In today鈥檚 media and news, I feel like I hear more stories about the benefits of sharing emotions and discussing mental health than I ever did growing up. This is a wonderful thing and through popular media including television and movie portrayals and celebrity confessions, we are growing more accustomed to talking about historically taboo or just unknown topics surrounding emotions and mental health.

With great strides being made in these conversations, it seems important to discuss emotional intensity among our country鈥檚 brightest, and sometimes most vulnerable, youth.

The 听has a great explanation for why gifted youth tend to experience more intense emotions, saying, 鈥淚ntellectual complexity goes hand in hand with emotional depth. Just as gifted children’s thinking is more complex and has more depth than other children’s, so too are their emotions more complex and more intense.鈥�

Gifted youth are often more aware of and affected by their surroundings. Children who feel things with great intensity experience the world in a different way than their non-gifted peers. Emotional or physical reactions to events can last longer for gifted children. These experiences of heightened stimulation observed in many gifted individuals are referred to as intensities or听Overexcitabilities. Polish psychologist identified five overexcitabilities and their associated behaviors:

1. Psychomotor: Characterized primarily by high levels of energy
2. Sensual: Characterized by a heightened awareness of all five senses: sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing
3. Emotional: Characterized by extreme emotional sensitivity
4. Intellectual: Characterized by deep curiosity and thought
5. Imaginational: Characterized by vivid imagination and visualization

The first step in managing intense emotions is identifying and understanding them. If you think your child exhibits overexcitabilities, talk to your child about how they feel and react to certain situations. Healthy discussions around expressing emotions make everyone feel safer and more understood. Starting these discussions at a young age enforces good habits for the future.

How exactly do these overexcitabilities manifest themselves? It varies from child to child, but there are common associated with all five overexcitabilities.

• Psychomotor responses can include pacing, rapid talk or use of hand gestures
• Sensual responses can include sensitivities to clothing textures, food tastes or a need for physical displays of affection like cuddles or hugs
• Emotional responses can include intense feelings of empathy or compassion, depression, anxiety or loneliness
• Imaginational responses can include visualizations, use of metaphorical speech, dreaming or magical thinking
• Intellectual responses can include constant curiosity, deep thinking or a propensity towards solving puzzles and problems

Understanding what emotional intensities are and the behaviors associated with them can help with misdiagnosis or just plain misunderstanding. While some of the more extreme behaviors associated with overexcitabilities can be worrisome for a parent or educator, such as a child鈥檚 depression or anxiety, there can also be a wonderful bright side to overexcitabilities.

Some of the benefits of overexcitabilities can include:

• Empathy and compassion towards others
• A desire to solve major world problems
• Creativity
• A high sense of self-awareness
• Enthusiasm
• High energy

Intense emotions don鈥檛 always need to be feared or regulated. They are what make so many gifted children wonderfully unique. However, for the times that overintesities do need to be managed, here are some strategies:

• Meditation
• Yoga
• Outdoor physical activities such as going on walks, hikes or playing at a park
• Quiet reflection time
• Journaling or drawing
• Encourage discussions about how your child feels and why they feel the way they do

I hope this blog post helps with identifying and managing intense emotions in a gifted child. 优蜜视频鈥檚 also hosts a list of books, articles, programs and professionals that can be used as additional sources of information about overexcitabilities.

That is how Elizabeth described her eldest son, Joseph who, at 4 years old, was a highly energetic child with an urgent fascination for numbers. His attraction was so advanced, Elizabeth had to relearn middle school math concepts just to satisfy his curiosity. As Joseph progressed through school, not only did his love for numbers grow, it became apparent that Joseph needed more than what Elizabeth or his teachers could offer.

鈥淗e was rejected in school and really struggled. He had so much difficulty,鈥� Elizabeth recounted. She could see the light in Joseph dimming as he struggled to make friends and perform well in elementary and middle school. At the urging of her friends, she got Joseph tested at the district level. The results confirmed that Joseph was 129% more advanced than his peers. Though she was affirmed by these results, receiving them did little to provide Elizabeth relief. 鈥淎ll [his teachers] would say is 鈥榟e鈥檚 smart, he鈥檚 smart;鈥� that鈥檚 it!鈥� While they acknowledged his gifts, Joseph鈥檚 school did not provide him with the support he needed to tap into his potential.

Elizabeth noticed similarities in her younger son, Jacob, her niece, Lucy, and her nephew, Randy. Afraid that, like Joseph, their needs would be ignored, Elizabeth began to spend her free time looking for help. She struggled to find a place that could address the academic and emotional needs of the children. Moreover, the programs she found cost more than her family could afford. 鈥淚 feel bad because if I had the money, I would do more right away,鈥� Elizabeth insisted. 鈥淣o matter what, you have an obligation to nourish that hunger of knowledge.鈥�

Luckily, Elizabeth stumbled upon the phone number of Ann Smith, Executive Director of the Gifted Support Center in northern California and longtime supporter of 优蜜视频. 鈥淚 left a long voicemail, crying. I was so desperate! I tired of fighting.鈥� Ann called Elizabeth back the next day and directed her to 优蜜视频, assuring the mother that, at 优蜜视频, she would find the help and guidance her family needed all along.

For Elizabeth and her family, finding 优蜜视频 was a life changer. Elizabeth鈥檚 family could receive the help they needed without financial burden, as, to date, no qualified child has been turned away from 优蜜视频 due to lack of funds. Though they travel over a 4-hour round trip to attend programming, for Elizabeth, it is well worth it. 鈥淭hey are all so interested in all the programs,鈥� Elizabeth tearfully shared. 鈥淭hey smile now, and they share everything they learn with me. They never wanted to talk before!鈥� Joseph and his cousin, Lucille, both attend the while Joseph鈥檚 younger brother, Jacob, and his cousin, Randy, attend the . Elizabeth also receives consulting from Betsy Jones, President and Executive Director of 优蜜视频. Though the needs of the children are still overwhelming, she no longer feels alone. For Elizabeth, 优蜜视频 has made all the difference. 鈥淚t has changed my life and their lives. It鈥檚 something beautiful.鈥�

Our goal is to never turn children away due to a lack of resources. Your support helps 优蜜视频 serve highly able and creative youth of all backgrounds so no matter where they鈥檝e been, they will have the tools to travel anywhere they want to go. To contribute to 优蜜视频 . We appreciate your support. 

To learn more about 优蜜视频 programs please . 

Do you fit in? Do you have friends? Do you filter your feelings, your thoughts, your ideas or your words when around others? Have you 鈥減layed the part鈥� to be accepted?听 Are you worried about losing your true self?听 Do you wonder if you will ever be understood?听 Do you feel things so intensely that sometimes you think there must be something wrong with you?

Pretty deep questions for a kid to have to deal with, huh? Well, like it or not, questions and thoughts like this are what many gifted outliers deal with.听 It is not easy to look like a kid, yet think, worry and fret over issues that are so not 鈥渒id-like鈥�. On top of not being easy, there is the issue of not having anyone to rant to, or talk to, or just hang with that also understands you. A lot of us gifted kids don鈥檛 have a tribe.

Finding My Tribe

This year in June, I, like so many other kids across the country, will be attending summer camp.听 However, my summer camp is so much more than just a summer camp.听 I will be attending听 听 鈥� It鈥檚 located in the beautiful mountains of Colorado,听 far away from cities, technology and really far away from my home in California.

Yunasa West is where I鈥檝e found my tribe. It is a summer camp program for gifted kids to help them understand themselves; and for me, it鈥檚 helped me understand that I belong.

鈥榊unasa鈥� means Balance in Lakota, and the goal of the one week camp is to balance all sides of giftedness 鈥撎齣ntellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical. This is not as easy as it sounds, since balance does not come naturally to kids who tend to be 鈥渉igh-energy鈥� in their area of strength. Yunasa gives us a chance to strengthen our weaknesses and grow; all in an attempt to achieve balance. Every time after camp, I go away knowing more about myself, and feeling more like I truly have a place in the world.

One week?听 All of this听in one tiny, little week?

Sure, one week of being with a group you really belong in may not seem like enough time, but it is!听 I came away from my very first summer at Yunasa with knowledge 鈥� the following knowledge:

Everyone belongs 蝉辞尘别飞丑别谤别.听There is always someone like you in the world.

It gives me something to look forward to for the next year, as well as the knowledge that I鈥檓 not alone in the world.

I’m Home

The words, 鈥業鈥檝e found my tribe,鈥� will be mentioned a lot here, and I want to share something with you, to help fully express how true those words are.

I have experienced 鈥渇irst day of camp鈥� thrice, and on each of those first days at Yunasa, the words 鈥淚鈥檓 home,鈥� run through my mind鈥ver and over.

I know I鈥檓 safe at Yunasa, and I can be me. I can let go of my chameleon-ness.听 I can talk about things that outside of Yunasa, would just cause people to stare at me confusedly, and/or then tease me about.

My home with my tribe is a place where I can talk about nearly being knocked off a hill by a tiny plant that wasn鈥檛 even moving; all because I was holding my hands out to it 鈥� and not be laughed at.

The place where people don鈥檛 tease me about my grade level, or ask if I鈥檝e skipped grades. The place that I fit in. My second (or is it my first?) home.

Belonging is more important than fitting in.

Being a part of my tribe, means I am respected and my knowledge and my knowing is valued and can be shared with others. The same is true of the elders in our tribe; their knowledge and knowing is valued and they lovingly pass it on to us.听 Being this odd, different, quirky kid can be a little scary. We can look around searching for proof that we will be okay. We search for adults who are like us, so we can be reassured that we too can grow up and grow into our true selves. It is sometimes hard to find those examples of our future selves, (too many people have hidden themselves, or have played the part of a chameleon for so long that they have forgotten who they really are) so when we are at Yunasa, we look up to our elders, and breathe a sigh of relief.

Stephanie Tolan, one of the Camp Elders, and听 a Senior Fellow of Yunasa, compares gifted kids and cheetahs.

鈥淚f a cheetah is confined to a 10 X 12 foot cage, though it may pace or fling itself against the bars in restless frustration, it won鈥檛 run 70 mph.

IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?

If a cheetah has only 20 mph rabbits to chase for food, it won鈥檛 run 70 mph while hunting. If it did, it would flash past its prey and go hungry! Though it might well run on its own for exercise, recreation, fulfillment of its internal drive, when given only rabbits to eat the hunting cheetah will run only fast enough to catch a rabbit.

IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?

If a cheetah is fed Zoo Chow it may not run at all.

IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?

If a cheetah is sick or if its legs have been broken, it won鈥檛 even walk.

IS IT STILL A CHEETAH?鈥�

鈥溾�chools are to extraordinarily intelligent children what zoos are to cheetahs. Many schools provide a 10 x 12 foot cage, giving the unusual mind no room to get up to speed. Many highly gifted children sit in the classroom the way big cats sit in their cages, dull-eyed and silent. Some, unable to resist the urge from inside even though they can鈥檛 exercise it, pace the bars, snarl and lash out at their keepers, or throw themselves against the bars until they do themselves damage.鈥�

-Stephanie Tolan听 (

Yunasa, to me, is a place where cheetahs can run full-speed, with no bars to hold them back. A place where we can grow and learn about ourselves, and where we are given tools to help us鈥� out in the 鈥榬eal world.鈥�

Yunasa is an amazing refuge and a second home,听 if you feel like you don鈥檛 fit in 鈥撎�补苍测飞丑别谤别.听

It鈥檚 a place to just be yourself and a place where you will learn to balance all parts of yourself.

I Belong

I have found a place where I belong. I have found a place where I can see a little of myself in my peers. I have found a place where I can see my future walking along side me.听 Yunasa exists for longer than just one week, as I always take a little of it away with me each summer, and nurture it until I return the next year.听 I have learned to live for every moment of every day, and not just for my one week homecoming at Yunasa. Yes, Yunasa has helped teach me this!

If you are interested in applying for a Yunasa Summer Camp, please for more information and full application.

This post originally appeared on Hannah’s blog,听, and has been reposted with permission.