Today’s show looks at the differences and overlap of giftedness, twice-exceptionality, autism, and ADHD within the overexcitability framework. Join us to learn more!
Chris Wells is a writer, therapist, and researcher on all things Dabrowski. She has a nuanced take on the concept of overexcitability, a topic on which she has focused much time, energy, and study. Chris is our first three-time guest on the podcast, having appeared most recently to discuss positive disintegration. Let’s hear more from Chris!
In this episode:
- How Chris came to overexcitability in 2014 on her quest to learn more about twice-exceptionality
- How Chris was identified as gifted as a kid but felt more disabled and mentally ill
- How Chris felt broken and emotionally intense by the time she was 40
- How overexcitability turned around her perceptions of herself as problematic and defective
- How Chris became hyperfocused on understanding overexcitability
- How Chris found Dabrowski’s early work, which identified four types of overexcitability: psychomotor, imaginational, sensual, and emotional
- How the gifted education world has finally accepted overexcitability as a characteristic of giftedness
- Why overexcitability is an umbrella term that brings together all the elements of neurodivergence
- Why Chris says autism and ADHD are “clearly neuro-cousins”
- Why there are so many misunderstandings about overexcitability in gifted education
- How overexcitability brings a whole different reality to those who have it
- How Chris’s imagination would take her to another place and another reality when she was growing up–and overexcitability gave her the answers for it
- The problem in learning to live with overexcitability
- Why giftedness is a meaningful difference, even in adults
- How we can best support those with overexcitability in light of the knowledge we now have and the labels we use
- Why we struggle as a whole to figure out the right language to use
Resources:
Check out our calendar of upcoming events: www.embracingintensity.com/community
