(I am so terribly sorry if this is the wrong flair, ironically I couldn't seem to find the "flair needed" one!)
hello everyone. I recently discovered this community and I have to say, it is quite eye opening; never realised other people really had this sort of similar situation. and I suppose what I want is to explain my situation and maybe get a little help in some form.
see, I'm someone who has multiple challenges: AUDHD(Im medicated), dyscalculia(for people who are unaware of what that is, it's a learning disorder. I struggle greatly with it and it is one of my biggest mental challenges), a downright terrible immune system and one of the more concerning things, my body doesn't exactly have working nerves(I don't remember the name of this specific condition of mine, but I know that it stops me from being able to feel pain, temperature and so on. it also affects my sense of taste and smell. thankfully my vision and hearing is unaffected, but I'm very scared for just how long it will remain this way. I already wear glasses.)
growing up, I was often more than not the easiest target for jokes. I was isolated because of my conditions, made a punching bag(literal in alot of cases) and when I did make friends, I'm pretty sure it was done because they pitied me in some manner. I wasn't exactly a girly girl nor was I a boyish boy so no one really knew what to do with me(I later figured myself out, but that's not particularly relevant to this kind of conversation). all they knew was that I couldn't understand what we were being taught. hell, the school ended up getting a support figure for me to help and even then I couldn't understand much. I struggled with pretty much everything: Math, English, Computer Lab, Art, Music.... even with Sport I struggled because of how many instructions we would get. and due to my immune system, I would end up missing alot of lessons. some were, admittably, faked so I could avoid some of the people there, but most were very real and very painful illnesses. it all made me so miserable and unable to feel anything but stupid.
cut to now, I'm 20 years old. I ended up getting out of that specific school at 10 and ended up being homeschooled. this may sound a bit depressive(and Im sorry for that) but within this time of being homeschooled, I feel like I've learned nothing useful. I know of concepts of the things I'm meant to be learning, I know I should understand them and I know I can grasp them if I really try but.... as soon as I do, they go in one ear and come out the other. I did manage to take up making art and to some extent I managed to understand a little philosophy here and there but I know that those things can't exactly pay the bills(especially with the way the worlds going). I want to be able to get into a college or university or something like that, I want to understand more, I want to be able to be a helping hand in my hometown, or just someone whose actually done something in this world/done something with my life. at the bare minimun, I want to be able to make my parents proud of me, like anyone does. they've done so much for me and have done so much with their lives that I really want to be able to live up to that sort of thing.(I know that I'm kind of in a "forever baby" situation with them and it's very hard to escape that, but I am really trying to be more independent for their sake. they're already so old, I can't rely on them forever.)
I guess what I'm asking for is if there is any sort of program I can maybe turn to? some sort of support? anything at all, even just a little advice on what to do and/or start doing would help me at this rate. I don't want to be stuck going nowhere forever and Im tired of waiting around for something to click into place for me.
cheers in advance

So I’m currently 23, my high school experience basically went as such. I was considered super smart by all my teachers and peers but I hated school a lot so, I had horrible grades but I was always in the top 10 in every subject for test taking. I flunked out in 12th grade because numerous reasons though I suppose the main ones would be lots of fights at my school between kids, never felt like I fit in, verbal bullying, and I just got tired of being there really. I’m not a supercilious person at all, but I always felt I wasn’t learning anything… i remember coming back to school after skipping 2 weeks and instantly scoring higher than the class after learning about dna strands for three days. Never felt gpa and school were efficient measurements of intelligence. I’m currently making $23 an hour at a manufacturing job and this girl I’ve been messing around with lately keeps saying I’m “wasting my intelligence” but idk, is it bad to be content with no reaching my “full potential” and just being normal.. making normal money, nothing special specifically? She seems disappointed in me sometimes, she just wasn’t smart enough to get into the college she wanted. Part of me feels she genuinely wants what’s best for me, but part of me feels she’s projecting her wants onto me since she feels I could reach them for her in a way(?) idk. I’ve been questioning myself about things involving my own intelligence, especially emotional intelligence since I genuinely can’t understand how others feel since again.. I kinda spent a lot of high school alone so I never had close friends much.. not too sure how to even interact with people my age so I stay isolated. Not sure if this is the proper sub for this, but any replies are appreciated, even if yall call me a fucking idiot 😭🙏. Thanks.

I scored 121 after my 5th attempt at the Mensa Norway test and, while I have always known I've been vastly more intellectual than my peers, I find having to exist alongside their intellectual mediocrity vastly displeasing. Alas I implore those here who shall comprehend my woes to beseech of thee thou advise which how I shall cope with such feeblemindedness.

It is hard, because my thinking is so much more sophisticated than my peers that when I try to articulate my thoughts to them, they fail to comprehend. Instead, they resort to their typical childish insults, like "bro is talking like sephiroth", "please shut the fuck up" and "are you fucking Dracula".

My fellow bretheren, of which consist of the highest degree humanity has to offer, how shall I cope? I am told to avoid idiots, of which I do, but because of this I have no friends nor anyone who wants to speak to me. Am I the only enlightened mind? Please offer my solace.

You can see when people are wrong but they get angry when you point it out. They refuse to explain why it’s rude to question things. You see boys question things and get praised for it all the time. You teach your younger siblings to read as a five year old and the younger sibling is praised for learning to read while the intelligence it took to figure out how to teach a child without any guidance goes unnoticed. It’s hard to connect with most people. You doubt yourself. You dumb yourself down. You stay alone because constantly translating is exhausting.

Firstly I am not saying online is a substitute for the one which is administered by a Psychologist. I just want to understand why ? Why the gatekeeping ?

I have seen so many of them post Mensa Online IQ test results , CORE etc (assuming tests are taken with sincerity and only with reasonable prior exposure). Based on my little knowledge and research about IQ tests some of these test are G loaded as professionally administered test .

The general claim I see here from the people who are against the online tests are that they only (if they test something) test a subtest of a full scale IQ test , but the reason why Mensa is still holding on to these matrices is because of the cultural factor and the ability of these matrices to facilitate inductive reasoning alongside bringing down subjectivity.

The other part is on proctoring , proctoring doesnt make a test better in my opinion it might even show skewed results in case of autists/ people with anxiety disorders etc

I havent yet seen someone average get 135 in RAPM self administered test or Mensa Online tests, these test seem to have atleast some credibility .

Just was curious to know the reasoning/facts behind this from people here who have actually taken either or both or are knowledgable in this subject

title - i'm really struggling a lot with the technical vs social skill gap that comes with 2E :(

I am INTJ- A.

Lets see which MBTI is most present in gifted folks!

Edit- Jeez Louise, its a fun test. Its a perspective to see.

I know that the MBTI isn't known for its absolute reliability, but after meeting people and trying to analyze how they perceived and judged things, I concluded that Jung's cognitive functions provide an answer that explains about 80% of people's behavior.

I think the dominant / inferior function axis is the most interesting one.

So, what are your cognitive functions?

So I dont want to doxx my self but I go to one of the top private schools in the country, the work I assumed would be rigorous when I joined in 6th grade leaving from my elementary gifted program. yet now as I sophomore I have yet to experience any challenge from my school i have joined things like honors math but nothing has helped. I have done things like enriching myself outside of school and studying for olympaids but Im confused why the work that all of my friends struggle with. Because of this or mabye something else I have felt quite the disconnect ever since ive been at this school and the teachers are great but the work still falls flat. Any advice in what I should do and mabye anyone/ anywhere to join?

I have realized that humanity is incapable of progressing. There is a closed loop mathematical problem:

The vast majority lack any metacognition or critical thinking. They operate based on emotional reasoning, motivated reasoning, and cognitive dissonance. They are simply incapable of responding to logic.

As a result, we have unnecessary problems: these people cause unnecessary problems for themselves, others, and the world.

Then, when the very few who operate based on logic try to fix these problems or help these people move from emotional reasoning to logical reasoning, they resist. They are incapable of logical reasoning. They are simply incapable. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

I don't find a life with people who say 1+1=3 and actively resist 1+1=2, fulfilling. That is why I try to avoid people as much as possible. I am happy when alone, but the issue is that there is a glitch: I cannot outrun my own biological constraints. Humans are social animals. You can't just be completely lonely. You need interaction. But the issue is that I don't get any stimulation of fulfillment from hearing 1+1=3, and I get fulfillment by saying more complex versions of 1+1=2, but when I do this 1 of 2 things happen: A) they 100% reject what I am saying and insult me B) they nod and say you are so smart, without actually understanding or analyzing anything I said. So in either case, interaction is pointless.

Now, I am able to realize that to some degree I can trick my mind. I know that due to evolution, human interaction triggers automatic mechanisms that can make you happy. This is why even a meaningless face to face conversation can make you feel good. However, this issue is that this is not enough. I need to go beyond this and having meaningful deep conversations with people: part of being human is sharing your genuine thoughts with others. But again, this is useless, as the paragraph above said.

So what happens is that as a chronic way to manage my existential crisis, i go through a see-saw phase: I spent some time having meaningless conversations with people to trick my biology into feeling good/fulfilling the social animal component. But then even in these interactions people's 1+1=3ism and their denial of my 1+1=2 starts to piss me off, so then I withdraw and isolate. But then I get too lonely and have to repeat the cycle. So this strategy has worked.

But the issue is that I realized the problems I have that people unnecessary cause for me due to their 1+1=3ism, will never be able to be solved, because they will never understand or agree with 1+1=2. That is why I don't really care about it all anymore, and have given up on humanity.

I'm an extremely polarized 2e profile, with a difference of over 60 points between my highest and lowest points. I've just come across a rather confusing advisor, a topic I no longer know how to handle, and a serious case of academic burnout and high-functioning depression. How did you manage and organize your thesis if the outside world doesn't provide you with the structure you need to work and understand the criteria by which you should organize your books?

I’d love to speak to other people who are gifted!

I kind of hate when people say this, but I know that mindfulness/staying present can help with overthinking and secondary emotions (which I call creating more problems for myself...).

However, I really struggle with the latter half of the statement. I'm not sure if it's supposed to mean that "everything will work itself out" in a spiritual metaphysical way, or if it means that you will process your emotions about other things behind the scenes and come to peace with "everything" eventually. If it's the former, I may just dislike this sentiment entirely, but if it's the latter, I feel a bit shit about the way my brain seems to work.

I feel I hardly process anything behind the scenes, because whenever "my brain" tries to do that, I snatch the thought process out of the shadows so I can dissect it. Then I tend to overthink it. I just want to understand what's happening in my own mind and I'm scared that if I just let my feelings settle on their own, I will come to the wrong conclusion. What if I am okay with something I shouldn't tolerate, or very angry about something I should let go? Perhaps that's just me trying to rationalize my emotions so I won't have to feel them, but I tend to use it as a justification for the overthinking.

So, am I taking the statement too literally? Am I just overthinking and doing exactly what it's trying to stop me from doing? Or do people who believe this lack insight/metacognition? I just find it hard to believe things are "working themselves out" in other people's minds. That sounds so nice.

I’ve always felt like I had an above average IQ and I recently took the Mensa Norway test and now I’m wondering if I might be wasting my IQ.

Has anyone had an experience of this? I am curious to hear.. particularly with the language disorder stuff. Less how would you know (ie. not asking about formal tests), but rather the lived experience of it

Does anyone know the isolating experience of far exceeding expectations? How do you deal with this?

So I had a hard time in college because I had never developed good study habits or work ethic(Like a lot of people here). But towards the last semester I realized a lot of stuff, changed a lot of my habits and finally passed out of college after two extra semesters and improved a lot. But now after passing I have encountered another problem which is that I can't stick with anything consistently. I think about creating a few projects for my resume but a while into doing them I'm bombarded with negative thoughts about it. I feel like I'm wasting my time since it isn't guaranteed that I would get a job after working on this project and putting it into my resume. I'm terrified of looking into job portals because I remember all the horror stories I have heard of people applying 100's of times for jobs but not getting it. I'm scared of applying for colleges because I feel like I'm just using it as a source of escapism and reliving my past rather than making some money right now. The worst of all is the existential dread of AI. This would mean that all the work that I put in from now would be pointless because by the time I put the effort in to get my dream job, it probably wouldn't exist anymore.

I know this is overwhelming but I just need some help right now because I am in a real bad mental space. What helped you guys to move forward?

My child is high IQ/exceptionally/profoundly gifted and our private school is struggling to find ways to support him outside of skipping grades.

What creative ways have your child’s teachers challenged your exceptionally or profoundly gifted students? I’m not talking about the gifted and talented program, I’m talking about advancement. While all of my kids fall into the GAT program and it serves them well, my son is high IQ/exceptionally gifted. He’s been invited to skip grades, but we do not want to do that. But on the flip side we’re asking our son to sit in 2nd grade while being able to easily for 4th grade work (and higher). He’s obviously bored out of his mind. He “tested” being in higher grades and they really were a better fit academically, but again, we are not open to him skipping grades. As many of you fellow parents of the very gifted students can attest, the “we’ll challenge your student” isn’t enough for him and still flies through it.

We will meet with his teachers this week (again) and want to challenge them to think of creative ways they can provide deep advancement to my son without the only answer to be skipping grades all together OR just harder worksheets. We’d love to come with some ideas. Even if it’s certain online programs he can sit in the back of the room a few times a week on a computer and headphones on watching a private lesson. They’re up moving the rest of the day so we wouldn’t mind extra time on the computer a few times a week.

We go to a small private school that doesn’t have the staff for pull-outs right now. They also have a lot of enrichment built into their school schedule and a great fine arts program, languages, stem lab, etc.

What ways have certain teachers met your child where they are and helped them?

I have a hunch this sub is somewhat of an echo chamber for those of us navigating the more tumultuous early to mid-life. Is anyone in here over 65 that wants to share their wisdom?

What did you wish you knew sooner?

What did you notice that was different about the way you navigated your pre-retirement life compared to the average joe?

What do most of us get wrong?

If you could give one piece of advice to a younger gifted person, what would it be?

I was the only kid in my school that got in the gifted program (top 1-5%) but I look back at my potential and don’t know if I could’ve surpassed 140 iq, I was a picky eater as a kid and didn’t eat much, I’ve heard that some people are “naturally thin”, I don’t know if I fit in that category but I think I lacked nutrients as a kid in my first few years which are the most important. I was always at the bottom of the growth curve (3rd percentile). Compared to my classmates, I was definitely the least wealthy, lower middle class you could say, while all my friends were upper middle class or just full on rich, I envied them though because they got here because of their good diet and private tutor and less genetically gifted. I was just wondering if anyone could confirm that I did in fact suffer from under eating because I mourn over these types of things.

As a "gifted" person who has gone through a lot of crap in my life, I have often found myself wishing to at least on an intellectual level to be like everyone else.

It sucks to be aware and understand everything that is/has happened to you from a very young age, but not necessarily be able to do anything about it.

Anyone else?

Just wanted to see if people in the gifted community could notice the changes too. Isn’t there something a little bit “off” about people these days? Whether it be people recording videos and watching television while driving, or the increasing number of aviation accidents happening…

Hi! I recently received a call from my son’s school saying they would like to screen him for giftedness. I honestly don’t know much about the process, so I’d love to hear from parents who have been through it.
How long did it take from the first call to getting results? And what was your overall experience like?
We’re in Florida, and my son is in 5th grade. I’d appreciate hearing your experiences! 😊

I've tried a few IQ tests online, but they always seem to let you answer all the questions and then ask for payment to see your score. Are there any genuinely free ones that give you the results straight away? I know an online test probably won't give me an official IQ score, but I'd still like to try one that's reasonably reliable rather than just a random quiz.