High intelligence disorders

High intelligence disorders. Research shows that highly intelligent people are susceptible to disorders – but which ones? And why?

What are high intelligence “disorders”?

First of all, I’ve a bone to pick with “disorders.”

Some disorders are simply normal humans responses to experiences. Life has a way of throwing stuff at us (as do people). Most of us will at some point have an encounter or several with depression, anxiety, PTSD, even c-PTSD for those of who who go through sustained periods of, let’s put it bluntly, crap treatment from other people.  Especially if we have a wonky foundation in the attachment department and need to reparent ourselves too.

But essentially, disorders compares us to a mythic state of “order” – which may or may not be a sensible model to be using.

We also have side-effects of living life as a gifted person: loneliness, procrastination, or perfectionism, are typical problems of gifted adults, for instance. Relationship, career, and existential problems are A Thing, too. And if you’re an undiagnosed gifted adult and haven’t yet figured out how giftedness is a Major Factor in all of these, there’s going to be a lot (hi, overthinking) of plain old confusion that Things Are Not Making Sense.

High intelligence can lead to these “disorders” because our minds quite frankly out-pace and out-rank our feelings. We intellectualise our emotions, instead of feeling and processing them. We might also have dodgy, inaccurate models of how processing feelings is supposed to work, which means we logjam our own systems with the wrong instruction set.

There’s dysthymia and alexythymia, when we’re out of tune with our experience and/or don’t register our emotions, or have difficulty identifying them. Getting back in touch with the body can help with that.

At the other end of thing the sensitivity scale, many gifted folk are highly sensitive. We sense more inputs, we process more, we have more going on in our experience as a result. As well as being internally overwhelmed, we get misunderstood by less-sensitive people who don’t notice what we do, who aren’t affected to the same intensity that we are. Sometimes, this sensitivity and intensity is pathologised – but ideally, these qualities can serve us much better when they are understood, harnessed, and applied how and when you want them to be.

When we’re highly intelligent and highly sensitive, there’s simply A Lot going on (underestimate!): physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually.

Next up, we have the neurodivergencies. Autism and ADHD feature strongly here (hi, have we met?). Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia. And many more. High intelligence + another neurodivergence puts you squarely in the set of twice-exceptional people, where your giftedness may be working overtime to mask or compensate for your other brain/body traits. You might then have the Am I? Aren’t I? phase of investigating and pondering everything while waiting ages for clinical diagnosis – or DIY it.

At the giftedness end of things, high intelligence is most certainly a neurodivergence. If only because you can’t be in a group that’s less than 1% of the population and not be divergent from said population.

I wouldn’t call neurodivergence “disorders” either. They’re differences. Neurotypes. Neurodivergent people aren’t broken neurotypicals. When neurodivergent people’s needs are met properly, you can live a darn good and enjoyable life neurodivergently.

What now?

1. Do Nothing

This is always an option. But now you’ve read this page, your lil brain (ha, I jest) will be whirring away, processing and looking out for new rabbitholes to dive into.

2. Do It Yourself

Figure out what you’ve got going on. Which bits are problematic, which bits are innately you, where the overlap is, and figure out what to do about it. It’s entirely plausible to make good headway this way.

3. Do It With Someone

Now, if you fancy a few shortcuts, a route map, some signposting, or even a tour guide/driving instructor,  you might want to hire someone to help you out.