Tbh I never read Gifted Kid™ Angst as “I’m no longer special” but more like “I had unrealistically high academic expectations put upon me at a very young age and learned to measure my worth by academic success and as a consequence constantly feel as if I’m not good enough”
Also we never had to study or try very hard in earlier grades, so by the time we get to high school or college, our skills have plateaued and we have no study skills to fall back on whatsoever. We go from excelling with no effort to failing and having no idea how to catch up.
Also, once you are out of school, there are no more academic tests with which to prove your own worth to yourself. This only heightens the sinking sensation of ‘I am not good enough.’
Gifted kid angst also fits neatly into imposter syndrome - if you hit a place where you suddenly start failing (because you never had to work hard to learn things before), imposter syndrome steps in to say “this is proof you were a fake all along! otherwise you’d know how to deal with this!”
Another part of it is (at least for me) that being labeled gifted led to no one looking for or recognizing developmental problems like ADHD. Clearly I was smart, so any failures on my part to demonstrate that had to come from laziness or not applying myself.
all of this, my god,
