Learning Disabilities and Giftedness

Hello Everyone,
I am new to this forum and make a post with some trepidation as I know perspectives on BPD can be polarizing. I have had the diagnosis for approximately ten years. I keep this diagnosis very private and have had fluctuating engagement with "professionals" as this has always been a source of frustration for me as I work in MH. I want to maintain my anonymity, and even being able to see the psychiatrist meant running the risk of running into both clients and co-workers in the waiting room. So I live life on both sides of this issue and hold both positive and negative views of "professionals" and see such diversity in client's lives that I am frustrated with collective assumptions about what it means to share a diagnosis. Some professionals view clients through the limiting lens of diagnosis and some individuals embrace their diagnosis like an identity. What I am have found from my own experiences as both a MHW and as someone with the BPD diagnosis, is that too much attribution is being made to illness that can be attributed to numerous other factors. One area in particular is the impact of learning disabilities and the number of individuals that have co-occurring LD/Gifted dichotomy. This has been tremendously liberating for me as I do not reject the BP diagnosis, but having this additional perspective has expanded my scope of self awareness and enabled me to manage life much more effectively. This is in no way a judgement towards others - everyone is unique in their experiences, I am simply curious if others have had a psychometric assessment and if they have had an identification of a learning disability (if yes, do you know the specific nature of it?) and or if anyone has been identified or would self identify in some domain as gifted. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Hello Sternberg, I don't blame you for wanting to remain anonymous. It's dangerous to your career to be known to have some kind of mental illness. The workplace really has very little tolerance for workers who cannot perform consistently, and it doesn't surprise me to hear that the mental health field is no exception.

The "you are your mental illness" attitude might be attributable to the fact that patients just don't see them very often, and when they do, in the limited time available they only talk about that. So the workers just don't know anything at all about the rest of your life. This limits the extent of the aid that they could potentially provide tremendously.

Okay, I am only going to write this once, and please don't repeat it to others. My IQ is +4σ (from formal testing). I don't like to talk about it for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I'd love to hear more from you, because you can give us so much insight on what it's like on the inside of the lab coat.

Hello Sixprime,
Thank you for taking the time to ready my post and to reply. I think perhaps there may be a typo in what you posted (as you indicated IQ of 40 plus, I wondered if you meant 140?). I would love to chat further about this - I have been doing research on this as well (I left my job in MH and am now doing my PhD). Sorry I have to scoot, (kids). Looking forward to your reply.

Sternberg wrote:Hello Sixprime,
Thank you for taking the time to ready my post and to reply. I think perhaps there may be a typo in what you posted (as you indicated IQ of 40 plus, I wondered if you meant 140?). I would love to chat further about this - I have been doing research on this as well (I left my job in MH and am now doing my PhD). Sorry I have to scoot, (kids). Looking forward to your reply.

Oops, sorry I meant 160 (plus four sigma, ie four standard deviations). Talk to you later!

The stigma of mental illness can be really limiting for one's career prospects.
I hit a plateau in pay and then plateaued in responsibilities. I kept applying for jobs with more responsibility without an increase in pay but was never successful. I think my weakness in diplomacy was part of the problem.

Finally I decided to just wait it out until retirement. I had a couple angry outbursts at the office as well as tears and that is when I told the boss I was bipolar. I finally concluded that I had no risk of being fired. The most they could do was slide me sideways onto long term disability because of my mental illness. I did my best and didn't test that theory.

While I was struggling with career advancement, I took some tests that showed I was of above average intelligence and as one career counsellor said, "I should be able to do any job I was interested in." That didn't fit with my mediocre grades at univeresity and inability to advance my career. I'm quite sure the holdbacks were personality problems coupled with bipolar illness.

So keep your mental health a secret as long as possible and do what you want to do, particularly if it doesn't mean following a traditional career path.

Take care,

Again, please don't mention my IQ score outside this thread. I normally keep this a secret, but I mentioned it here in the interest of science. Nobody likes people who boast about their IQ.

I should have given you a private message, to be honest.

Hello skilsaw,

Thank you for your reply, and my apologies that I may not be posting properly (I am new to this and was looking for a reply button but there is only quote or report. So I clicked on quote. It is frustrating that a numeric score is weighted so heavily in research on predictors of academic success, when the reality is that far too many factors contribute to stress, disengagement with learning and alternatively, enable us to be resilient. It sounds as though you may have encountered a "counsellor:" with limited insight into why there was a disconnect with what emerged on paper and your interests, goals and challenges.

Psychometric assessments are rarely a part of career assessment, so it is difficult to know what tests were utilized. However, there is considerable international variance on who can administer what tests, so an actual psychometric assessment may or may not have been administered. If you did have a psychometric assessment, you should have been provided with a copy. The score is rarely given these days and it can be helpful if you did struggle academically to see the subcategories of an IQ test for possible insight into strengths and potential challenges.

What is most important is how did you feel about your experiences at school? Did you feel you wanted to be doing something else, did you have difficulty with certain subjects more than others? etc. Were there significant events in your life at different stages of school that played as much of a role in shaping Bipolar as Bipolar may have shaped you?

I am sorry to hear of your struggles at work and feeling such stigma and lack of support. Hopefully you are able to cultivate your interests and strengths on your own time and for your own enjoyment now.

One thing I would be curious about, is have you ever heard of Myers Briggs? Though like any formalized test there are controversies with it, I love how there isn't the idea of "normal", instead there is the idea of diversity on a spectrum - which I believe is a greater reflection of reality.

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

I have known numerous individuals over the years whose creativity and alterity is a source of both great strength and challenges. No doubt you have encountered this as well.

Take care,

skilsaw wrote:The stigma of mental illness can be really limiting for one's career prospects.
I hit a plateau in pay and then plateaued in responsibilities. I kept applying for jobs with more responsibility without an increase in pay but was never successful. I think my weakness in diplomacy was part of the problem.

Finally I decided to just wait it out until retirement. I had a couple angry outbursts at the office as well as tears and that is when I told the boss I was bipolar. I finally concluded that I had no risk of being fired. The most they could do was slide me sideways onto long term disability because of my mental illness. I did my best and didn't test that theory.

While I was struggling with career advancement, I took some tests that showed I was of above average intelligence and as one career counsellor said, "I should be able to do any job I was interested in." That didn't fit with my mediocre grades at univeresity and inability to advance my career. I'm quite sure the holdbacks were personality problems coupled with bipolar illness.

So keep your mental health a secret as long as possible and do what you want to do, particularly if it doesn't mean following a traditional career path.

Take care,