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Although there is no direct scientific evidence that people who are highly gifted suffer from headaches more often than people who are not highly gifted, there does seem to be a connection. In this blog I want to discuss the factors that can play a role in headaches in highly gifted people and how they reinforce each other.

Cognitive overload.

  • Deep thinking processes: Gifted people experience and process the world differently than people who are not gifted. They often think more deeply about different subjects and make connections between different concepts. They often absorb more information and can process this information in complex ways. This constant mental activity can lead to overload, if they do not take a break or cannot relax their mind.
  • Sensitivity to stimuli: Gifted people are often also often highly sensitive. They are more sensitive to external stimuli such as sound, light, and social situations. This can lead to overload because they process the stimuli intensively. This makes gifted people susceptible to exhaustion and headaches.
  • Multitasking: Gifted people often do several things at the same time. They feel that they have to be productive and creative all the time, which can lead to mental overload. In addition, they have high expectations of themselves, and think that others have equally high or even higher expectations of them. This constant pressure to perform can lead to stress and fatigue.
  • Emotional intensity: In addition to being intellectually sensitive, gifted people often experience their emotions very intensely. This constant interaction between intellect and emotions can add an extra complexity to the cognitive overload. Emotional overload can be exhausting and lead to various physical complaints, including headaches.
  • Difficulty relaxing: Gifted people often have difficulty relaxing because their minds never stop. They continue to think or worry even in moments of relaxation. This can eventually lead to sleep problems and physical exhaustion, which in turn results in chronic headaches.
  • Perfectionism: Gifted people are often prone to perfectionism. This is partly due to the high expectations they have of themselves and that they think others have of them. In addition, they can analyze situations endlessly. This is not only mentally exhausting, but can also lead to a high degree of self-criticism, which only increases the mental overload.

The cognitive overload that comes from being gifted can directly contribute to migraines and tension headaches. The continuous mental activity, combined with the overstimulation due to high sensitivity, leads to a vicious circle of stress and physical complaints.

Cognitive overload
Social isolation

Social isolation.

Social isolation can play a major role in both gifted individuals and chronic headache sufferers, although the reason is often different. But both can lead to feelings of loneliness, which can lead to a vicious circle of physical and emotional strain.

  • Social isolation in giftedness:
    • Differences in thinking patterns:
      Gifted people can often feel different from their peers because of their complex way of thinking and communicating that is often not understood. They also often have interests that deviate from the norm. This can lead to feelings of misunderstanding and alienation.
    • Stereotypes:
      Gifted people are often thought to know everything, or that their intellectual skills are self-evident. This can lead to feelings of alienation, because they feel that they are being judged on the basis of their intelligence, without taking into account their emotions or personal challenges.
    • Overstimulation:
      Because gifted people are easily overstimulated, they tend to avoid social situations. This can contribute to social isolation.
    • Fear of rejection:
      Because of their perfectionism, gifted people are more likely to be afraid of making mistakes or being rejected. This can lead to avoiding social situations because they feel that they constantly have to prove themselves. And this too can lead to social isolation.
  • Social isolation in chronic headaches:
    • Limited social activities:
      People with chronic headaches often avoid or cancel social activities because of their headaches. As a result, they are invited to fewer events, which in turn leads to social isolation.
    • Lack of understanding:
      Because chronic headaches are invisible, the impact they have is often not understood. This lack of understanding can cause people with chronic headaches to feel frustrated and not taken seriously. This creates a distance between the person with chronic headaches and their environment.
    • Not wanting to be a burden:
      People with chronic headaches can often feel very guilty when they have to cancel plans. This causes them to avoid social activities so that they do not have to cancel plans and do not burden others.
    • Feelings of helplessness and depression:
      Chronic headaches can cause feelings of helplessness and depression. The constant pain leaves little energy for social interactions, which increases isolation.

The overlap.

If you are gifted and suffer from chronic headaches, the above factors can reinforce each other.

  • Double misunderstanding: Both giftedness and chronic headaches can lead to misunderstanding from the environment. This can make someone feel doubly isolated. On the one hand because of their inner world and on the other hand because of their physical pain.
  • Double sense of being different: Both giftedness and chronic headaches can make someone feel different, find it difficult to identify with the experiences of others.
  • Exhaustion and withdrawal: The mental exhaustion that comes with giftedness and the physical pain of chronic headaches can make social interaction feel even harder, causing people to withdraw even further.
The overlap.
The impact in self-image

Impact on self-image.

I wrote in a previous blog about the major impact that chronic headaches have on your self-image.

Giftedness has an almost equally major impact on this. For example, think of fear of failure due to the high expectations that gifted people have of themselves or the high expectations they think others have of them. But also a feeling of being different, of not belonging. As a result, a certain group of gifted people will underperform, whereby they lower their own level to the level of the group. This can in turn cause others to doubt their giftedness.

If giftedness and chronic headaches occur at the same time, the impact on self-image can be exacerbated.

  • Feeling of not living up to your potential:
    One of the biggest challenges that gifted individuals with chronic headaches face is the feeling that they are not reaching their full potential due to the pain. This can lead to self-criticism, which undermines their self-image. Gifted individuals often have high expectations of themselves, and if the chronic headache prevents them from meeting these expectations, it can feel like failure.
  • Internal conflicts:
    Gifted individuals often have a strong drive to achieve and the need to be constantly challenged, while their chronic headaches ask them to take it easy. The conflict between what they want and what they can physically handle can lead to feelings of inadequacy, which in turn undermines their self-image.
  • Self-esteem through achievement:
    For many gifted individuals, how they value themselves is directly linked to their intellectual and/or personal achievements. If chronic headaches hinder these achievements, it can lead to feelings of failure and worthlessness. This in turn has a negative impact on their self-image, which is further reinforced by the constant physical pain.
  • Social Alienation:
    We have already seen that giftedness and chronic headaches can both lead to social isolation. Such social isolation can in turn lead to a negative self-image. Social isolation can cause feelings such as “I am not good enough” or “I am not normal.”

Coping mechanisms.

We can conclude that giftedness and chronic headaches are not an easy combination. They are quite a challenge on their own, let alone when they come together.

However, there are a few ways in which you can make life a little easier for yourself.

  • Self-compassion:
    Developing self-compassion can help you to be less strict with yourself. This is for both gifted people who have high expectations of themselves and for people with chronic headaches who struggle with the (physical) limitations that their pain entails.
  • Inner value:
    Shift your focus from external achievements to inner values ​​such as resilience, creativity and adaptability. This can help you to increase your self-esteem and thus your self-image. And if your self-image improves, your social isolation will decrease.
  • Acceptance:
    I wrote a blog last week about the acceptance of chronic headaches. Accepting your headache and learning to deal with the limitations that your headache entails helps to increase your self-image. It is crucial to realize that your value does not decrease because of your physical limitations. Acceptance of your headache also contributes to reducing social isolation.
  • Support groups:
    It can help to look for support groups for both your giftedness and your headache. Groups of people who understand you, who are going through the same thing. Now I know that there are no groups that offer support for both giftedness and chronic headache. That is why I created such a group on Facebook. So that you can find all the recognition and support you are looking for in one place. Realizing that you are not alone contributes greatly to your self-image and to reducing your social isolation.
Coping mechanisms

Are you curious after reading this blog whether and how I could help you? Then send me a message on Instagram. Or contact me via the contact form.

Every month I raffle 2 free headache sessions. During this free session I will look at your headache and its cause with you. I will look at the limiting beliefs that are lurking under the surface and resolve them for you. In addition, I will give you some tips and advice that you can immediately start using to experience less headaches immediately after the session.

My client Karin said about this session: “Immediately after the session I already experienced much less headaches”.

Do you want a chance to win one of those sessions? Then fill in the form here to participate.

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