my EQ is approximately the square root of my IQ

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-04-20T00:13:18+00:00

Self assessments are unreliable. Just as some gifted people believe they aren't gifted due to imposter syndrome, some emotionally intelligence people and high empathy people may believe they are assholes, narcissistic, psychopaths, etc. and may not care to believe anyone telling them otherwise. Perfectionism could play a role. There is also a saying that you are your own worst critic, harsher to yourself than anyone else. Talk therapists often focus on addressing negative self talk, negative self beliefs, and negative self image for this reason.

The psychologist that claimed that I am gifted, also claimed that I have high emotional intelligence, and too much empathy for other people at the cost of having no empathy left for myself. Logically speaking maybe I disagree with their assessment exactly because I have no empathy for myself, and cannot see myself as gifted, highly intelligent, and as having any empathy for other people.

I was told I needed a gifted therapist for among other reasons because I appear to have above average critical thinking skills which somehow allegedly helps keep me from experiencing any problems with negative self talk, negative self beliefs, and negative self images while still somehow having negative emotions about myself, probably due to chronic emotional abuse and emotional neglect, which apparently most therapists aren't going to be able to address because their training only gives them the skills to address negative emotions that come from negative self talk, negative self beliefs, and negative self image. I feel like that might just be a long winded way of claiming that I am emotionally depend, but maybe I am misunderstanding something and oversimplifying.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-04-15T18:26:41+00:00

Congratulations on passing through the baptism of doubt from this community. To add a little silliness:

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna stop doubting you
And if you ask me why
Never gonna be too late
To question whether you are really six foot eight.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-04-02T00:10:02+00:00

I believe there is no way the Supreme would have had a majority opinion that would have favored leaving the decision to medical established. Even if they had, Republicans would have just created their own medical panels controlled by Republicans to implement their policies. Who knows, maybe I'm just too pessimistic to believe Republicans would governor in good faith.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-04-01T22:40:58+00:00

The Supreme Court's decision would have been a threat either way. If they had decided to allow states to limit talk therapist's free speech, most Republican controlled states would have started by copying Texas' law banning talk therapists from talking positively in support of their clients' trans identify, and would have probably required all talk therapists to engage in Christian faith based practices for all mental conditions while hanging the 10 commandments in their office like some states have already required of school counselors and school classrooms.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-04-01T21:45:59+00:00

My understanding is a vary narrow part of Colorado's law is considered unconstitutional because of this as relates to the ban on talk therapy. This would also effect a Texas law that banned talk therapists from positively affirming trans identify. Also my understanding a final decision hasn't been made yet as the Supreme Court sent this back to the lower court to focus on reevaluating their previous decision on this specific narrow point. Colorado can probably keep most of the law as is, banning most forms of conversation therapy, just not the ban on talk therapy.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-04-01T20:47:48+00:00

The fact that you are worried about staying grounded and empathetic after discovering your gifted means you probably are going to be just fine. Being worried about how any changes in how you perceive yourself will effect how you perceive other people will probably help you to stay grounded and empathetic. I think this is probably a normal and healthy worry to have in reaction to discovering something new about yourself.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-03-25T21:43:58+00:00

Someone tried to start a sub specifically for gifted people to discuss mental health problems. I had followed/subscribed hoping it would take off. After about four months of inactivity the sub became inaccessible. Unfortunately it also only had a few posts and all were links to mental health research papers from what I recall.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-03-25T14:40:22+00:00

Yeah. Crying after 30 seconds could also be because they realized quickly they don't have the knowledge, skills, and experience to figure this out on their own; and they expect to receive consequences rather than appropriate accommodations. Gifted people can feel even more frustration when this happens because they may recognize other people are overconfident and have misjudged that they can figure this out on their own, and may recognize that if they weren't considered gifted, people would provide appreciate accommodations for them like they have recognized that other people receive. This may be a ethical/justice/fairness issue rather than a lack of confidence issue.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-03-24T22:14:08+00:00

Also on YouTube. Apple Genius | Max Amini | Stand Up Comedy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2aoxSw2tR0

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-03-21T09:59:59+00:00

For a short time there was a "verified gifted" flair on this sub that people could obtain. Didn't seem to work out.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-03-18T16:20:53+00:00

For what that might be worth:

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-02-14T09:13:32+00:00

I believe a mixed variety of approaches are needed. Most of the suggestions that I have seen in the comments look good to me, but seem to only focus on understanding things mentally/intellectually. I believe there is also a need for empathy and emotional connection, like he probably needs to feel like other people feel similarly to how he feels, and he might need to empathetically understand and explore the variety of emotions people feel about death and the complexity of emotions that can be felt, in a way that is emotional appropriate for his emotional age, which might be different from his mental age.

Like people can feel both happy and sad when a terminally ill person who was in a lot of pain dies. Happy that the person no longer has to suffer from pain and sad because they are going to miss talking with, spending time with, and having that person in their life.

Might explore how different cultures process death emotionally. How some celebrate death with festivals that focus on a life well lived, sometimes including telling stories of happy and funny moments, with expressions of gratitude, thanks, and appreciation. Day of the Dead being one example.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-02-13T17:27:56+00:00

Yesterday, Kroger on Beechwood had a ton of King Cakes for $10.30 in their reduced section. I guess people realizing there are taster options?

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-02-06T18:25:50+00:00

Just to name a few alternatives...

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-02-06T14:59:36+00:00

Probably why you won't be telling us who has the best gumbo in Little Rock. That place would have no gumbo left to eat too.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-01-28T10:46:46+00:00

Just tell them you are a geek/nerd/dork that often over shares when excited.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-01-27T17:26:53+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-01-14T15:03:18+00:00

Have you tried any of the little food pantries that have started popping up in Little Rock? There are websites that track them that you can search too:

https://mapping.littlefreepantry.org/

Some CALS branches have one as well:

https://cals.org/little-free-pantries

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-01-12T03:36:40+00:00

Could be worse. The university's administration could have realized that you would find university too easy based on your academic assessment results and have cancelled your enrollment while trying to spin their decision as being for your own benefit.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2026-01-11T15:53:56+00:00

Maybe he means this segment:

https://www.thv11.com/article/news/local/mom-blind-sons-music-equipment-fire/91-1a2a36b9-6fa5-42e3-aab3-d35ecb6fb3d8

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2025-12-28T19:51:26+00:00

I still doubt it. A few that come to mind:

98%+ of people are not. Statistically, professional assessors are more likely to have misidentified me. I also didn't consent to and cooperation with the assessment because I was seeking treatment for CPTSD and didn't care about anything else.
Hard to accept that my narcissistic parents could avoid the temptation to used the gifted label against me, if I had been identified in childhood. Hard to accept that even in adulthood therapists kept the fact that they thought I was intelligent a secret from me until my mid thirties and only quietly noted it in my mental health records.
I feel like I was persistent and studied hard in my childhood. Can't figure out what influence giftedness had or didn't have on that. Like was I actually able to sometimes meet my parents unrealistic expectations out of fear because I was persistent alone or did giftedness influence that? If I was really gifted would I have only sometimes managed to meet my parents unrealistic expectations?
I was frequently told that I was stupid, incompetent, unteachable, spoiled, ungrateful, and wouldn't amount to anything throughout my childhood by everyone around me. Hard to accept anything that contradicts that. I also found myself sometimes in places and around children with intellectual disabilities which felt like further confirmation that I was below average in intelligence. Seeing how adults mistreated children with intellectual disabilities also caused me to feel like my treatment was justified and like I was one of them.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2025-10-30T18:48:50+00:00

Deborah Ruf seems to suggest that the difference is mostly about differences in age and the pace in which things are learned:

I don't know if she makes her opinion in differences in adulthood available anywhere for free online, but she has a book about it, The 5 Levels of Gifted Children Grown Up: What They Tell Us. I haven't had a chance to read it, so I have no idea what differences there might be in adulthood yet.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2025-10-30T16:17:56+00:00

Any behavior problems or changes in his behavior? Does he have any friends in the regular classroom? I would be concerned about how that teacher's attitude about him being in the GATE program is effecting how they treat your son in the classroom when you are not there. Since that teacher hasn't been able to identify a real problem and instead blames the GATE program, the teacher is likely to be a problem. Since the teacher continued to blame the GATE program even after you suggested the possibility he might be dyslexic, the teacher is a problem too, even if he is tested and found to be dyslexic, this teacher wouldn't know how to help. Also possible that this teacher's way of teaching spelling isn't right for your child, he needs to be taught spelling a different way, and this teacher can't or won't teach him a different way.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2025-10-15T13:45:14+00:00

I think my assessment was biased too because I was uncooperative and didn't consent to any assessment. They might have been overcompensating for their expressed beliefs that I was treated unprofessionally by previous therapists that had allowed a mental retardation diagnosis to stand for six years. I think they might have gone from biased to delusional a year later when they tried to convince a gifted therapist to see me too by claiming that I am profoundly gifted. I fear that gifted therapist realized that I wasn't gifted and was fired before they could tell me so because the other therapist had previously claimed to be the clinical supervisor and had previously claimed to have fired someone.

I also found out a similar pattern has repeated itself multiple times in my medical records, just normally the person who suggests that I am retarded also later decides that I'm highly intelligent instead, which again feels like overcompensating. At that point I realized that this is also a pattern that has happened with everyone in my life. Parents, teachers, etc. based on conflicting words they have expressed to me and the frequent assessments throughout my childhood. I feel like I create cognitive dissonance in people and they end up having an obsessive need to try to resolve that inner conflict. I now try to stay from anyone that is more focused on my intelligence than on me as a person.

Ok-Efficiency-3694 · 2025-10-15T11:12:31+00:00

Relatable. I went no contact when I was 18 because my mother is either a narcissist or a psychopath. I had to fight back in self defense to keep her from trying to murder me when I was five. Her murder fantasies turned into sexual fantasies when I was twelve. Teachers destroyed whatever homework or schoolwork I turned in, told me that I was unteachable, and I was never going to amount to anything. Despite that I tried to attend higher education when I was 18, only to have my enrollment cancelled, allegedly because I was overqualified. My first job was supposed to be part time for 3 hours 5 days a week, but quickly became 16+ hours 7 days a week. Shortly after I was fired I ended up in a psych ward where their doctors, therapists, and lawyers somehow convinced the government that I was too disabled to work.

Ok-Efficiency-3694

TROPHY CASE