#giftedness

"my special needs screening test is very good at detecting well adjusted individuals" is not the flex you think it is

a lot of people tested as gifted as kids keep turning out to also be autistic/adhd (at least in france). and the narrative I've been hearing is that self-help authors have spent decades attributing various autistic/adhd traits to giftedness, so a lot of people end up recognizing themselves in these books and thinking it's because they're gifted, plus it's less of a taboo. for kids a variant is that problem children are assumed to be gifted. and also there's that idea that everyon who gets IQ tested already had "issues", otherwise they wouldn't be in front of a psychologist

the idea being that there there is zero correlation between high IQ and neurodivergence, and that therapists are just seeing a sampling bias (the sample being "people who go to therapy"). that people who don't know they're gifted are not likely to be otherwise neurodivergent.

okay but kids don't get IQ tested because they have "issues" or recognize themselves in self-help books. they get IQ tested because they can read at five and need to skip a grade

if you're constructing a category of the "kids who are gifted but will never know it because everything is going well in their lives" (which by the way is what's being constructed), the implication is that those kids will also never skip a grade or receive any accomodation or need any.

there's an argument to be made about visible neurodivergence that's obscured by the idea that "labeling" and seeing a therapist at all creates the "issues", or at least speaks them into existence. The situation doesn't stop existing if it isn't named.

But where I'm getting at is, is needing to skip a grade an autistic trait?

There are two types of gift. One works for the audience and converts into fame. The other works for survival and converts into invisibility. I am the second type.

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I hate how giftedness is often overlooked as a neurodivergence just because it makes you "smart", and labeled as autism.

I am autistic and gifted diagnosed and I've been receiving therapy in school since I was 14, luckily since I'm autistic as well I luckily get recognized as a special needs person. Just because of my autism, which is really low and probably not even making me present as many traits as the other. My giftedness never mattered to teachers. Every year I go to school and hear about things ive either already learnt before or understood the first minute and my classmates treat it like it's fucking rocket science, ask stupid questions, make stupid comments, force me to explain everything to them and make most of the work in group projects. I never got any extra work or any adaptations for it and it made school insufferable, which lead me to a slight depression once, and suicide thoughts due to always feeling like an alien. Oh but I sure as hell get asked if im okay when the class is too loud.

I have a friend whos gifted and has way too many neurodivergent traits. She's only gifted, nothing else, but she always gets labeled as autistic. By teachers, friends, classmates, and people she barely knows. She got tested years ago so she knows shes not autistic. Shes tired of her neurodivergence constantly being ignored and replaced. Moreover, even though she does get adaptations for giftedness, she has the same "alien" feeling as me and also wants to end her life.

My father, who is undiagnosed but has an official iq of 178, is constantly being misjudged as mean and selfish. He does sound like an extremely smart person, but that does not mean he can't have social issues. But since he could calculate math problems most adults couldn't, mentally and in a matter of seconds by the time he was 10, embarrased math teachers and tweaked out everytime someone mentioned pseudoscience he never got the right of getting his problems aknowleged. I once explained this to my school therapist (total dumbass, but still has a psichology degree), he said: "I have talked to your father and im sorry to say this but he is mean and looks down on everybody, and you shouldn't blame that on his iq." He is. Because of people like my therapist who overlook gifted traits on gifted people and prevented him from training his skills or even knowing what is wrong with him.

If you're in a room full of people dumber or smarter than you, you're not in the right room. But what if theres not a right room? When in a conversation about history you get fed up because other people are being stupid but in the next conversation where you have to comfort someone you're constantly messing up.

And when any gifted person vents to a NT person its always the same "you're just bragging", "be grateful you're living in easy mode" comments. Motherfucker its a neurodivergence not a superpower. We have our own issues. Most gifted people don't get the privilege of venting and have to shut up about how difficult the world is.