Symptoms of giftedness

At an early age – mostly at school age – there are characteristics that can indicate giftedness. It is important to note that not all highly gifted people exhibit these “symptoms”. One could mention them:

Exploration: The person concerned is particularly attentive and has the desire to discover as many new things as possible.
The need to discover the environment visually and to learn languages quickly is strong
The typical “baby language” as a tool for learning the right language is usually experienced only very briefly
Interest in symbols or numbers.Affected children often bring themselves the

These symptoms do not always mean that giftedness is present in adults: Autism is very different from giftedness. Although the media and films often see a connection between the two terms, it must be remembered that autism is a psychiatric condition and those affected do not always have high giftedness. The leading factor in this clinical picture is the inability to assert oneself in social life.

Things like tying shoes or dressing can be particularly difficult for an autistic person. The so-called island gift is to be distinguished from the autistic person. This means that the ability of certain areas is particularly well developed, while others are not.

For example, an island talent would be to fly over a city like Rome in a helicopter and then record the city palm from the head. The background to this island gift is that there is a lack of inhibitory areas of the central nervous system in these people, or that these are distributed differently. A non-island-talented person would fly over the city of Rome, but would not be able to record the streets in such a way that a map could be made afterwards.

This is because during the flight he also perceives things like sounds and smells, he makes assessments of danger, altitude, flight duration, etc. A person gifted with an island talent, on the other hand, fades out all these things and concentrates, intentionally or unintentionally, only on the streets of the city. Why the abilities of each island bagabee are different is not yet clear.

Many highly gifted people only notice their giftedness when accompanying symptoms appear. A rather socio-medical problem of highly gifted people is the constant rejection that already occurs at a young age. Thus children who are highly gifted are often classified as “different” by their classmates and shunned.

This can have serious consequences, especially during the formative years at a young age. Children are more likely to develop a fear of school, with associated psychosomatic complaints such as stomach aches, headaches, etc. In adults, an accompanying clinical picture to high giftedness would be depression.

In today’s society, gifted children are much better integrated than 30 years ago due to better diagnostics and testing possibilities, but gifted children are still seen as something extraordinary (which they are) and a bit “crazy”. Depression usually occurs when the reactions of the environment to you can be fully perceived and felt, but the reasons why other people react to you in this way are not seen. Highly gifted people do not necessarily see their ability as something “special”, and so they think they are no different from their environment.

The discrepancy between cause and effect is thus the main trigger of depression in the gifted. Another possibility how depression in gifted people can occur is when one’s own ability is recognized and it is also seen that one is different from others, but cannot find an adequate exchange with others. A highly gifted person will often feel lonely and underchallenged among normally gifted people.

It is not uncommon for depression, which is initially treated, to become a symptom of giftedness. Many highly gifted people come into contact with the term giftedness for the first time when they try to find the cause of their depression. Psychologists then usually perform a few tests and come up with the diagnosis “giftedness”. In this case, however, the correct term should be: “unfulfilled” giftedness, because only unsupported giftedness has a psychological-medical value.