The Bermuda Triangle of Giftedness

The Intersection of Anxiety, Attention Deficits, and Cognitive Advancement

I am unique. Weird, some might say.

I used to think of it as a weakness. Now I know it is a strength. I gave birth to three children who all struggle with the same intersection of neurodiversity that I have spent over four decades wrestling. Firsthand, as a mother, and as a preschool teacher, I’ve seen all sides of this coin. And now, as a mental health counselor, I work with these kids from yet another angle.

It can be somewhat frustrating when the medical community, or the educational systems, want a label. They need to know which interventions will work, thoughtlessly plucked from a list of “appropriate” responses to specific diagnoses. But those within the Gifted Triangle don’t fit neatly into diagnostic boxes.

They struggle with symptoms of anxiety, but they have high insight due to their cognitive advancement. They struggle with social skills, but they aren’t autistic, their brains just aren’t developing synchronously. They struggle with focus and concentration, but it could just be high discovery needs. They battle perfectionism, because things come easy until they don’t. They have shockingly low self-worth because they know they are different and can’t quite fit into other people’s boxes despite their often high achievement. And some of them freeze up and underperform, either out of executive functioning deficits or lack of motivation for non-engaging content.

Plus, a high number of them also have ADHD that responds well to medication, and clinical anxiety that responds to antidepressants. And many of them struggle with sensory processing disorders, some of whom are also on the autism spectrum.

They are not an easy to treat clinical group, because the symptoms overlap and complicate each other. Additionally, they often appear more mature than their age in some aspects, and can thus be adultified too early, or punished for the areas that are still lagging (a common phenomenon in this group).

To complicate matters even further, there is currently no DSM diagnosis to justify treating children who have been identified as gifted, thus forcing us, their providers, to tag them with a diagnosis, usually generalized anxiety disorder.

In my practice, I refer to this population as my “Bermuda Triangle,” the kids falling through the cracks because they don’t meet diagnostic criteria but could benefit greatly from mental health intervention.

Why isn’t cognitive giftedness considered a facet of neurodiversity worthy of intervention? Does no one care about the anxiety and attention difficulties they face? The crushed social aspirations and struggles to fit in that sometimes lead to crippling depression?

Why is giftedness often overlooked within mental health communities? Is it because we call it a gift?

Perhaps it is time we gave it a new name. Bermuda works for me.