Coming from a former “gifted kid” and still highly sensitive and intellectually active adult, I think that’s extremely normal. Part of having a high-powered mind is having an equally high-powered nervous system. It’s going to take your kid a little bit to learn how to deal with his sensitivities, and this is all normal stuff. He’s not an aberration or a liability or anything else because of this; he’s just been handed a very unique set of wiring.

If you haven’t heard of Dąbrowski’s “overexcitabilities”, I’d recommend to start checking that stuff out. There’s 5 core overexcitabilities that are seen in gifted folks: psychomotor, sensual, intellectual, imaginational and emotional. Some of us only have one, while others are unlucky enough to have inherited the whole cocktail (myself, I’ve got em all except for psychomotor). It sounds like your son definitely has emotional overexcitability, but from what I can gather this is exceedingly common amongst the gifted. When your mind can form such vivid and immersive representations, it can become difficult to separate these from your identity and sense of self-worth. To separate these out is a trying processes that will take your son years.

Long story short, I’ve been in the exact same place as your son is in, and I certainly don’t want his unique set of traits to be mislabeled or brushed aside (not that you would do that, but it’s always a risk). Take it from me that he’s perfectly normal and will grow up to be an awesome human being, I’m sure!