted students. Their social interaction with same-age peers may not align well during childhood and adolescence.
The world doesn't always understand that a gifted person can suffer from the same difficulties as others. Low self-esteem, depression, difficulty making or keeping friends are all issues that can transfer from childhood to adulthood.
Giftedness has an emotional as well as intellectual component. Intellectual complexity goes hand in hand with emotional depth. Just as gifted children's thinking is more complex and has more depth than other children's, so too are their emotions more complex and more intense.
Even though the gifted are no more susceptible to mental illness than anyone else, some gifted children and teens struggle with overthinking, worry, or cautious alertness. Their nervous system seems wired for heightened reactivity. For some, obsessive thinking transitions into anxiety.
Many gifted people suffer from some form of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD, most notably, perfectionism. Gifted students are often overwhelmed by the proclamation; they can achieve anything.
Gifted individuals tend to be emotionally sensitive and empathic, making the normal rough and tumble of the playground stressful for them. Because they often feel they are held to higher standards than their peers, they can find it difficult to accept criticism (anything short of perfection is felt as failure).
Arrogance is the same for gifted individuals as it is for anyone else: it is evident when someone assumes he or she is intrinsically better than others. Arrogance is displayed through self-absorption, entitlement, an air of superiority, and a lack of empathy or caring for others' opinions or feelings.
Not every child displays intensity in all five, but it is understandable that gifted children who tend to have vivid imaginations, overanalyze, or over-empathize may be more likely to experience anxiety. In particular, OEs that lend themselves to catastrophic thinking may increase a child's risk of anxiety disorder.
Without understanding and support, gifted kids face an increased risk of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, along with social and academic problems. Currently, experts estimate that up to 1 in 50 gifted kids drop out of school, while many more fail to live up to their full academic potential.
Both giftedness and autism fall on a spectrum, so while there may be individuals who clearly fit into one box or another, some behaviors might be more ambiguous and require additional information, context, or professional opinions.
Your children may feel empathetic with others but others may reject them. The first trait can cause frustration and self-doubt; the second can cause sadness or confusion. Other aspects of giftedness can cause big emotional reactions that are hard to handle.
In general, gifted children and adults tend to: Stand-out intellectually, with sophisticated thinking styles that integrate generalizations and complexity. Learn quickly and deeply (and do not need as much practice) Be independent thinkers, who do not automatically accept decisions.
External Pressures
High demands from otherwise well-meaning adults can serve as a great source of anxiety. Gifted children often wonder if they can keep up and what else will be expected of them. Those are the big four stress factors for gifted kids. Perfectionism, social problems, sensitivity, and outside pressures.
They like to learn new things, are willing to examine the unusual, and are highly inquisitive. They tackle tasks and problems in a well-organized, goal-directed, and efficient manner. They exhibit an intrinsic motivation to learn, find out, or explore and are often very persistent.
Aron discovered that many gifted individuals are very sensitive. Therefore they are very creative, but because impressions and emotions come in strongly, they do not always know how to use that creativity.
While gifted children may not be any more susceptible to mental health issues as other adolescents, there are certain aspects of giftedness that may influence or amplify a gifted child's experience of mental health issues.