@ Indigo: thanks for this detailed point by point answering and great counsels. Interesting input. A lot of my points sound naive when contrasted to your answers. Continuing to learn a lot here.
While a bit of self-reflection is good, it is important not to develop a preference for living in your head rather than interacting with the real world and learning to roll with the punches.
That was a major challenge for me. I remember this moment when I was 24 when I understood that, up until then, I had had no true interest in the real or outside world.
I spent most of my youth wondering how people were so much in touch with reality while the same rules didn't seem to apply to me. Interestingly, a gifted friend of mine told that he has had similar feelings, while I have two other gifted friends that are much more grounded in reality.
I would be curious to learn more about reasons for these individual differences in "groundedness". My two grounded friends have had childhoods where they had to become independent quite early, so that might have played a role. For myself, I also see this that I disappear into my head when I am too frustrated or disappointed with reality. And it is also somehow an act of defiance/sulking.
In consequence, I would imagine that when raising gifted children, you would have to do your possible to get them not only intellectual stimulation, but also physical, and sensory: going outside! Participate in holiday camps, maybe get them to take responsibility in helping others, organizing things...
You basically lose years of your life by staying too much in your head, and day by day I continue and teach myself how to connect with the real world around me.
[quote=Indigo] It sounds as if your needs in this context may be copacetic feelings? [\quote]
I am not sure I understand "copacetic feelings" correctly here. Could you quickly explain?
