On the SENG website (Supporting the Emotional Needs of the Gifted) is an article by Sharon Lind called "Overexcitablity and the Gifted." In it she describes some of the work of Polish psychiatrist and psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski (1902-1980).
"Overexcitabilities are inborn intensities indicating a heightened ability to respond to stimuli. Found to a greater degree in creative and gifted individuals, overexcitabilities are expressed in increased sensitivity, awareness, and intensity, and represent a real difference in the fabric of life and quality of experience. Dabrowski identified five areas of intensity - Psychomotor, Sensual, Intellectual, Imaginational, and Emotional. A person may possess one or more of these. 'One who manifests several forms of overexcitability, sees reality in a different, stronger and more multisided manner' (Dabrowski, 1972, p. 7). Experiencing the world in this unique way carries with it great joys and sometimes great frustrations."
After reading the article, I realized I'd been born with four of those five OEs. And on top of this loaded stack of sensitivities, the four had never been adequately appreciated, developed or even articulated. No wonder depression. (This would also explain why travel is so deeply rewarding for me.)
The definition of "gifted" has evolved from the narrow realm of intellect and IQ to a wider range of creative talents and inter- and intra-personal sensitivities. Whether you believe Elaine Aron, developer of the Highly Sensitive Person theories, or Dabrowski, or neither, it's obvious that some of us are more sensitive than others. And though the debate between nature and nurture has good arguments for each side, science of late seems to demonstrate a biological basis for much of why we are how we are. (See the recent popular works on mirror neurons for a fascinating example.)
The short story is this: I spent thousands of dollars and a couple of decades thinking it was all in my head, this restless depression that's dogged me since adolescence. And clearly I wasn't alone: lots of people were happy to take my money to try to get to the psychological bottom of things. There were psychological issues, to be sure, and I've done more work than most people to address them. But even with the advent of antidepressants in the 1980s, when I was in my twenties, none of us saw the biological possibilities, because that big picture is only now getting properly researched and paid attention to. (Don't get me started on the prevalence of antidepressants as a solution to our whacked-out culture.)
Sure, I've always known I was sensitive. And I've always suspected there were other reasons for it besides my "original family." But because psychology has been the dominant model to explain our unhappiness, it became popular belief that the way to good mental health was through the psyche. I bought into it hook line and sinker, like a good, dependent citizen. Now there's lots of talk about the mind-body connection, and smart people realize that we still know very little about being human.
The body, it seems, has a mind of its own. It's wiser than we are, because it knows things we can't remember, or refuse to. It knows ancient things that served - and still serve - a purpose in maintaining the health of our humanness. This is why the Hand-Movement-Depression info below and this idea on overexcitability are so… well, exciting to me. The first addresses a bodily basis and non-AMA sanctioned partial cure for my blues; the second affirms that my "excess" sensitivities are innate and may actually have a worthy purpose in my development, if I allow them freer reign. (On a side note, this reclaiming of original Self is a large part of the often intense work of midlife.)
Next time, I'll write about more biological pieces to the mysterious puzzle - recent research on estrogen and depression.
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