High Intellectual Potential

As said previously, this high potential mainly concerns cognitive skills. In cognitive skills we find: different memories, knowledge, logical skills, visuo-spatial skills, etc.

Often HPI people will have the characteristic of thinking in a less linear way than the rest of the population, this is what we call tree thinking. One thought will give rise to a multitude of others, which can also lead to difficulty concentrating on one thing at a time. This difficulty in focusing attention on an idea can lead to ADHD. However, be careful, it is not because you are High Potential that you necessarily have ADHD and vice versa.

Another diagnosis that can often be linked to PIH is the diagnosis of ASD and particularly Asperger's Syndrome. Just like ADHD, this does not mean that all HPIs have Asperger's and vice versa.

A High Potential person is considered to have neuro-atypical functioning. This functioning is characterized by a neurological development different from the rest of the population. Thus people with High Potential will not be superior to the rest of the population but will make the connections rapidly between the different elements around them and memorize them more easily.

First of all, we generally distinguish two types of High Potential:

The HPI: High Intellectual Potential

The HPE: High emotional potential

Be HPI

Being HPE

The HPE which is the High Emotional Potential: This characteristic corresponds to superior emotional intelligence. HPE people do not necessarily have the same cognitive skills as HPI, however they have significant emotional skills. They will present a strong sensitivity, empathy, understanding of the emotions of others and their own. Often HPE people will also have good interpersonal skills by listening to others. So one of the main characteristics of HPE people is the fact that they are aware of their emotions and the management of them.

It is essential not to confuse HPE and hypersensitivity. Indeed, a hypersensitive person will also be very sensitive to what surrounds them in their environment, whether it be noises, light, sensations, etc. Whereas a person with HPE will only concern emotions and the entire sphere that surrounds them. Like ADHD in HPI, HPE people can be hypersensitive and hypersensitive people can be HPE, but this is not always the case!

With all these terms it is easy to get lost and no longer understand anything. So we're going to take stock of all that again. Moreover, depending on the sites, the limits between them are quite vague.

In the scientific community the term used is "High Potential", in common language some use the terms "giftedness" or "zebra" for example. But all these terms refer to the same characteristics.

In HP we are not going to talk about "symptoms". Indeed, the term “symptom” refers to a pathology, an illness. Apart from being HP is not a disease but a characteristic of the person. So we will instead use the term "specifics" which seems more suitable to us.

To find out if you are HP there are different tests that can be carried out with the help of professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists)

Several signs may suggest that you are gifted:

• HP people are bored at school or even drop out and find themselves in academic failure. Maybe you yourself had the impression at school that the teacher was always repeating the same thing, that the lessons were too slow...
• For HPIs, the IQ is higher than the average: around 130. Different professionals can assess IQ via different scales such as WISC (for children) or the WAIS (for adults)
• Good memorization courses: Indeed, people with high potential are able to very easily memorize information on subjects that interest them.
• A Emotional hypersensitivity
• Very curious, there is the need to know the “why” things, to drink in knowledge regularly.
• It can be difficult to make a connection with others: these are people who can find themselves in a certain social isolation. On the contrary, HPE people have great ease in developing social relationships but have great difficulty maintaining them over the long term.
• A person with high potential is often a perfectionist person who can consequently be led to regularly think of himself that he is "zero", because what he does is never good enough!
• HPI and HPE people feel often out of sync compared to others, which can create great suffering.

Of course, as explained above, there are tests which make it possible to detect a High Potential. If you think you yourself are part of this population, do not hesitate to see a trained professional!

If you are HP yourself, you may feel that you have great difficulty entering the professional world and you are therefore wondering about the professions that could suit you.

I have bad news... There is no typical job for HP people. You mainly need to find a professional path which corresponds to your expectations, your desires, your interests and your needs. Very often, you will not find the professional path that suits you from the start. You may need to experiment first before finding what works best for you.

Often the professions which correspond to HP people are those which bring important thoughts throughout the day. To maintain a job in the long term, it must be able to respond to the intellectual/emotional curiosity of HP people, requires an analysis…

Even if there is no typical job, it is important to not be in a repetitive job where there is nothing to learn. Finding yourself in this type of profession can bring boredom and lead to bore out (mental and physical exhaustion due to boredom and non-satisfaction with work).

Within the framework of HP, people are also sensitive to burnout (emotional and mental exhaustion, due to prolonged and significant investment). Indeed, in constant need to learn and realize multiple tasks at once, they can also quickly find themselves overwhelmed by the many tasks required. In addition, the supervisor can also benefit, by giving even more tasks to the employee.

Despite the gap that HP people may feel, they have many strengths that they can put into practice in the professional world:

• IT professions
• human contact professions
• The salespeople
• art and creation
• ..

As previously said, being High Potential is not an illness or pathology! You think, understand and see things differently. However, if this is a great pain for you, do not hesitate to go see a professional which will help you understand.