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I recently read Elon Musk’s biography which I found to be fascinating on many levels. One part struck me in particular as there was a passing mention of his being “somewhat bipolar” (I think that was the quote) which immediately got my defenses up. I wondered whether this was a way to sneak in a reference to an actual diagnosis he’s been given without fully outing him, or whether it was just a phrase meant to describe his actions in an easy-to-understand way. Now obviously I’m not going to diagnose, or in this case un-diagnose, someone I’ve never met, but just out of the gate I’m not buying it. He’s stated himself that he’s on the autism spectrum, which both makes sense as well as seems almost self-evident, but at certain levels of intelligence it’s hard to reasonably compare people with some concept of what’s supposed to be “normal.”

Teens diagnosing themselves

Kids who like learning, and are good at it, are going to do research themselves … and probably about themselves. There are several problems with this, partially being that kids who are exceptionally bright are already “abnormal,” which means that comparing themselves to the “normal” population (whatever any of those terms mean) is already a tricky prospect.

No one acts like an alien, meaning that everyone can only do some version of what other humans have done. If you take basically any human behavior and reduce or increase it to the point it becomes destructive, then we call that a disorder. This is where the strict medical model that we use to talk about mental health starts to break down. It’s not like we’re identifying a specific bacteria so we can find the specific antibiotic that will be effective. There is a lot of cross over between various “symptoms” (destructive or painful experiences) and various diagnoses. That doesn’t mean a “disorder” is necessarily a “thing” like the bacteria is.

Many normal and entirely reasonable experiences could look “disordered,” and also something that’s a real diagnosable problem might have components of several disorders. Particularly in highly intelligent teenagers and young adults, certain patterns might mimic traits of ADHD, or bipolar disorder particularly the ability to dive deeply into new tasks or subjects with intense focus followed by periods of withdraw / down time.

Mania?

Think of it this way. In a gifted individual, the rapid acquisition of new skills or knowledge can be highly rewarding, which is a very normal process. You get dopamine hits for success toward short term goals, and if you pick up some new skill, or learn about some new topic of interest, at a faster-than-average pace, you’re going to get more of those hits more often. Just from common sense it should seem obvious that more rewards mean the person does more of the rewarded behavior. So suddenly the individual appears to have developed a nearly obsessive interest in a topic. It’s the same thing that would happen to any normal person who say, sat down at a piano and found they had a natural talent so that learning came easy to them. It’s just that gifted individuals experience many more of these kinds of things than the typical person.

It’s highly likely the individual developing this shiny new obsession has discovered it “out in the wild” so to speak, meaning they just came across it by themselves and are learning it by themselves. So while passion might appear way too enthusiastic or “manic” to outside observers, over time it often becomes a solitary journey. Because they’re learning alone, often they’re also isolating themselves by their solitary focus and enthusiasm. Even if other friends started at the same time, moving at a much faster pace may quickly put you on your own.

Depression?

Here’s where it gets interesting. As long as the progress is continual and the dopamine is regular, this person may not even recognize that they’re isolating themselves. In fact, if the activity is fun enough, it will certainly cover up any growing feelings of loneliness or isolation that have been brewing under the surface. So when the energy wears off, they find they’ve missed their social contact for the day, or month. It’s at that point the recognition of their social-starvation kicks in.

It would be easy to misinterpreted this as depression, or I should say, technically this is a brief form of depression, using up most of their motivational neurochemicals. Only, the difference is that this isn’t a pathological response, it’s actually a natural recovery and re-orienting process where their values move from the need to learn toward the needs they’ve been neglecting. Assuming they haven’t burned any bridges and can re-connect with friends and social supports, this is a perfectly reasonable and even healthy process.

Just be you

Rather than rushing to pathologize, and diagnose or self-diagnose people with the assumption that there’s something “wrong” with them, I think it’s more important to see this responses in context. It’s best to try to foster supportive environments where gifted individuals can explore their interests, particularly with like-minded peers where possible. If that’s not possible, then just recognizing the ebb and flow of intellectual vs social needs and motivations would be very helpful.

I’m all for letting people know what to expect up-front. So it might be helpful for friends and family to know they shouldn’t take it personally and could try to show patience when a bright mind is absorbed in a new task, and see if they can wait for them to come back and reconnect when the dopamine calms down a bit. Also, gifted individuals need to learn that they occasionally have to restrain their thought processes and explorations to make sure they remain in touch with the real world.

I’m not saying either other’s patience or their self-restrain are easy though. Hey, trust me, I know what it’s like to build a Bitcoin miner out of scrap parts in 2013 when zero people I knew had ever heard of this magical internet money. ( And at the time I very much appreciated Anel’s willingness to just smile and nod while I ranted 😛 ) Think of it this way, not everything needs a label, even when the label is entirely appropriate. The only real reason to diagnose, yourself or anyone else, is if we see some behavior or reaction that’s causing more problems than it solves, and if the person themselves believes it’s worth the effort to try to change it. All humans have different quirks and passions, some individuals just have the ability to learn more of them faster than others, but it’s all just part of what makes us all unique.