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Is your IQ so high it can't be measured? ADHD superpowers

Is your IQ so high it can't be measured? ADHD superpowers2012-05-08T20:14:09+00:00

The Forums Forums Emotional Journey Is It Just Me? Is your IQ so high it can't be measured? ADHD superpowers

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  • #114342

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    Have a look here on the issue of ADHD and IQ

    http://totallyadd.com/adhdandhighiq/#more-4025

    The interesting thing is that if your IQ is really really really high, you might be at more risk of Asperger’s.

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    #114343

    Shadow Nexus
    Member
    Post count: 181

    Missing the point… read my post again. :)

    >Give a shout-out for your positive benefits. All the cool things you can do with your ADHD superpowers like high IQ, hyper-reflexes, hyper-endurance, hyper-creativity, etc. We sometimes forget about our superhuman abilities.

    Negative Negative Negative Negative. We do so much whining and complaining on here. We forget that in each ADHD individual we have a “superpower”, to each their own. You have it, but you may not know what that is. NO MORE COMPLAINING! Geez, people I know were impulse by nature and get off track., one more negative and I’ll repost this.

    >However if I had a superpower it would most definitely be creativity. I love nothing more then to create art . Something that hyper focus has come in handy for as sometimes I create several pieces in a day and will work from waking tell my body gives out to sleep.

    Lets try this again…. So, your creativity is high. Now, that’s what I call a superpower. Embrace it and know how cool it is to have an art superpower. My superpower is mechanical intuition. What’s yours, think about it?

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    #114344

    Tiddler
    Member
    Post count: 802

    Thanks, Dr J. Your article is spot on.

    However, I’m particularly interested in your point about being more at risk of AS if you have a high IQ. Can you please link to the study/studies that suggest this?

    I work with kids with high IQ and some of them have special needs too, including a smattering with Asperger Syndrome. The studies I’ve seen haven’t demonstrated this side of things and from a personal and professional point of view I’m keen to know more.

    HIgh IQ can look like AS, just as it can look like ADHD, because of similar behaviours, and naturally there are lots of gifties who have special needs too, but this is new information to me.

    If the meds work, I’m looking at doctoral studies. The doctor who tested me said that not only am I capable of this, but that it would be theraputically beneficial to work at this level and this is going to hopefully be the area of my research.

    Can you throw us some links, please?!

    Thanks!

    (And from a personal view point, there are 3 dual exceptional people in this household – high IQs and special needs – one of whom has AS, so I’m naturally very interested in this personally too!)

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    #114345

    Tiddler
    Member
    Post count: 802

    And here’s more about the very high IQ issue – asynchronous development – which brings with it over-excitabilities outlined so well by Dabrowski.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkEvmUDf9Vw

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    #114346

    Tiddler
    Member
    Post count: 802

    Hey filmbuff, I’ll try to get back on track. My superpower is my intuition, especially around picking up on other people’s mood.

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    #114347

    shutterbug55
    Participant
    Post count: 430

    Hi IQ? Congratulations! What can you do with it? That is what matters.

    For me I look at the world as though all the normals out there are running around on riding lawn mowers. They go 2 mph and they get where they need to go, eventually. They see flowers, trees birds, rocks and bugs along the way. They can even get distracted and veer off course. Who cares? they get right back on course.

    People afflicted with ADD? We are running around in Farraries. We can go 180mph with out a problem. by the time they reach their destination at the end of the day, we could have traveled to Denver and BACK! Only problem is we needed to get to the store to buy eggs and bread. We saw lots of cool stuff along the way, but it means nothing to someone who was waiting for the eggs and bread to make breakfast.

    Brains or not, the only thing that matters to the outside world is results. That one thing is at the root of all the problems I have trying to be a part of this world.

    My super power? I wish I were invisible.

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    #114348

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    It feels a little narcissisitic doing this but…….here goes.

    Ok FB….. I seem to see solutions……all kinds of solutions to all kinds of problems….. I often can see solutions to very complex problems. I see solutions almost immediately……and I can talk about these solutions like I’ve always known them. Not things that are highly technical or brain surgery type things…. but certainly most things that involve a process. I made living at it, a very good living, as a Policy Analyst/Planner in a Telecommunications company. I do this with ease…most of my colleagues in my department where PHDs, CMAs etc……I was not highly educated at all, other than studying Psych at evening university classes. I used blow their minds..they could not fathom where the hell I got my knowledge….they kinda had issues with it. They couldn’t understand it.

    I talk in metaphors constantly…….as soon as a subject, any subject arises I have a metaphor for it, and can off I go. It is the gift of being able to take most any damn situation and boil it down to a very simple metaphor. I am an analogy master……. which brings me to the next super power!!!

    Humour is a huge part of my persona which dovetails nicely in to being an analogy master…….carrying on almost any conversation, or jumping into one with a most ridiculous analogy that actually works is my forte!!! I catch people by surprise and often can make them laugh like crazy…….the gift of laughter is a super gift to both the giver and the receiver.

    Understanding social and psychological issues……seems to be second nature for me, and with that I seem to have developed empathy and sensitivity to others. I studied psychology at university and addictions, most of my adult working life, all through my career anyway. It all seemed to be obvious to me and quite a simple process. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to write exams very well or papers either but I could verbalize very very well, often amazing my profs. People gravitate to me to discuss issues and problems ……they are amazed. I’m not a solver, I don’t believe that does anybody any good…. but I seem to be a facilitator…..a conduit that allows people to find their own way and their own solutions. I was planning finishing my degree and setting up my own shop when I retired but…..gawd damn university, well that’s another story.

    Conversation or conversing, communicating, informing, presenting….. talking to groups, large groups or audiences seems to be a nice gift. I can speak for hours to an auditorium full of people, and hold their attention and teach or convey. I seem to draw energy from this activity and do it very well so my audiences have told me. As a Policy Analyst part of my job was to be a corporate “Agent of Change’ whose job was to mold inform and change to corporate environment, I loved it!!!!

    Creativity…..in small things, creativity in “ALL” things. I’ve always been terribly creative…always was drawing and playing make believe, reading, going to movies, where I get totally lost in the story. I do sketch (pen & ink) as the spirit moves me….it is seldom but when it does (it is hard to write my own praise) it is very very good. I play guitar (self taught), harmonica and sing a little back up mostly), I have my own giging blues band. I write songs for my band too. I have my own custom motorcycle shop and have built show wining bikes all my life and my own hotrod. Detail, detail detail, compulsive OCD, perfectionism……I can see it before I build it, that is what drives me. I can stay on task for years some project have been 5 years in the making and still in progress.

    I’ve designed two of our houses (in concert with my partner)…….really beautiful homes….both quite different from the other, it surprises the architect in a really good way.

    What appears to be a common thread for me is vision, the ability to perceive a collection of previously acquired information in it’s random disconnectedness and the ability to perceive a flow or a pattern emerging, and then to be able to auger down and sift out and interpret meaningfulness from what may initially appear to be random.

    Is this all attributed to ADD…. I don’t know, it feels more like this…. and I love this Tid….”walking hand in hand for some of us and in others perhaps more like fist against fist” for others…. beauty!!! I know that ADD has endowed me certain traits or abilities….such as the wide scope of my perception, and thinking in terms of the random, the ability to hyper-focus….the ability to communicate verbally with ease…..and has kept me out of being pigeon holed in thought by my frontal lobe. I can see the converse to the traits….I can…but for me……..it’s “hand in hand” and I would not have it any other way even if I could.

    I’m a “Gifty”………and I revel in it!!!! (Hahahah on the other hand, I posted and edited this three times, I kill me )

    Toofat

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    #114349

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    Okay, getting on track here, too…

    Honestly, my superpower is determination. Others might call it stubbornness.

    When I start something- I normally get it finished… up to 10 years later :)

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    #114350

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    Yes Gardner…….dogged determination……..a dog with a bone, drive to perfection, drive to complete, drive to achieve….only amazing will do and it’s only good for a short breath because…..once completed no matter how perfect….the next vision pushes it aside.

    Yes yes yes…….. everything I do must be a “David”. Doncha love it….. :)

    Toofat

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    #114351

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    @ toofat

    Yeah right… Perfectionism! Vision! Amazement ;)

    Unfortunately not part of my original configuration, LOL.

    Took me only 10 years to finish a university degree in literature and linguistics…. to then just go ahead and become an IT person.

    (I do have a bizarre sense of humor, though…)

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    #114352

    Wgreen
    Participant
    Post count: 445

    So, here’s a question: are any “superhuman abilities” conferred by bipolar disorder? How about schizophrenia?

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    #114353

    Bibliophile
    Member
    Post count: 169

    Once again, ADHD describes symptoms not cause or degree of impairment.

    For example, dogged determination would never make sense to me as an ADHD trait unless it is meant to convey perseveration, i.e. the inability to stop doing a task even when it is logicial or beneficial to do so. This includes those times that one should walk away from something as it is complete, but is unable to do so. The impulsivity of the condition never allows me to stay on something for very long once the “hyperfocus” has worn off. If this is a skill someone has that they can turn on like a switch, I fail to see how I can be considered in the same disorder as them.

    I don’t see how being stubborn is an ADHD trait? Does it derive from having to develop coping strategies to compensate for the deficits that leads to a reluctance to change a mindset? It would go against the mutable nature implied by impuslivity. I don’t think it can be attributed to lack of attention or restlessness/hyperactivity. Is it just a personality trait?

    I am very good at coming up with a meal from things I find the fridge. Is this creativity? It might be labelled as such given that many culinary endeavours are, but I know that the skill was developed by a desire to eat, not having someone to cook for me since an early age, and a lack of variety of items. We adapt and our coping strategies become our strengths. Other traits are simply that, personal traits, e.g. high IQ, swimming ability, throwing a ball fast with accuracy, etc.

    What is important is that you all have found something positive that strengthens your self esteem. I fail to see the value of lumping it in with the mess of ADHD.

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    #114354

    Tiddler
    Member
    Post count: 802

    I’d go as far as to say that I am horrified at the thought of attributing my positive attributes to the ADHD. It’s had 40 years of my life, sucking away at the good stuff about me – I’m damned if I’m going to let it take credit for the stuff I’m actually able to do in spite of it!

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    #114355

    Anonymous
    Inactive
    Post count: 14413

    Jeeze Louise…..all Filmbuff is trying to do is start “ONE” positive thread……a feel gooder if you will…..just one!!!

    FB even went so far as to asked a second time….”Lets try this again…. So, your creativity is high. Now, that’s what I call a superpower. Embrace it and know how cool it is to have an art superpower. My superpower is mechanical intuition. What’s yours, think about it?

    What……??? Surely there are enough threads here to commiserate over the trials tribulations associated with ADD…..no??? This is just simple “feel good” thread……or at least an attempt at it. Good on ya for that Filmbuff!!!

    So…..maybe just maybe consider this….if this thread is not for you… that’s ok…..really ….simply shine it on…..but to post negative after negative response and kill a little bit of a “a feel good”…. what can I say. What????

    Good on ya FB for trying……

    Toofat

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    #114356

    Bibliophile
    Member
    Post count: 169

    It is not about the positive message but the factual claim that something is being linked to ADHD, which is the theme of this Forum. If I made the claim “ADHD is caused by too much vitamin K,” people would want proof and question my reasoning. When someone claims that their creativity or IQ derives from their ADHD, others question this in a rational manner. They do not accept it as it is anecdotal. If someone said I have a high IQ and proof that is linked to ADHD and proceeded to explain their reasoning and the double-blind tests, all the power to them.

    Our lives are stressful enough without propagating unsubstantiated beliefs. There is nothing wrong with citing the benefits of something, but it should be rational and conveyed in a way to explain the reasoning.

    Perhaps next time, Filmbuff1984 might start a thread considering the link between High IQ or creativity and ADHD and we can have a discussion on that. What we are discussing is whether ADHD endows us with super-human abilities based on the statement:

    All the cool things you can do with your ADHD superpowers like high IQ, hyper-reflexes, hyper-endurance, hyper-creativity, etc.

    which I see no evidence for.

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