What does this advice mean?

Question

What does she mean by gifted? Does this sound like bs to you?

Are you gifted? Sometimes highly intelligent people have a problem with hypersensitivity. It is related to the ability to sense emotions too well. Sensitive people often baffle people cuz they get angry or offended when nobody intended to hurt them. Also, they have a super strong sense of "justice" and often feel that things are unjust and are unable to let that go.

If you are a gifted-sensitive, you will not stop feeling those angry hurt feelings. However, it helps a LOT to understand where they are coming from. If you understand that no bad intent is directed at you, and that the reaction is something you can't help, like an allergic reaction, you might be able to deal with it psychologically. Often the anger is related to a sense that you are being unjustly criticized or unfairly disapproved of. When you understand how much of that is due to your giftedness and is not technically "real" it might help.

Yep. Sounds like bs. I don't think of myself as intelligent. Anyone can study and get As.

I'm not intelligent. Anyone can get As and work hard. So this doesn't apply to me. What is highly intelligent? How do you measure it?

Answer 1

I originally wrote this advice.
It is the research of Sal Mendaglio at the Centre for Gifted Education at the University of Calgary. Maybe it is psychobabble, but it has been presented at psychiatry conferences and the psychiatrists seem to think it is true. It might be a better idea to just read the research yourself rather than asking people who haven't read it to offer opinions......"gifted" simply means "having a higher than normal IQ", usually over 120. "sensitive" means that the brain processes emotional input differently in some smart individuals. If you are gifted, you probably know it, because you will have found learning to be easy, and perhaps you were bored in school while other children struggled.

There is another psychological profile of "emotional sensitivity" in normal IQ individuals (average intelligence) and these people are often artistic, moody, and react strongly with emotional outbursts. This type is not associated with giftedness, and if you wish to look it up, just do a search of "emotional sensitivity" and you will come up with several websites that describe this.

The reason I care is that I have a gifted/sensitive child and the information helped me deal with her.

Answer 2

It might be excellent analysis for you *if* you are very intelligent, and / or sensitive and /or imaginitive.

It may resonate with you as being incomplete, but it may be part of a helping package.

I would prefer to see much more positivity and advice directed towards you rather than analysis.

I myself seem to be hypersensitive, as are maybe 10% to 15% of people. It can be found in some animals as well. It can be a curse sometimes, and a wonderful gift at other times. Overall, I see it as a great gift to us and to society!

I get joy out of very little things.
I enjoy 'weepy' movies.
I have had peak experiences.
I will remember the film "Ghost" forever.

Recommended author: Abram (or Abraham Maslow) with respect to key experiences. He was a psychologist active in the 1930's

Recommended topic: Hypersensitive people - adults or children. A woman wrote about herself and her son.

Other books: 1) "Dibs in search of self" and 2) A book by Mary Barnes about her mental breakdown and recovery.

Answer 3

She answers the question in the next sentence. By "gifted" she means "highly intelligent." And no, what she's saying is NOT B.S. It's very true that the vast majority of highly intelligent children and teenagers take things very personally and have that strong sense of justice she spoke of. Many youngsters like this refuse to participate in team sports because they get tired of watching their teammates and members of the other team breaking the rules and not getting called on it. And yes, it is also true that these kids are socially awkward because they "read too far in" to things that people say or do. Call it psychobabble if you like, but the better you know yourself the better prepared you are to handle what the world throws at you.

Answer 4

If you are sensitive i wouldnt call it a gift. I consider it a hinderance. Super sensitive people get offended easily and thus tend to have trouble getting along with others that are not in agreement with them. People with talents are not always super sensitive but they can be sensitive about their "given" talents. If they know that they are highly intelligent in something and someone points out that they are wrong and shows them, they take it pretty bad.

its to be expected i quess.

Answer 5

Gifted in this use really means thin skinned. If you can manage your sensitivity and make use of it I suppose you could me considered gifted. But for most people being over sensitive is a curse. It makes interacting with groups of people difficult because you feel over whelmed with too much stimulus.

Answer 6

Yeah... This totally sounds like BS. It sounds like someone trying to come up with an excuse for being angry.

Answer 7

Totally over reacting! A highly intelligent person would know the difference, don't you think?

Answer 8

No it makes sense. A lot of people with higher IQ's are socially inept causing them to be overly sensitive and have poor self esteem.

Answer 9

Sounds like mis-directing BS to me...or pycho-babble.

Answer 10

Yup...BS.