| giftedness: the topic of vulnerabilities |
[08 Feb 2012|01:48pm] |
Woohoo!! So I'm really excited to be a part of this group. I'm just going to get into the thick of things...
Giftedness and existential depression!! Who has it!!! A raise of hands, anyone??
I know that Im approaching this in a way that is perhaps sensational. I think it's important, as someone who is gifted, and with various experiences experimenting with coping mechanisms for depression, existential depression, paranoia, emotional sensitivity, and social anxieties that I do make light of it. It is burdensome, yes, and it is a part of me. I am no longer disposed to approaching the topic with political correctness, but rather with interest and concern for real conceptual elements of it. I'm at a point in the process where I'm questioning and trying to understand this condition of being depressed and learning more about how it relates to being gifted so that I can apply some of the knowledge to moving forward positively. I'm also very young and am barely at the cusp of confidently expressing my identity while still exploring it. I am, quite literally and tangibly finding myself and taking incredibly edgy risks--things that I've never done before and Im not confiding with anyone, nor am I considering the influence of other people's perspectives any more seriously than my own. I am taking a risk by being insecure in others and more secure in myself (not completely but pretty fundamentally). This strategy of transforming my depression has been helped by learning about giftedness and how the things that others may reject are things that I desperately need to be embraced, for example, perceiving very sensitively. I am learning how to cope with that rejection by overly embracing my giftedness. I'm also learning about dabrowski's theory of positive disintegration and feel less lonely in that regard, while also modelling my existential depressive state after the unilevel and multilevel disintegrations that are covered in the theory.
Finding support is absolutely nourishing in a volatile environment, one that is volatile in contrast to being acutely sensitive. Can any of you in this group relate your experiences as being gifted to any aspect of what I just described?
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| Hello! |
[07 Feb 2012|11:50pm] |
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Hi, I am new here, and noticed that there are aren't any recent posts except for one. Would anyone like to introduce themselves, too?? :)
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| Better to be a pig satisfied |
[12 Jan 2011|03:31pm] |
(This is just a rant. Rants are emotional outbursts. They are not meant to be reasoned with logically. If the rant does not appeal to you, just skip it and go on to the next message.)
Sometimes I really wish I wasn't smart -- sometimes I get really tired of being three steps and two standard deviations ahead of people around me. I'm not "better" than they are; it's just that I'm often quicker and I notice details and inconsistencies and contradictions a lot faster than they do, and I get so frustrated at having to explain what I'm talking about over and over when it's bleedin'' obvious if people would just look at the information in front of them. Sometimes it would really be nice just to be like the people around me instead of being a freak.
There is a philosopher's saying, "Better to be Socrates unsatisfied than a pig satisfied." Yeah, maybe. But some days being a satisfied pig would be really nice.
[end rant]
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[07 Mar 2010|01:26pm] |
I am not the researcher, but I thought it might be cool if folks from the community participated in the study in the hopes of facilitating better therapeutic experiences for gifted people in the future.
Also there are some interesting thoughts on their site. The author's biography talks about her journey toward becoming a clinical psychologist focused on educational contexts and giftedness and/or learning disabilities.
I added a link to the last post to their page on twice-exceptionality: being gifted and having cognitive issues.
Peace and joy to the community,
Adj.
Request for Research Participation: Cheetahs on the Couch
I am a doctoral student in clinical psychology, and an educational therapist specializing in work with people who are gifted and twice-exceptional. For my research project, I am doing an exploratory study about the quality of the working relationships gifted clients experience in psychotherapy. My goal is to help therapists better understand how to work with these clients.
If you consider yourself cognitively gifted and have ever been in individual or family psychotherapy, whether for reasons related to your intelligence or not, I am interested in hearing your story about your experience of the therapeutic relationship. You can share your story by filling out an open-ended questionnaire, and some participants will also be selected for telephone or video-chat interviews.
Children and adolescents can participate, with permission of a parent, but must be able to provide their own first-person narratives.
All responses will be treated as confidential. You can participate completely anonymously if you choose.
Only responses received by 31 March 2010 will be included in the doctoral project. However, I will continue to collect data until 31 January 2011, to enrich the data set for possible future publications. As a thank-you, participants responding by 31 March will be eligible to receive one of three $25 Amazon.com gift certificates in a random drawing.
For more detailed information and an informed consent form, or if you have any other questions, please contact me directly, or visit the following URL:
http://www.davincilearning.org/sketchbook/research.html
Feel free to forward this letter to individuals or groups who would be interested in participating, or suggest places where I might post it myself. (Please do not spam, and respect the guidelines of any mailing list or forum where you post it. Please do not forward this as a chain letter.)
Thank you very much!
-- Aimee Yermish
doctoral student, clinical psychology
Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology
educational therapist
da Vinci Learning Center
aimee@davincilearning.org
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[15 Jan 2010|04:02am] |
I'm really starting to get tired of people repeatedly telling me that it is unrealistic of me to want to be among like-minded souls. I want so badly for that to be possible - it would feel so nice to be understood. But everywhere I turn, every person I reach out to for advice and support - they all tell me that I'm "expecting too much", or they accuse me of "wanting the world to change to fit me" and I feel even worse.
I need some advice as to where I would be able to find like minded souls in person, that I could share fun and good times with. I feel so lonely.
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| Hello! |
[30 Nov 2009|12:18am] |
I just found this community & wanted to introduce myself. I'm 31 years old, and while I was in an "enhanced learning program" when I was in elementary school, I've only recently discovered and started researching the concept of being a gifted adult. My goal with my research is to increase my self-acceptance and hopefully, learn to work with these personality traits, rather than against them.
One quick question: what other online forums/communities exist for gifted adults?
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| a small question.. |
[30 Sep 2009|05:04pm] |
I'm joining just to post this, I hope I'm not being a disturbance but it looks like the right community for a question I've had in mind, but would prefer to remain anonymous in asking.
Often I would read some piece about gifted people and feel it is profoundly unfair. I don't believe you have to be gifted for high-level intellectual pursuits. I felt uncomfortable in the presence of other gifted people and felt they were holding me back -- as a human being. I'm not underachieving per se, but I also never was a good student (my achievements lie elsewhere -- something being mandatory was, to me, an obvious reason not to do it). I don't feel I belong among gifted people and this is my main problem. I like intellectual pursuits, but so do many of my non-gifted fellow grad students. Getting things on the first go was fun, but it was mostly fun because it meant I could teach so much to people and learn so much from them. I never minded tutoring, in fact, it was the only activity making school less of a tiring, dreadful walk to death.
Is there something wrong with me ? Have you all always identified with gifted people ? Do you think it changes as one grows up and grows old ? I feel bad because I know how it is to be treated as different and I feel I am doing just that in believing 'gifted people groups' are just for blowhards to pat themselves on the back. I know I am the one being unfair, yet I can't help but think it's discriminatory to make intellect the privilege of a few. I'm not consumed by wanting success, or by my own world (I'm a biologist though.. so my own world and the real world overlap a lot). I'm rather normal, socially, compared to the children they show on TV; if you don't see my birthdate, you won't know something's off. Everyone seems so different, and it makes me feel like I should be that way too, since we share some number on an arbitrary scale.
Can you explain that ? Really, I would just like to read that someone's felt the same way at a time.
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[10 Aug 2009|05:28pm] |
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As there were so many response to my previous post I thought i would thank everyone who replied in another post.
You explainations have helped clarify what I'm feeling and that i shouldn't try to change, hopefully over time i will become more comfortable with other people, I'm better than i used to be however still far from most.
I really appreciated being able to get information from real people rather than just reading a scientific report, which can sometimes feel like they are generalising, as even i know that intelligence differs over every spectrum.
Thank you all, i was not expecting such a large response considering that no body had posted in months.
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| Alienation |
[09 Aug 2009|11:59pm] |
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I'm not quite an adult, I'm 17, but my question is probably better to be asked of people older than me.
I've known almost all my life that i'm gifted, my parents had me tested when i was very young to get a scholarship.
My query is about relationships with others. I feel that i can never get close to others, i tend to have friends only for a few years, and even then i don't really mourn their loss. I was in a university play when i was 12 and only knew the cast for two weeks and i felt more pain when i had to say goodbye to them. I have been, briefly, in a romantic relationship but found that i couldn't give up the trust that comes with being with someone so from there on in i refused any other offer.
I feel that being this socially awkward is not normal, even if i am a teenager, i don't enjoy anything of parties if there are over 5 people i don't know or like. I find that drinking gets me depressed so refusing to drink alienates me more from my peers, I'm closer to my mother than most of my friends which is awkward at school for she is a teacher, thankfully i'm not in her class. People tend to see me as a loner for in most of my classes i have no friends.
I guess I'm asking is this just the progression of being gifted and as i get older things well even out and i'll be able to talk to people or is it nothing to do with my giftedness, and therefore should be looking for help from others.
Please any personal stories or explainations would help me so much, this has been on my mind for almost 6 months.
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| Gifted student needs stimulation |
[16 May 2009|07:28am] |
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http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/?uc_full_date=20090516
Shows you that tutoring other students is NOT a substitute for proper intellectual stimulation.
Shows you that dumbing yourself down in order to fit in does NOT work in the short term or long run. And this also goes for women dumbing themselves down in order to not scare men off.
Gifted does NOT equal perfect home life/perfect behavior/Stepford/any of that. Many gifted people do not fit in for reasons like these.
And this is more proof that while everybody has potential and talent, NOT everybody is gifted and/or can handle higher level academic work.
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[29 Aug 2008|10:46am] |
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I don't know if anyone saw a piece on one of the educational channels recently - Discovery Health or Science or something like that - about this highly gifted 6 year old pianist. It was interesting seeing how passionate and talented he was at such a young age, but I also felt that by focusing a program on giftedness on one adorable, incredibly well adjusted little boy they made it seem like we're all these cuddly little prodigies who just need to be allowed to obsessively practice what we're good at and we'll all save the world. It was really one sided towards those who know their talent from a young age and are singularly focused on it, rather than what I would think is the more common route of having to spend a lot of time seeking the right path (with a substantial number never finding it). They also had some "expert" on giftedness talking about how all gifted kids need to be pushed towards their talent or something like that - either way it was a comment that completely rubbed me the wrong way. Does anyone else find that many "experts" on giftedness seem to come from a very outsider perspective? Then these people are consultants for these programs that aim to "explain" us but really just seize on one interesting example that doesn't necessarily generalize at all. I feel like most people would prefer to marvel at these examples than confront the fact that gifted education is often underfunded in favor of special education and what that says about our educational priorities in this country.
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| giftedness |
[25 Aug 2008|08:46pm] |
I read a book called Misdiagnosis: Gifted Children and Adults and Bipolar, AD/HD, and other disorders. It says that giftedness can mimic things that are considered disorders. Gifted people often have a wide variety of interests, can hyperconcentrate on one task, criticize themselves, and can even have some socialization problems because they are different. Because of that many gifted people are misdiagnosed with mental or behavioral problems. I found that book to be interesting.
It is true that many gifted people are "twice exceptional". They are gifted and have a learning disability or disorder. Yet if giftedness can mimic some of these, the lines may be blurred.
I know that as a child I was an outsider. I was reading encyclopedias when I was 7 years old--for fun. I wrote my own stories and poems. People could have said I was crazy or something because I wasn't close to my peers.
Now as an adult my mind doesn't shut off. I am a light sleeper. I don't sit still. I have had trouble with employment because of my multitasking and lack of focus. I do wonder sometimes if I do have ADHD or Bipolar II disorder (mixed state). Yet I do know that maybe giftedness could be my "problem". I have taken various online IQ tests and I have gotten 125-145 for scores. I know those are above average and IQ isn't entirely measureable.
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| !! |
[12 Jun 2008|12:22pm] |
Copy this, email it to all your friends, have them email it to their friends, etc.
Then in a couple of weeks gas prices should go down.
Just by way of following the logic for the huge increase in gas prices (50%)
The reason for the increase is cited as oil shortage due to the war with Iraq using so much oil.
The reason cited for the war has been found to be incorrect, if not an outright lie.
The person citing the reasons for the war is in all likelihood a puppet of people in the military-industrial complex, such as the people heavily invested in Halliburton (the oil company), such as Rupert Murdoch, who owns a huge quantity of shares in American Fidelity, which owns a huge quantity of shares in Halliburton http://www.halliburton.com/
May it be noted here that Rupert Murdoch in one way or another owns most of the news media.
The entity profiting most from the war with Iraq *AND* the increased gas prices is, of course, Halliburton. 600 billion dollars worth of taxpayer money.
In my view another case of the rich robbing the poor so that the rich may *own* the world.
National security is not and never was the objective. Vice President C was, before becoming VP, the CEO (Chief Executive Officer; guy in charge) of Halliburton. The only perceivable objective was the enrichment of Halliburton shareholders and making the military-industrial complex (about whom President Eisenhower warned us) even more powerful and feared throughout the world (i.e. Iran)
WHY the American public is not aware of this is incomprehensible. A short internet search of major shareholders of Halliburton and American Fidelity reveals it quite plainly. Therefore I am only citing knowledge which is already public.
The chain of logic is irrefutable: Serious conflict of interest. The murder of innumerable people for the enrichment of the already rich.
I once again repeat: "The government is supposed to be for *THE PEOPLE,* (the majority of whom are either middle-class or poor) not the minority rich. Capish? To recapitulate: We The People are being shafted.
But I honestly think that no one cares enough to do anything about it, and/or is too scared to do so. After all, the "King of the Hill" is rather tremendously large, and capable of killing whom he will.
I will likely not be available hereafter for comment, and this journal may soon no longer be in existence. Ciaou
∞
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0507-01.htm
"Prescott Bush was a director of Dresser Industries, which is now part of Halliburton. Former United States president George H. W. Bush worked for Dresser Industries in several positions from 1948–1951, before he founded Zapata Corporation.":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton
"Halliburton is the largest oil-and-gas services company in the world and it is also one of the most controversial corporations in the United States.
The company has been the number one financial beneficiary of the invasion of Iraq, raking in some $18 billion in contracts to rebuild the country’s oil industry and service US troops.":
http://www.democracynow.org/2004/5/17/the_halliburton_agenda_the_politics_of
http://www.amazon.com/Halliburton-Agenda-Politics-Oil-Money/dp/0471638609
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/23/business/halli.php
http://www.ifg.org/reports/WTO-energy-services.htm
"This intriguing book shows readers where Halliburton has been doing business and with whom-topping the list so far are Iran, Iraq, and Libya. It also reveals how this juggernaut of a corporation has engaged in a cycle of profits that begins by selling products and services to potential terrorist states, contracting with the federal government during times of war against those states, then gaining valuable rebuilding contracts to help repair those states. It will also show how a Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, has become an indispensable part of the U.S. military, so much so that the two are indistinguishable at times.":
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-0471638609-0
(Is this guy still alive?)
This in The New Yorker
“There is not a reason on earth to sell gasoline at the price they did,” Youssef Ibrahim, the managing director of the Strategic Energy Investment Group, a consulting firm in Dubai, said. “Halliburton and their Kuwaiti partners made out like bandits.” A well-informed Kuwaiti source called the prices charged by Altanmia “absurd,” and said that Halliburton’s arrangement to buy Kuwaiti oil through a middleman, rather than directly from the government, was “highly irregular.”:
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/02/16/040216fa_fact
The above information is not secret. Just plug in "halliburton oil" in Google. There are 274,000 results.:
http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&q=halliburton+oil&btnG=Google+Search
I can no longer afford to drive my car to work, a distance of 25 miles one-way. I need a motorbike or an electric bicycle.
Truck drivers in Spain are striking because of high gas prices. The price of *everything* is going up as a result. So we can't afford to buy *anything*. Are you yourself not disturbed?
If not, you must be rich.
I have posted the above as an alternative to calling the administration some very bad words. We are quite tired of being "shafted," if you get my drift. And this by our own government.
Tags: murder
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| personality type |
[23 May 2008|11:43pm] |
I'm an INTP, enneagram type 5w4 sp/sx/so.
What's yours?
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| New gifted forum |
[08 Apr 2008|03:20pm] |
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My Gifted Life is a fairly new forum started by a former member of the SENG forum which has shut down. I think this might be the forum that I've been looking for--for how many years? It has a broad roster of topics already and is open to more. I've always thought that format has a lot to do with whether discussions flourish or not. As much as i like LJ, it's really not suited for finding and continuing discussion threads. There are plenty of us out there, but the fact that this community is usually more dead than alive seems to prove my point. My Gifted Life
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