In the second part of our two-issue series on life with overexcitability (OE), we explore the maladjustment that intensity can create. P. Susan Jackson of the Daimon Institute for the Highly Gifted talks about working with this intense clientèle, and Aurora Remember Holtzman shares themes from her dozens of interviews with gifted, excitable people she’s done for her podcast, Embracing Intensity. If you just cringed at the word “gifted,” never fear: Jessie Mannisto shares what her Japanese class taught her about the G-word. In this issue’s excitable read, Chris Wells shares her thoughts on a fantastic book on OE and how it changed her life, and Jessie jumps back in with why having overexcitability is like being an astronaut.
You’ve got noteworthy abilities. Complex emotions. Acute perception. A tremendous capacity for nuance. And yet, you’re pulling yourself apart at the seams.
Sound like someone you know? Then you’ll want to read this interview with P. Susan Jackson of the Daimon Institute.
No one really likes the word “gifted.” Maybe it’s because we understand that we’re using honorific language to describe ourselves, and even in English, that’s gauche. Could there be neutral, or even humble, words for this thing we call giftedness?
Aurora Remember Holtzman has talked to lots of overexcitable adults for her podcast, Embracing Intensity, and she’s seen some themes in their stories. For starters, though they’ve all learned to channel their intensity in a positive direction, it never started off for them that way.
Executive Editor Chris Wells describes how Michael Piechowski’s Mellow Out opened doors for her to understand herself as a gifted person, and showed her the way forward in studying overexcitability as an academic.
If you want to make it as a metaphorical overexcitable astronaut, you’ve got to learn to read your instrument panel. That’s what autopsychotherapy is for.