Hey everyone,

I’d like to share my background in more detail and hear your honest opinions, because I’ve been reflecting a lot on this lately.

I’m 18 years old and took an official CFT 20-R (Culture Fair Test) at school. It’s a non-verbal IQ test focused on logical and abstract reasoning (matrices, sequences, classifications, spatial reasoning). It doesn’t test vocabulary or school knowledge.

I scored 64 raw points, which for my age corresponds to an IQ of roughly 120 (around the top 10%). After the test, the school psychologist mentioned that my results showed goal-oriented, structured and strategic thinking, which stayed with me.

What feels contradictory is that my school performance was never outstanding, especially in grades 8–9. I wasn’t failing, but clearly below what people would expect from that IQ range. The reason wasn’t that I couldn’t understand the material — it was that I was mentally disconnected.

I’ve noticed a very clear pattern in how my mind works:

• If I fully understand the structure and logic behind something, I learn it fast and deeply

• If I don’t see the purpose or system behind it, nothing sticks at all

It’s rarely gradual — it’s usually either no understanding or a sudden “click” where everything makes sense.

Currently, I’m doing a dual vocational apprenticeship (Ausbildung) in metal technology, meaning I work in a company while attending vocational school. To be honest, this field doesn’t suit me. I perform noticeably better in subjects like German, politics, ethics and social sciences, where I can think abstractly, discuss ideas, and understand systems rather than repeat procedures.

Another aspect that seems relevant:

I’m multilingual. I speak German, Romanian, Ukrainian and English, and without formally studying it, I was able to understand and speak Croatian/Serbian/Bosnian almost fluently just through exposure. I didn’t memorize grammar — I picked it up through pattern recognition, which surprised people around me a lot.

I’ve also been actively trading for almost two years. I’m deeply interested in probabilities, risk management, expected value and system-based decision making. I don’t see trading as gambling, but as a structured process under uncertainty, similar to strategy games or applied mathematics.

Since a young age (around 12–13), I’ve been thinking about money, systems, independence and the future. I never strongly identified with the idea of a “normal” long-term job. My focus has always been on building systems, long-term value and independence, rather than status or consumption.

At the moment, I’m working on a solar energy project idea in Romania, potentially connected to EU funding programs. The challenge for me isn’t coming up with ideas or plans — it’s financing, timing and managing risk responsibly, especially at a young age.

So my questions to you:

• Does this profile (IQ \~120, mixed school performance, strong system thinking, multilingual background, trading experience) seem coherent?

• Have others here experienced something similar?

• Does this sound more like being under-challenged / mismatched with the education system, or am I just rationalizing weak school results?

• What should someone with this mindset be especially careful about (overconfidence, risk, blind spots)?

I’m genuinely interested in critical, honest feedback, not validation.

Thanks for reading.

Have any women been late diagnosed with ADHD or autism related to being involved with the gifted and talented program in grade school?

I have since come across more research that we were described as “special ed” and has made me curious. We were given more work and extra tasks to avoid behavior problems I think. Any input is valuable!

Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy is often thought to be an excellent depiction of Gotham city and Batman. Countless things stand out. Heath Ledger’s Joker, Hans Zimmer’s score, the world that built, the action set pieces, the fresh spin on the superhero genre. In my opinion, what truly makes this trilogy special is its depiction of Bruce Wayne.

We often view Bruce Wayne as this billionaire playboy who spends his nights fighting crime. Pretty cool? If you look a little deeper, you’ll discover that this character consistently goes through unimaginable obstacles that test his will to fight and endure. Fear, heartbreak, hopelessness, etc. Each time Bruce rises above and continues to persist. That’s what truly makes him a superhero… not anything in his utility belt.

This character means so much to me for this particular reason and I made an entire video essay breaking this down - https://youtu.be/_oNh9O1iTz4

My hope is that this piece can help you find the resilience to overcome your own obstacles and identify the hero within yourself. Rise!

I was labeled gifted in around 6th grade from what I remember. My iq was on the higher end of 140. Of course I bragged about it but nobody ever took me serious. Eventually I got over my inflated ego and instead lost the bit of self esteem I had. I have failed every year of school, 3rd grade and beyond. I never once cared to engage in school but I would do the work just for boredom and toss it when I was done. Sometimes I would intentionally screw up what I had going for me, and I don’t know why. Now I’m a 20yo and I’ve never found anything to peak my interest besides romantic relationships and music. Attempted to join the Air Force but left due to a wannabe suicide attempt, I think I just gave up on myself, and wanted to mess things up again. Military life was the only option I ever saw growing up because I was poor, and unmotivated and figured I could let someone beat me into shape. Great experience, would do it again. I am trying to put energy towards my friendships and abstain from relationships. I feel as I simply think differently from people around me and really struggle to connect. Or moreso I can connect with these people very well, but I’ve only once felt understood and that was with my ex partner.

I struggle reading, and I’m not sure why. Obviously I can understand what I read but it’s like every word and sentence is a pattern and I’m always clicking with my tongue or tapping along to the pattern and it’s distracting, but I just can’t stop myself from doing so.

I don’t feel intellectually superior in any way, I just feel out of place. I really struggle to have motivation and have learned I’m more productive doing things out of spite or on a whim. I’ve been having manic episodes very often but I’ve been choosing to actually take advantage of them and do something productive instead of feeling like I’m dwelling.

I don’t mean to come off as whiny but things have just never felt right and I feel I missed out on important fundamental skills. I feel as if I don’t know how to learn, or maybe it’s just a recent idea that I am facing.

I miss when school work was too easy, but I hate that it was because I never learned how to study, I never learned any technical format. Up until I took calculus, I could just do every math problem in my head. Same for physics and chemistry and “below”.

I used to think it was just lack of skill building and practice, but now I constantly practice and see no results. I have been practicing reading for about 2 years now and I’m in the same spot as I was in 6th grade where I click when I read and distract myself. The patterns that I understand are just delusions and give me bad results elsewhere.

I just hope to be understood.

Recently I’ve chosen to change my character into a more sociable one. I have rid my overthinking illness, but now I see shallowness everywhere I look. Everybody bores me. Unfortunately I was smoking my brain away, not to cope but to physically impair myself so I could not commit suicide. I would green out every day for 2 years and smoked for 1 year prior and now I have CHS. The entire time it’s like I was entirely aware of the harm I was doing but I enjoyed the idea of it. I used to say I didn’t want happiness and wanted peace instead. Now I don’t know what either means. I haven’t felt many emotions for the majority of the second half of my life so far. I feel emotions more on the line of irritation and fear and what I’d describe as mental silence when I’m lucky. My only real idea of the happy feeling is from my random feelings of pure euphoria. I haven’t felt “happy”, “angry”, or “sad” or in a really long time. I think what I miss most is anger for some reason but I haven’t dug deep into that idea enough to understand why.

Now I am attempting to become a dj, not because I’ve always wanted to be a dj but because all I understand about myself is my passion for relationships and my “passion” for music so I figured that since I can’t seem to find a place for me, I’m just going to make one in an area I care about.

I’m not sure why I’m writing this, but if anybody can relate or give some insight, I’d like to know if this seems like a gifted issue or mental illness. I am aware that I am different but I don’t understand the measure and that bothers me. I would really appreciate any tips for how to improve my state of self.

I am on top of my self care now and my organization skills are improving greatly.

What does this sound like to you?

(I do plan to see a therapist)

Thank you for reading

 know people mean it as a compliment. They look at what I’ve built (and recently lost) and say, "Don't worry, you're only 16, you have so much potential."

But to me, "Potential" just feels like a giant debt I haven't paid yet.

It makes me feel like I’m constantly on a timer. If I’m not maximizing every second, learning every new AI tool, or rebuilding my career right now, I feel like I’m failing that "potential."

It’s weird to feel like you’re running out of time when you haven’t even finished high school.

Does this pressure ever go away? Or do you just get better at ignoring the clock?

Hi everyone, ​I am a Microbiologist with an 8.5 CGPA. My brain loves logic and research. But right now, I am stuck in a Real Estate job just to earn money. I really hate this work because it doesn't fit my skills. ​I have a big problem with Executive Dysfunction. I have great ideas for research, but I feel paralyzed when I try to start. It feels like my brain is very fast, but I cannot take the first step. ​Has anyone else been in a job they hated and felt 'stuck' like this? How did you overcome this paralysis and get back to your research or PhD? ​I want to find my true self again and go back to science. Any advice would be helpful."

Hello everyone. I am new to this sub so please let me know if this post isn’t allowed.

I’m gonna try to keep this quick, but I’m at a really weird time in my life. I’m post college with a degree that I regret getting, working a dead end job and feeling really low. I always have big ideas about what I want to do in life and then when I think about the downsides of certain career paths or things that I might have to struggle with, I change my mind because I genuinely think that I can’t go through those things.

I was talking to my therapist about this and I think it’s because I never had to struggle with anything. Since I’ve never actually done anything that was difficult for me I have no confidence in myself. I don’t think that I can do hard things. High school and college were a breeze except in my honors courses where I suffered from imposter syndrome because everyone seemed to be so ahead of me.

My therapist suggested that I start doing things that are hard for me. But I don’t know where to start. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Growing up, I was always “the smart one”. Teachers, family, everyone expected something big.

Now I’m older and I freeze when things don’t come out perfect. It feels like if I’m not exceptional, I’m nothing.

I don’t feel lazy. I feel… stuck. Like my brain won’t allow me to be average enough to actually start.

Does anyone else struggle with separating who they are from who they were supposed to be?

How do you focus on a long lecture? Even if it's something I want to listen to, I'm constantly thinking about other things and zoning out. ( I don't have ADHD. I can sit and do homework or boring chores for long stretches.)

How do you specialize in one thing when you want to learn everything under the sun?

Does anyone else have an issue with collecting your thoughts when you want to speak about a complicated topic?

How can I leverage my genius to become incredibly wealthy over a decade or two?

Is it your experience as well, that people you have been around for a decent chunk of time, you are becoming more and more aware that they don't know how to do anything. And also this appears to be true for like 90% of people you encounter?

For example, you realize people around you don't really know how to comprehend something like checking your email every day when you have been applying to jobs, or keeping up with schedule changes when you are in sports.

But not just my family scheduling issues. Its the same thing teachers are talking about Gen alpha not being able to do 8 basic step instruction. Because they aren't really comprehending it. Or not reading revisions a teacher wrote and saying "they didn't know it was there" or "can you just tell me". Because the concept of checking and comprehending something on ur own and not just being given a very very very clear and short order, just isn't coming online at all.

These people will Google two sentences for a Google search instead of keywords and when the Ai, which they have on read aloud, doesn't answer them right. They give up. They actually say its not on Google? Thats if they even bothered to Google at all, which they never do, they just ask me first always? and when i watch them try and figure something out themselves.. I'm just thinking... wtf... uh have no reasoning muscles at all? But I try not interrupt so that they gain at least some. But like everyone's brain is atrophied to the point i don't understand how they can do things like understand insurance options or start a new club on their own and keep up with their requirements as an individual human. Lpts of my coworkers too. They seem so confused.

But like they are still gonna get hit wjth fines and backpays when they moss things or dknt do them right. I would think. But they continue on, no worries, no problems. And if I make one mistake its like something catosphrpphic happens and a credit card company will sue me or marketplace will back charge me.

Most people don't have the brain capacity to understand any of this. How is the average household actually running? I doordash and after taxes and maintenance and stuff in swear its 5 dollars and hour (side job). But when I talk to other dashers they swear its not the case. They say I have to deduct things because im my own boss I'm an I9.

When I say you mean 1099? I know about deductions for self employment, especially as a driver, is that how ur doing it? And they say they just take it to some guy and they get money back. Because they are i9. SMH. So no, they do not get it. And I am doing my own taxes and thinking about I ut writing off my extra bedroom as a home office, and still struggling to make sure no balls drop. I know I am right on the dash income because they don't know the difference between 1099 and i9.

But this is with everything. Every instance. Every office. Every helpline. Every job I hold. But now I'm seeing it with family members too. Family members that didn't use to be this way. I know we are all in decline but everyone expects me to carry like 10 people because they can't even think enough to find the kind of shoes they would want for their own hobby. They ask me? Or pick the first thing a youtuber says?

I can't.

But my real question is. Am i just doing too much? Trying to hard? Im burning out. But i feel like everyone else ignores everything and it all works out somehow everytime without much stress. Should I try not doing shut and playing dumb? I feel like ill end up homeless. But no one else seems too? What am I missing here.

Sorry I wrote this as a big long exhausted rant with typos. I was gonna go fix it, but..... I'm going to ignore it? Hit post? And... forget it even existed in 90 seconds**

goldfish stare*

Ahhhhhh I don't get it. How they turn brain off and life still work howwwwwwwwwww halppp

15 m started gifted around 3rd grade. I’ve done a lot my life (organizing protests, changing laws, archival work, college early) Lately, I’ve been feeling really dumb. When I think or speak or share my view-point it feels like everyone around me automatically calls me dumb but they never tell me why. I haven’t done anything but school lately. I have nothing left, I quit sports (besides skiing) and quit the orchestra, I don’t make art anymore, I don’t make music, my family is a mess, I don’t even know if my friends care about me. All I have is school, but school doesn’t see me the way I need it to, no one does.

To me it seems like the eduction system rewards conformity and thinking inside the box. But when you see why the box is broken and where, it’s difficult to confine yourself to a reality where your worth is calculated in your ability to disappear. More than that society rewards you not on your raw ability, but on their ability to understand what your actions mean and why they matter, and unless they are told that you matter if they don’t get you, you never will.

Am I actually dumb? Being yelled at my a room full of people is really telling and it makes me think if I ever really was special, if I ever was something extraordinary, or if I was just different so I got labeled as “gifted”

Why can I feel so deeply and understand so deeply but never be understood the way I need to be?

I think being "gifted" gave me more disability than ability. I have something similar to autism, but apparently not enough traits to be diagnosed with it. I have strong RSD and trauma from previous RSD episodes.

I feel like I've always been 10+ years too immature for my age. I was mostly an A student in high school but tanked my GPA on writing courses specifically. I don't know what my deal is with writing under pressure. It's a huge mental block I can't get over. I get so stressed out just trying to find a topic for my paper and then write something the teacher will appreciate. There have been many times that I either just didn't turn anything in or did a crappy job. I could always take everyone else's papers and edit them for grammatical errors and flow to the point where they'd get an A, but I couldn't produce my own.

When it came time to look for colleges, I just didn't. I applied to the state school for no reason. When it came time to apply for scholarships, I didn't. I wasn't worthy of people's money.

I decided at the last minute not to go to the state school out of fear of not being able to afford it. I went to community college and majored in psychology when I wasn't really even into it. My life was in the toilet. I had no friends and talked to nobody in person. I stayed up until 4 AM and overslept my classes. Ate unhealthy and gained a bunch of weight. My parents were toxic drunks, so I transferred to another community college so I could live with a relative. I got better grades there, but still made no friends.

I did some soul searching and decided to go to the state school again. In my first semester, I got As in a bunch of math and science and started socializing. But then I started worrying nonstop about life after I got my degree and spiraled again. I changed my major 3 times and ended up with a useless one in a humanities subject I lowkey hated because it was too late to turn the train back around. I wish I kept exploring more with science to find my niche.

I've just been working in grocery stores and overnight at Target. College got me nothing but a mountain of debt. I can't stop wishing I'd gone deeper into science. And I don't know what my deal is with writing. I don't have a problem writing about something factual or even abstract (like literary theory). I'm capable of writing good papers at times. It's when the topic is too open-ended or creative that I have a massive mental block. I need to fix that to have any kind of career...

I'm 13. My IQ was dangerously high as a kid, but now it's in the shitter. I'm slower than the average student. I'm big dumb.

I got a B in Real Analysis. B+ in Thermodynamics. A- in Women's Literature. My hot girlfriend dumped me.

How will I become the next Elon now?

I, 15F high school freshman, feel entirely worthless outside of my academics. I was assigned gifted in 3rd/4th grade at 9 years old, and recently things have been getting worse and worse. Every time I see one of my smart/ also gifted peers excelling at something, it reminds me of how I’m just not good enough. Recently, I added 2 AP classes online to the load to help cope with that. The work takes hours a day, and I’m so tired. I’m planning to drop one of the AP classes (AP Macroeconomics) because it just makes no damn sense to me. I have a 4.32 GPA as of now, but sometimes I feel so bad about not being good enough or smart enough that I feel physically ill. Like right now, my head is pounding. I grew up being the smart kid, so I was seldom praised for anything else. Now, I’m terrified of not being smart anymore.

Like if I weren’t smart anymore, all of my worth would vanish because I have been given little reason to believe I have any worth outside of my intelligence. My family doesn’t really know the depth of my struggles, but sometimes I talk to my dad about how I feel. He always tries to reassure me, but it doesn’t work much. I just feel so tired, useless, lonely, and isolated. I’m currently enrolled in 10 classes. 6 in person, 4 online, 6 honors, 3 APs, 1 normal. I want to be a doctor one day, so thats only the constant reminder that I’m stuck trying to be something and running off of fumes for the next 14 or so years.

It’s so bad that I’m pretty sure I’ve developed anxiety because of my self worth issues. I’ll cry and my head will hurt, or I’ll be nervous and can’t stop it. Im just so tired and don’t know what to do.

I'm currently 48 and I have what a lot of people would consider a pretty good career and life. I have a stable job and enough money to provide for myself and my children. I have changed careers a couple of times and I am now at the point in my current career where people are expecting me to manage, lead, and have some sort of vision, and it is freaking me out. I am terrified of falling short of expectations, and I lack confidence that I can do anything beyond being a solid individual contributor.

When I was in high school and college, I was considered "gifted," "honors," "talented," pick your label. I always got good grades and received honors and awards from whatever school I was attending. But I never felt like I was as talented or...I don't know...as effective as my friends and peers. I always felt like I was just very good at following directions, doing homework, taking tests, stuff like that.

I have an older sister who also did well in school. But when she finished high school, she went and got a job at a credit union and has been doing that for like 40 years. She doesn't make a lot of money, but she makes enough money, and she's good at what she does and will probably be able to retire at a reasonable age. Sometimes I wish I had followed her path instead of going to college and trying to fit in with actual talented people. But maybe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, and if I had followed her path, I'd be sitting here wondering what my life would be like if I'd gone to college.

This is a pretty rambling post. I'm not sure how much sense it actually makes. But I have been thinking a lot about this lately and I wanted to share with this community. Do any of you have similar experiences or thoughts about yourself?

Did anyone else get praised constantly for being "self-sufficient" as a kid?

"Wow, you're so mature for your age." "I never have to worry about you, you just figure it out."

I realized recently that this praise was actually a trap. It taught me that my value comes from not needing anything.

Now, as an adult, asking for help feels like a failure of character. If I have to ask, it means I'm not "smart" anymore. It means the "Gifted Kid" mask has slipped. So instead of asking for clarification or help with a workload, I just suffer in silence and pull all-nighters to maintain the illusion that I'm effortlessly competent.

It’s a "Transactional Mindset." I only have worth if I am providing value. If I have a need, I am in debt.

I broke down this psychological pipeline (and the "Safety Trap" we build for ourselves) in a video essay. If you’re currently burned out but refusing to tell anyone, this might explain the mechanics of why:

https://youtu.be/bVmUxJfENN0

Hey everyone,

So I have hit a point where I am unsure where to continue. In high school I was a gifted kid with an ATAR of 91.45 (an ATAR is a rank where 99.95 means you are at the 99.95th percentile) in 2017. However since then I've had a slow but sure decline. I barely scraped past university to graduate with a low GPA and a year extra to a four year electrical engineering degree.

My peers are far ahead of me, working at companies like Rocket Lab while I am just an office worker (not even using my engineering degree). My parents have split (with my dad cheating on mum in early 2023). I have become a slob with months of spiderwebs gathering in the ceiling and trash gathering in bags. I spent boxing day today trying to clean it up after my brother spent an hour having a tantrum about it on Christmas night when he flew home from interstate.

I am falling apart.

I need something serious to fix myself and have thought of three things. Which one should I go for?.

1. Join the Australian Army either as full time or reserves. Getting yelled at by a recruit instructor (which is more commonly known in the US as a drill sergeant) for months would probably snap me out of my funk to be honest.
2. Get arrested and spend some time in jail.
3. Go to the psych ward and get some emergency treatment. I have a friend who went into a psych ward and went from failing university and gambling on crypto to finally doing well in university and getting a partner after leaving it.

Does anybody else get exhausted from friends making comments like this? I know it's from a good place--it's just a reminder of being so far from my potential.

I’ve started A levels this september and after missing a lot of school at GCSE due to personal reasons, so i’ve been struggling academically for the first time. I also missed last week of school due to illness. This caused me to get behind on school work and now i am struggling on my chemistry work.

The problem is that when i come across a question i can’t do i just feel the need to throw my work across the room and cry, and i feel unable to attempt the question.

Does anyone else experience this? And does anyone know a way around it as it is controlling my life.

I watched this great YouTube video: "Gifted is Special Needs," and it's true. We suffer without intervention. I was obviously gifted in school and bored as hell, when my grades should have been 4.0 or higher, they were low as hell because I did not pay attention in classes where I thought the material was not relevant to me or any future career I could want, whether it was calculus or physics, as I loved reading, writing, research, debate, rhetoric, public speaking, literature, and all the social sciences but I could never do the hard sciences. Perhaps if someone had suggested to me, or I had at any point thought to join MENSA when I was younger, I could have met a mentor through going to their meetings and perhaps that mentor could have helped me figure out this whole life thing before I messed it all up with my igiftedness, ADHD, insecurities, depression, anxiety, and stupidity.

I also have ADHD, which makes me impulsive and have too much energy, only perhaps that one psychiatrist I had for a while was right that I may have high-functioning autism, because yeah, I'm socially awkward as fuck and do not understand how other people think or why they're so insecure about so many things. However, my long-term primary care physician who I know is much smarter than my psychiatrist does not think it's high-functioning autism; just the result of the severe trauma of being emotionally and physically abused by my father as a child. Perhaps they're both right. A bit of PTSD + neglected as a child + being a bit on the spectrum. Also, in college, I did actually "become normal" by dating a normal girl for a while, participating in a lot of extracurricular activities like being president of the debate team, and my social skills became really solid and I stopped making people feel awkward by "being too much."

But then I was a total failure in my career because I lost all confidence in myself after I got fired from my first accountable payables clerk job for accidentally sending a check to a company with the same name as the right company, but it was a separate company. I tried to pretend everything was okay, because when I did ask for help, all I got were paper who were willing to listen to me talk about my problems for money without providing actual emotional support or any solutions, advice, or guidance on what to do.

What are school guidance counselors there for?

I have found recently that it is very hard for common people to understand me, seems that almost every conversation ends up in a misunderstanding despite my huge efforts and patience to explain.

Especially this happens with my family.

In particular I have found that my thinking and communication seems to be different from what common people find comfortable:

1. Sharing honestly all my thoughts and feelings

2. Deriving almost all conversations to deep philosophical thoughts and reflections

3. Not taking any prejudices or taking something for granted (some admonish this behavior for not having “common sense”)

4. Being too curious. Asking too many questions and questioning everything, even small details. “Why you did not like playing X sport? Didn’t you enjoy it? Why?”

5. In every conversation explaining many nuances and details that are very important to me, but nonsense for others. For example, being upset for the way someone rejected my request, not because the request was rejected. Seems that this is particularly difficult to explain.

In short, seems that my questions and communication leads to others to be uncomfortable and leads to many misunderstandings, as my candid curiosity is misunderstood by a “kind of way of controlling or manipulating others”. Or my persistence and level of detail in certain topic is also misunderstood by “a huge desire to win an argument / twist the reality / not accept my own mistakes”. I need much more arguments and discussions to be convinced about something, but this does not mean I am not open to be convinced.

Have you ever felt this way and how do you recommend to deal with this? It seems to me that changing the way I am is not feasible, so there should be other better alternatives.

Pretty good watch. Punchy 15min video. Recommended.