"Growing up intellectually gifted in a household in which no one shares your cognitive intensity creates a kind of loneliness that cannot easily be named. It is more than being smart. You are just being who you naturally are, but, inevitably, you are out of sync with the world around you. One of the sad realities of being neurodivergent and out of sync with others in the family is that you inevitably feel oppressed or humiliated."
"This feeling persists even when no one actively tries to shut you down or humiliate you, even though they may inadvertently do so. The sense of humiliation often arises in the small, daily moments when your enthusiasm is met with blank stares, your questions are waved away, and your excitement and passion are treated as showing off. It happens when you are told to "Stop thinking so much" or "Stop asking so many questions.""
Growing up intellectually gifted in a household without shared cognitive intensity produces a nameless loneliness that stems from being out of sync with others. Neurodivergent intensity often meets blank stares, dismissal, and cautions to 'stop thinking so much,' generating feelings of humiliation and oppression even without deliberate hostility. Well-intentioned parents can inadvertently enforce conformity by discouraging grand ambitions, urging concealment of talents, or defining happiness in narrow terms. Childhood survival strategies become adult self-editing behaviors, such as dumbing oneself down or performing a false self. Resolution requires finding intellectual peers and ceasing false self-performance to reclaim authenticity.
Read at Psychology Today
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