"Existential crisis for the gifted often begins as a subtle, recurring awareness, a quiet hum that says, "I am more than this." Or some varying version: "I am in the wrong place," "I do not have any equals here," "I am wasting my potential." From time to time, you feel the deep, cellular knowing that you were meant for something more expansive than your current circumstances allow. These instincts are not groundless."
"Your unconscious has accumulated information about your giftedness for years, from the moments when you grasped concepts others struggled with, when you saw patterns invisible to those around you, when you understood the unspoken dynamics in a room. And yet, here you are, perhaps in a role where you simultaneously burn out and bore out, burdened with responsibilities but given little authority, your days filled with tasks that require you to dim your brightness to fit in."
Existential unrest in gifted adults often appears as a quiet, recurring sense of being meant for more than current circumstances allow. Deep, accumulated experiences of early ease with concepts and social insight create a persistent internal knowledge of greater capacity. Many gifted adults are placed in roles that demand effort without authority, producing simultaneous burnout and boredom. Caregiver, teacher, or peer responses can instill a shamed self that doubts and diminishes talent. That internalized message labels power as dangerous and discourages claiming gifts. Envy in gifted adults often signals a legitimate need for life congruence rather than mere superficial desire.
Read at Psychology Today
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