Gifted Adults: How do You Know You are in a Crisis

Common Causes of a Gifted Crisis:

• You feel different from everyone else: isolated, detached, and alienated.

• You don’t know how to accept the reality of being gifted or where and how to use it.

• Losing your ‘’gifted edge”  can become an existential crisis.

• Your friends are too conventional – they don’t get your giftedness.

• School isn’t working for you :

  • The curriculum isn’t enriched  and /or accelerated enough – it’s too boring.

  • Teachers don’t know how to handle your giftedness.

  • Classmates are smart overachievers but have no imagination.

•  At your workplace:

  • Projects are beneath you.

  • Bosses don’t reward your creative solutions.

  • Your co–workers are too slow.

• You can’t sustain success : 

  • Unexplained failures follow your remarkable achievements.

  • Too much success has come too soon:

    • You’ve been forced to admit you’re gifted before you’re ready to do so.

    • You feel obligated to give back before you’ve begun to fully develop your own gifts.

• Work has gotten much harder:

  • You no longer can generate intuitive automatic answers to problems.

  • You don’t have an organized step-by-step plan for attacking more complex problems.

  • Suddenly you can’t distinguish creative ideas from irrelevant ones.

• You’ve just been sick:

  • An illness can blunt anyone’s ability to think quickly and accurately.

  • For you, even a mild illness can be scary: you could lose your ability to think critically.

  • Even a mild case of Covid 19 can make you feel confused :

• A relationship is going bad:

  • You couldn’t work out enough private time.

  • The pleasures of intimacy have disrupted your need for independence. 

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Common Symptoms of a Gifted Crisis

The symptoms of a gifted crisis can mimic the symptoms of a true psychiatric disorder. We can prevent you from being misdiagnosed

What are the Psychological/Emotional Symptoms of a Gifted Crisis?

• Anxiety and Mood Swings

• Depression: low energy, low motivation, decreased appetite, insomnia, extreme sadness.

• Existential Depression: feelings of worthlessness, alienation, detachment, depersonalization.

What are the Behavioral Symptoms of a Gifted Crisis?

• You keep engaging in self-defeating behavior.

• You keep putting yourself in harm’s way.

• You keep turning away from important opportunities.

• Your provocative attitude turns people off.

The Cognitive Indicators of a Gifted Crisis

All of a sudden you have an outbreak of learning ,memory, attentional issues: you have yourself convinced you’ve developed ADD.

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How do We Help You Get Out of a Gifted Crisis?

Our process is a collaborative interactive one that is specific to your needs and personality. We can help you identify your particular type of giftedness; help you believe in it and find ways to use and enjoy it. Help you unblock your giftedness regardless of cause and circumstance, help you maximize your gifted potential, and use it creatively, ambitiously, and competitively. 

Intensive talk sessions will help you:

• Determine the cause of the crisis

• Separate the multiple factors that interact to cause the crisis

• Focus on which ones need to be addressed first.

• We provide the framework and guidance for making the necessary practical, emotional, and behavioral changes.

• We can help you restore better self-regulation and self-care:

  • A Healthy sleep cycle

  • A consistent plan for a  healthy diet and maintaining appropriate weight

  • Good personal hygiene

  • Addressing dependence and abuse of substances

Medication

If your symptoms disrupt activities of daily living, temporary use of medication can be helpful. We can help you make the right choices.