Do you have a high IQ and/or ADHD?

High IQ and/or a diagnosis?

It can often be difficult to assess the cause of a given behaviour that differs from what is typical or expected, because people are unpredictable and respond according to each scenario and particular context.

The kind of behaviour that is completely ordinary in an informal family setting may seem reprehensible or unacceptable if it unfolds in a workplace or in public. Likewise, there may be behavioural norms which are culturally defined – for example loud chewing, talking with your mouth full or burping.

If someone has a diagnosis as well as a high IQ, their intelligence might enable them to conceal or compensate for their diagnosis. Conversely, a person’s diagnosis might lead to a markedly different behaviour, which means that the high IQ is not detected.

In the following, based on the chapter ADHD hos voksne by Per Hove Thomsen and Erik Simonsen in Grundbog i psykiatri (2010), I shall describe the symptoms of ADHD and compare these with common characteristics of the hundreds of gifted people I have met and talked to since 2012.

 

Is it ADHD?

ADHD is short for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. This is a neuropsychiatric disorder that appears to be hereditary.

At the core of ADHD are three obvious symptoms:

• Attention deficit – struggling to maintain focus and concentration, making sloppy mistakes
• Hyperactivity – finding it difficult to stay physically still, restlessness or inner agitation
• Impulsivity – lack of self-control, patience or consideration of consequences

In adults, the attention deficit may be evident as an inability to read longer books or finish tasks at work – in particular, larger or more routine tasks will be interrupted or neglected. The limited ability to concentrate may naturally lead to learning difficulties, which are often detected at school level.

The hyperactivity is easy to spot, as the person struggles to sit still during meetings and conversations. They will either get up, walk around the room or be shifting in their chair, or their hands will be restless and tend to constantly fidget with something.

The impulsivity may lead to an inability to plan, remember appointments or agreements, comply with traffic regulations, pay bills and similar things that adults, and in particular responsible parents, are expected to do. Instead, the person may experience significant mood swings, make frequent impulse purchases, interrupt and talk over others and struggle to wait their turn.

 

Characteristics in gifted adults

Although a high IQ can be measured and identified by an approved intelligence test, it is far from everyone among the bright (the top 3-10%) and highly gifted (the top 2%) who is aware that they belong to these groups. Many simply have a feeling that they are quite smart or slightly above average. Some are downright afraid of testing their intelligence because they fear getting a score below average – which for the general population is always around 100.

The following characteristics are echoed in most gifted people:

• A steep learning curve – able to quickly acquire new knowledge
• Fast thinkers, fast speakers and fast writers 
• A well-developed sense of justice or certain principles they are willing to fight for
• Strikingly honest – in ways that may be too much for others and can get gifted people into trouble
• Impatience – which may be due to their higher pace and their ability to figure out complex contexts
• Often hold several educational qualifications – in a wide range of areas and subjects

Because of their learning ability, gifted people will run out of challenges faster and end up being bored. Meanwhile, the same learning ability may cover up any attention deficits and difficulties in concentrating, so that an ADHD diagnosis goes undetected.

The fact that gifted people are fast thinkers, speakers and writers can make them lose others who cannot keep up with their pace. In these situations, gifted people might lose their patience. They can then find themselves giving their honest opinion about colleagues, the management or the company – or telling customers exactly what they think.

On the other hand, their well-developed sense of justice can make them good at keeping appointments, complying with traffic regulations and company guidelines… and perhaps also annoyed with others who fail to do so.

 

Similarities and differences between ADHD and high IQ

The most obvious similarities are:

• High pace of work and a tendency to switch between tasks
• Easily distracted if something is progressing slowly
• Might find it difficult to finish boring routine tasks
• Quick to lose interest in things when they’re no longer new and challenging
• Feeling bored more often than most other people, especially during drawn-out meetings and discussions that aren’t going anywhere
• Might interrupt others and finish their sentences, having already worked out what they’re going to say
• Don’t always manage to finish things because they’ve got a new and better idea or a more interesting task
• Find themselves giving their honest opinion or showing their impatience (seems like a lack of impulse control)

Differences expected in gifted people compared to people with ADHD:

• Able to plan and keep track of things
• Always keep appointments and honour agreements at work and in their personal lives
• Pay bills on time and are in control of their finances
• Accomplish what they set out to do and usually achieve their goals, for instance in education
• Have a certain amount of self-control concerning their emotions, reactions and actions.

That said, other factors may come into play and make this less clear-cut. One example is that the highly introverted might talk less and need time to find the right words before speaking, while their extroverted colleagues think while they talk and manage to speak at great length. Conversely, the introverted might find it easier to express themselves in writing, while the extroverted usually prefer to make a call or meet up.

The ability to plan and keep track of things may also vary and is more dependent on personality traits than on IQ.

Finally, as some gifted people also have ADHD, they will usually be able to plan, keep appointments and pay bills, but might find it difficult to read a book, sit still or avoid constantly interrupting others. Consequently, their symptoms become less pronounced. Just as well as there may be varying degrees of the three main symptoms, they present themselves very differently from one person to the next, or a gifted person may learn to compensate for them over time.

 

Read also:

• 4 differences between having a high IQ and a normal IQ
• Does your high IQ conceal an ADHD diagnosis?
• Can you conceal an ADHD diagnosis at work?