Dear Isabelle:

Yes, please don’t pressure yourself especially at a time when you are distressed, because of the pandemic taking a toll on your mental health.

“I am what is called a ‘highly gifted person’. Two separate psychologists diagnosed me”-

I read in Wikipedia a bit on “intellectual giftedness”. If I understand correctly, highly gifted is a term that many educators use to describe children who are superior intellectually but lag behind in emotional development or other aspects, like Einstein who was intellectually superior but learned to speak later than children his age.

I looked at a website (gifted matter. com/ diagnosis gifted) and if I understand correctly, some psychotherapists took the term from its educational/ children context to psychotherapy/adult context, offering psychotherapy designed to fit highly gifted adults.

The website reads: “giftedness is not a specialty in which formal training is offered”, but nonetheless offers therapy that addresses the special needs of the highly gifted adults.

It reads: “giftedness is a (neurological) asynchronous development in which advanced cognitive abilities and heightened intensity combine to create inner experience and awareness that are qualitatively different from the norm.. Emotional sensitive itself shouldn’t be a target of therapy. Emotional sensitivity is not a pathology nor is it a lack of maturity… Many gifted people have low self-esteem or have imposter syndrome and believe they will eventually be ‘caught‘. Conversely, many gifted people try to hide or camouflage their intelligence for a variety of reasons.. Sometimes the problems a gifted person experiences result from a poor fit- relationship, environment, academic, or expectations.”

Are the parts I italicized in the quote true to you, and if so, will you elaborate on these things? I ask because I want to understand you and your challenge with P better. Answer if you would like to. I will be away from the computer in a few moments and back in about 12 hours from now. If you reply I will be glad to read and post to you again when I am back.

anita

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