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Existential Depression in Gifted Children
71–80 of 185 posts
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#72I cried a little. I'm 18 and since 3rd grade I was in a special class for gifted children. I know this feeling so well, from my experience and from those of my classmates and friends, it literally hurts. I'm no psychiatrist but from my nonobjective personal experience depression in gifted children and your regular "normal" teenage depression are completely different, in symptoms as well as in cause, which I think the…
Since you're still 18, I'll give you the advice I wish someone had told me 13 years ago:
You are not a head in a body. Your mind is intertwined with your body and your body is what connects you to reality. Keep in touch with your body.
It's easy for you to focus on things to the exclusion of everything else and it's very easy to forget about your body. Don't.
I'm fairly sure that's also why the article mentioned hugging. Just let your canary in the coal mine be that if you no longer enjoy physical touch; you're out of contact with your body.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also had an experience where the existential depression went away. I thought this comment on the original article described it pretty well: The solution to existential depression is counter intuitive, which is probably why it isn't well known. Existential depression is caused by wanting to have meaning when a part of us knows that meaning doesn't exist. We grow up in a life where everyone around us jumps from one '…
I echo all of that. Do you not also feel that sometimes it's hard to consciously think that it is pointless and to feel yourself accidentally drifting back into a state of trying to find meaning... to feel this existential depression creeping back? I find it takes constant awareness (not effort) to maintain an idea that it is all futile and pointless, to allow me to exist without any depression.
Well, nowadays I just try to be aware in the moment and not focus on meaning, the future, etc unless I need too. Success varies.
If I'm too hyper-focused on something (like coding) for too long though sometimes I'll still get a similar feeling. Haven't found anything to do in that case but wait it out.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#74While I've read a fair bit of existentialist works I've never seen this term, but I think I know what it means. I also think the article would be improved by just titling itself "Existential Depression". The narrow focus is odd, even if true, and might serve better as a footnote. There's the strangest feeling I come across from time to time, and I think "come across" is the only good way to describe it. Everyone has…
The article focus on gifted children because it is a particular problem since they can't share their thoughts and questions about it with friends. These questions are somehow comming up "too early" in life wrt to their capacity to cope with them. As adults we have collected enough data to be able to readjust our understanding of life in a sound way. The depression is the phase that follows the anger from not being ab…
Indeed. A thousand times this.
I had exactly what was described in the article in response to a car accident (being hit while biking) that 'should have been fatal' at age 15.
The author's recommendation of a daily hug also resonates with me since if I had to describe, 15 years later, what happened I'd say that the accident caused my mind to retreat from my body and that it wasn't until I learnt to enjoy physical touch again 7 years later that I felt I had recovered.
While my experience probably was a bit more intense than the article describes, my guess is that it points to a failure mode in gifted (or let's say 'mentally oriented') children in which they focus on their mind to the exclusion of all else and lose track of their (physical) connection to the world.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
I echo all of that. Do you not also feel that sometimes it's hard to consciously think that it is pointless and to feel yourself accidentally drifting back into a state of trying to find meaning... to feel this existential depression creeping back? I find it takes constant awareness (not effort) to maintain an idea that it is all futile and pointless, to allow me to exist without any depression.
Well, nowadays I just try to be aware in the moment and not focus on meaning, the future, etc unless I need too. Success varies. If I'm too hyper-focused on something (like coding) for too long though sometimes I'll still get a similar feeling. Haven't found anything to do in that case but wait it out.
I mix several things at all times to ensure the hyper-focus doesn't set in.
At the moment I code, cycle, read sci-fi, takes photos, and am just about to buy an electric piano to add something else (as the coding was dominating again).
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#76The only two real issues I've got with this article are that it limits itself in scope to the "gifted" and that it limits itself to children. As for the latter issue, I suspect that this may fit into a broader work or area that the author presumes readers are familiar with--these issues are certainly seen in teenagers and afterwards. As for the first point, a bit of a cliche but still accurate is the saying "The rain…
The only two real issues I've got with this article are that it limits itself in scope to the "gifted" and that it limits itself to children. I think that can be entirely attributed to where it is published -- the website of a 501(c)3 that solely focuses on "gifted children".
> Such concerns are not too surprising in thoughtful adults who are going through mid-life crises. However, it is a matter of great concern when these existential questions are foremost in the mind of a twelve or fifteen year old. Such existential depressions deserve careful attention, since they can be precursors to suicide.
This paragraph explains why it is relevant to focus on gifted children.
I can attest to that as I still have rather vivid memories of standing on the edge of the roof berating myself for not having the guts to actually jump.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#77Gifted children are intense? Has the author ever actually been around children? They're all intense. That's the nature of children! Of course, they may simply all be gifted until they're hammered into their little social boxes; I've often thought that. Some of us weirdos just can't be hammered as efficiently, or break before bending or something.
Gifted children are intense? Has the author ever actually been around children? They're all intense. That's the nature of children!
You mean adults aren't intense?
Wow, now I feel lonely.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#78The book that taught me to spiritually make sense of a world that is a constant let down was "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov. The author wrote it in secret while living with totalitarianism and meaninglessness in Stalinist Russia. If you're not in the mood for a book, there's a great mini-series adaptation that was produced in Russia in the 2000s that takes about a week to watch. It does an almost perfect job…
I've often thought that in a warped, twisted way totalitarianism gives meaning to life for certain people. If it opression is so intense to make life worthless, then one has a cause dearer than life itself - to fight this opression. This struggle itself is meaningful. Many 'hero' movies are structured in this way, the 'good guys' have a cause, usually around defeating some kind of evil, that gives them ultimate purpo…
> I've often thought that in a warped, twisted way totalitarianism gives meaning to life for certain people. If it opression is so intense to make life worthless, then one has a cause dearer than life itself - to fight this opression. This struggle itself is meaningful. Many 'hero' movies are structured in this way, the 'good guys' have a cause, usually around defeating some kind of evil, that gives them ultimate purpose.
An even more disturbing take on this is that totalitarianism also gives some people a more sinister cause: the oppression itself. I think many people in the various surveillance agencies in totalitarian states actually believed in what they were doing, and many even enjoyed it.
Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#79Re: Existential Depression in Gifted Children
#80> it is because substantial thought and reflection must occur to even consider such notions, rather than simply focusing on superficial day-to-day aspects of life. What elitist garbage.
Really? I read it nodding, thinking of how many of my friends/family/cow-orkers, and if I'm being honest with myself - me a lot of the time, could be described perfectly as "simply focusing on superficial day-to-day aspects of life."
I assure you: everyone else is having the same Special Snowflake Thoughts as you.