My best friend and I recently discovered..after years of looking that we are both gifted.
My friend has had it much harder than me. She went through asynchronus developement without getting help. My friend is 22 years old and had been diagnosed with ADHD when she was a kid, and nonverbal learning disability. We believe she has an auditory prossesing disorder(she does not make phone calls due to intense anxiety from fear of not understanding the other person on the phone). A lot of her behavior and characteristic do seem to be in fact giftedness, from what we've read but she was never diagnosed.
It explains a lot of her symptoms. Why shes always been very intense. She has the most sensitive nose in the world, if someone cooks ground beef or other strong smelling foods its enough to make her very physically sick. She is the most picky eater I've ever met and told me the one time she tried salad she threw up, most foods that arent "kid food" makes her sick. She can't stand shirts touching her belly button or stand the sound of hearing someone scratch their pants. She is very sensitive to sunlight and it has also made her physically sick before. When she is upset she gets really dark and upset, when she is happy she is like a giddy little kid. She does not make food for herself because she is so perfectionistic she has to have it made right or not at all. She doesn't make appointments, or alot of things adults have to do but she is very good with managing money. She doesnt leave the apartment without me because it is very uncomfortable for her, one big reason being how other people treat her.
She is very productive though she doesnt leave the house often, she reads fan fiction for hours and has 5 stories she is working on. This is a big accomplishment because before she discovered a certain tv show she never read or wrote. She tries to learn her music program- Propellerhead Reason 5. She is brilliant and has alot of talent in music production and other things, she has a hard time learning it but shes trying so hard and in need of help.
She feels like a kid most times and an adult other times. She is very very smart and sees things most others can't. She has been suicidal for the past 8 years which started due to her mother making her feel like garbage about school and never caring enough to help her. She never finished high school due to her disabilties and never received the right help and no support from her parents or anyone but me.
I should add she was physically abused by her father when she was younger. Which of course added to more emotionally turmoil and he also treated her as if she was stupid for the school thing without helping her. He never spent time with her so she had no support from him either.
She has never been given a job because people judge her harshly on how she behaves or because people have never given her a chance. She has applied for many jobs and been ignored. She has had a few interviews but been cripplingly discouraged by rejection. People like this make her want to give up. She gets so upset about even looking for a job anymore. She is basically stuck and needs help to move forward in life. Everything is so hard on her and she does not want to live a life where she is prevented from living based on how people treat her. A life where she can't use her full capacity to do what she's dreamed of. If there is any help for her out there I would be forever grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.
Is there somewhere she could go to be diagnosed for giftedness and go forward with her life? We live in Newark, Nj so maybe somewhere near there or Manhattan?
