Gifted and Stressed

by Douglas Eby

"No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. 
There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that 
keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
Dancer Martha Graham

"It is also good every so often to go away and relax a little for when you 
come back to your work your judgment will be better, since to remain 
constantly at work causes you to deceive yourself."
Leonardo da Vinci, 1503

One of the more prominent researchers in the field, Kenneth R. Pelletier, Ph.D. (Director of the Psychosomatic Medicine Clinic in Berkeley) says that stress is a key factor in moving from a state of relative health to a manifest disorder. He makes a distinction between two kinds of stress: short-term and long-term. 

Short-term -- which we share with other biological organisms -- is a natural function of dealing with threatening situations, such as finding yourself at a branch on the freeway and not knowing which way to turn; you deal with it, and then there's a period of relaxation, a return to a baseline level of functioning. 

The long-term kind is the problem: stresses around job, family, emotional conflicts, money difficulties and vague but ever present problems and worries with no end point, no clear resolution -- the kind of nonspecific general arousal that continues without the balancing return to a stable baseline condition. 

For many gifted and talented people, the typical sensitivity that can help foster a "blessed unrest" may incite or exacerbate a shadow side: this kind of chronic arousal. In their Theory of Emotional Development, Kazimierz Dabrowski and Michael Piechowski describe five independent areas of psychic excitability or high sensitivity which can lead to reactions often identified as neurosis or some other dysfunction. 

Describing this theory in a paper in Mensa Research Journal (Fall, 1989), Karen Nelson noted that Dabrowski, a clinical and research psychiatrist and psychologist, found that the most gifted and creative individuals he worked with, during times of crisis "exhibited so-called neurotic symptoms - intense inner conflict, feelings of inferiority toward their own ideals, feelings of inadequacy, shame and guilt, and existential anxiety and despair.. They had evolved beyond the societal norm and experienced great pain in their awareness of their differences from the norm." 

There may also be pain in the sense of a vertical inner conflict between what is seen as one's current level of realization and what could be, what is possible given advanced talents. 

The wealth of information and ideas available via the Internet may stimulate greater elaboration and realization of one's talents, but can also result in Internet Addiction Disorder, or IAD. 

Those addicted to the Internet, according to Dr. Ivan Goldberg, a New York psychiatrist, need to spend increasingly more time online to achieve the same level of satisfaction, and feel anxious when not connected.

Dr. Kimberly S. Young, Director of the Center for Online Addiction at the University of Pittsburgh Dept. of Psychology, has mentioned a case example of a "formerly happily married mother" who was given an ultimatum by her husband - 'me or the computer' - and she chose the computer. 

Performing a role as an actor may elicit many reactions that exacerbate stress/distress. In a recent Buzz magazine interview, Mira Sorvino (winner of Academy Award as best supporting actress for "Mighty Aphrodite") commented on how demanding it was to portray some aspects of Marilyn Monroe (in "Norma Jean & Marilyn" on HBO): "Playing those suicidal scenes was the hardest thing I've ever done. Emotionally, they ripped me apart. I walked around for days after with echoes of horror in my head." 

One of the characteristic behaviors of many gifted individuals is a tendency to be self-effacing, to hide their exceptional intellect in the presence of those more mundane and less talented -- perhaps as a predilection born of introversion or a strategy to hide one's abilities in order to get along, to avoid being seen as strange, or elitist.

But this self-silencing, according to some psychologists, tends to lead to depression. And depression and stress can interact, leading to increased levels of both. 

Writing in the March 1996 APA Monitor (American Psychological Association), Hugh McIntosh mentioned the work of Canadian psychologist Peter Suedfeld, PhD who studied restricted environmental stimulation in lone voyages, polar stations and other solitary situations. Everyone experiences states where they need solitude more than at other times, Suedfeld said. In addition, some people seem to have a trait for solitude, chronically wanting or needing it more than others do. 

Research related to the state component of solitude suggests that most people have some need of time alone to satisfy any of several psychological needs, including rejuvenation. 

This need "probably results from the cumulative effects of social stimulation over recent days or weeks", Suedfeld said. People with few demands and little social stimulation seem to need less solitude and, in fact, may avoid it. 

His research has found, however, that those with heavy demands on their attention, social skills or coping mechanisms - such as professors, business executives, mothers of small children - tend to need more time alone: "It gives you a chance to restore your coping resources, to rest, relax," he said. 

"It replenishes psychological energy and physical well-being, as measured by reduced stress hormones, improved immune functioning and other physiological changes." 

Another source of chronic stress may be the heightened capacity giftedness confers in generating ideas and visions, and creating related elaborate lists of what you "need" to get done and what you haven't yet done -- and how that undoneness pressures and shames, deflates and erodes energy. Stress may be in great part a matter of how we relate to the burden of the list. And to time. 

Writing in their newsletter (Mind/Body Health, Volume V, Number 1, 1996, The Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge) David Sobel, MD and Robert Ornstein, PhD, note that "the way we think about time determines the way we experience it. We're waiting in line and time drags. While dancing in the noonlight, driving on a twisty road or listening to favorite music, time seems to expand, the experience feels timeless. The trick, as Gandhi said, is to be 'always on vacation' where nothing hurries us, but a lot happens." 

Gaining a lifestyle that will have more of this unhurried nature takes some mindful designing, notes Mary Rocamora (director of a Los Angeles school with awareness training classes for talent development): "The quality of life seems to be much better if it's simplified. Having the support of a buddy system can be a focus on slowing things down, and not separating out. Checking in with someone helps find the right rhythm for you." 

She also points out this pacing of one's life may be more difficult for women: "It's a female thing to put yourself last; it's so much the way women are programmed: take care of everything else first, then it's your turn. If you even get to your turn." 

Wellness researcher Stephan Rechtschaffen, MD (New Age Journal, June, 1996) points out that most people "don't realize that the sort of time pressure we feel in our lives is a peculiarity of recent history. Keeping precise time is a social invention, and it's only about a hundred years old." 

He notes it is very difficult and anxiety-inducing for most people to slow down: "It's not just outside pressure, or social entrainment, that makes us feel guilty and nervous if we're not being 'productive.' It is hard for most of us to simply sit still and do nothing but be in the present moment because there's something in the present moment we're trying to escape.. 'feeling' itself..." 

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  books : 

Duane Elgin. Voluntary Simplicity

Kenneth R. Pelletier. Mind As Healer, Mind As Slayer: A Holistic Approach to Preventing Stress Disorders

Stephan Rechtschaffen. Vitality and Wellness