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.
Just as we have described gifted preschoolers as being inherently gifted long before schools identify them, gifted adults are simply what those children become when they grow up — sensitive, curious, intense, and often wildly insightful and funny in addition to being intellectually voracious deep thinkers.
Gifted adults often struggle with similar concerns. Heightened sensitivities, introversion, off-beat interests, and a desire for in-depth conversation are not the makings of a party animal. Insecurity, low self-esteem and emotional scars also may be residue from outlier status or possible bullying during childhood.
Many theoretical scientists, writers, artists, composers, and philosophers are divergent thinkers. Einstein, Freud, and the French impressionists are examples of gifted adults successful in using their divergent thinking ability. Divergent thinking has positive social and emotional value.
Gifted children often struggle socially and emotionally. Social interactions are difficult and they don't always know how to behave or read cues from others.
Gifted persons are more likely to make sense out of their intellectual experiences than the average person. Another important difference is in the desire to know complex ideas. Average persons have less desire to know ideas for their own sake.
Gifted adults retain childlike emotions. Throughout their lives, the gifted are often so successful in the pursuit of their goals that they may have managed to skip some of the earlier developmental phases in which young children are confronted with the limitations reality places on them.
Gifted adults differ intellectually from others and are more sophisticated, more global thinkers who have the capacity to generalize and to see the complex relationships in the world. Gifted adults have a heightened capacity to appreciate the beauty and the wonderment in our universe.
Most gifted persons grow up not knowing they are gifted until identified in later years at school or through the person pursuing answers as to why they feel different in their lives or careers.
For this article, I want to focus on five key affective needs of gifted adults: acknowledging your own gifts; nurturing your identity development; giving yourself permission to be a growing, changing, imperfect person; taking advantage of and coping with overexcitabilities; and learning practical coping skills.
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 people are usually also highly sensitive and intense. They are more aware of subtleties; their brain processes information and reflects on it more deeply. At their best, they can be exceptionally perceptive, intuitive, and keenly observant of the subtleties of the environment.
Ability to see things from a variety of perspectives – Gifted students often find unique ways to view a situation or problem. They use their creativity and abstract thinking skills to find unique perspectives and solutions to problems, even when there is an easier way to go about solving.
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.
"Gifted trauma" is the trauma that gifted people can experience if they feel ridiculed, ignored, rejected, misunderstood, out-of-place, left out or left behind, pressured to conform, or excessively groomed or exploited as a result of their unusual minds.
Self-Esteem Issues
Being gifted academically can make a child feel different from her peers and may even lead to the child being bullied and becoming depressed. Studies have shown that the more intellectually gifted a child is, the greater the risk of social difficulties and unhappiness.
They work hard, do their homework, and seek additional challenges. Typically, they want to do more than what is required. Talented students answer questions while gifted kids ask questions.
Muratori goes on to say that, while gifted children are not necessarily more susceptible to low self-esteem than their non-gifted peers, their self-esteem issues are more likely to be overlooked by others or hidden by the child themselves.
INFP, INTP, ENFP, and ENTP types constituted almost 50% of the whole gifted sample compared with 19% of the normative group. The most common type among gifted adolescents is intuition.
To avoid being seen as too weird or different, and to fit in better with others, gifted people often learn to stifle or cover up their unusual cognitive and other abilities, which can lead to an enduring pattern of hiding.
Even though gifted people are no more susceptible to mental illness than anyone else, some gifted children and teens struggle with a tendency toward overthinking, worry, or cautious alertness.
Many people with narcissistic personality disorder are driven, gifted, and intelligent. These qualities can be very beneficial and can help people get very far.
We know that gifted and creative individuals are more likely than the average population to exhibit what Polish psychiatrist Kazimierz Dabrowski called “overexcitabilities” which are inborn, intense reactions to different types of stimuli.