Ask HN: Former gifted children with hard lives, how did you turn out?

This is cathartic. Thanks.

ACE 8. I was often hungry and cold. and sometimes homeless. I was poor in an area stricken with poverty (appalachia). I lived in a home that didn’t have half of an exterior wall, and we only had a kerosene heater. Often, there was no electric. We originally didn’t have plumbing except for an outhouse (luckily a federal program forced a corrupt contractor to tack on a shoddy bathroom to the house). No birthday or christmas presents.

School was terror. I had one outfit and shoes without bottoms. A gang of boys would wait outside for me everyday until evening. I’d hide in the woods until the path was clear. Teachers would assult me. The principal put me in the hospital. The police would harrass us. The police arrested my brother for skipping school, and he ended up in juvenile detention for a year.

Sexual abuse, mental abuse, physical abuse. It felt constant. My peers fared worse surprisingly. 20 friends dead before I was 24 (including two best friends and three girlfriends. Health problems, violence, suicide, drug overdoses, accidents.

I effectively moved out at 14. I exchanged sex with older women for room and board. I continued my schooling though.

I really lucked out honestly. Getting into the gifted program was by far the most important thing that could have happened to me. I somehow made it to undergrad. A friend turned me on to computer science when I was a junior. I spent my life savings on my first computer. I had terrible study skills and only graduated because I could derive stuff from first principles.

My first job had me in a cubicle with my face to the wall. Because of previous trauma, I involuntarily jump when people come behind me. So, the job was stressful. I fired up a spreadsheet and figured I could retire early if I kept increasing my wages and reducing my expenses.

I was never good at programming, but I was great at innovation and execution. I eventually got a role director of a consulting company in 2009, and I was making $150k. I felt like a badass. But, it’s been downhill from there. I have a problem with burning bridges.

I’m late 40s now. I ‘retired’ during the pandemic. I’ve really struggled since then. I have little direction and self-medicate most days. I’m suicidal most days, but I keep going because I feel I owe it to all the friends I’ve lost.

I doubt anyone will read this, but if you do, thanks for listening.

ACE of 8. Only child, single mother with psychiatric problems, absent dad with psychiatric problems, I was nearly killed by him at age 4, homeless twice before I was ten, no extended family to rely on at all. Mom died of Dementia at 65 when I was barely 30, and I took care of her starting when I was 25, giving up a great job in Boston.

I'm a VP of IT in a healthcare company, my third healthcare gig with this particular $12b PE investment firm. I was previously CIO twice at the others, first rising up from IT Director to Executive Director of IT, then CIO. I've been doing IT for 30+ years, and I'm damn good at it. I just cut our phone system expenses by $300k/yr, and I'm in a project to cut our EMR expense by 70% over the next 9 months. I've been a service tech, salesman, programmer, writer, author, datacenter admin, network admin, web developer, dotcom startup "CIO", and more.

I work hard, I care tremendously for my family and my employees, I love where I've managed to get, and I'm not done yet,

ACE score of 8. I’m happy, live a life I find deeply meaningful and fulfilling, don’t suffer from any depression, I have a wife and two kids. I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life. My teens and 20s were really rough, I spent a lot of time ruminating and just being a sourpuss. But I mostly knew I didn’t want to be like the people I’d been surrounded by when I was a kid. I got over it and stopped worrying about it so much. I’m lucky I found a good wife, we’ve talked for probably thousands of hours about our childhoods and worked out a lot of stuff. I feel like I’m continually improving. I just don’t worry too much, in my 20s I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression but those are basically non existent now.

The thing I purposely try to avoid when starting a new job is talking about my upbringing and background too early. I didn’t tell people at my current job my youngest daughter is in a wheelchair until about three months in. I let people form their judgments from how effective I am at work, then reveal more about my personal life. That first impression is so important. If people think you’re damaged goods from the get go you’ll get their pity, which is not what you want. You want their respect. Pity in a workplace means career death.

I’ve started riding my bike regularly which seems to have a very similar effect to taking Adderall. I use super bright lights in my home office during the winter. Home cooked meals improve my overall mood by leaps and bounds.

This is the first time I've heard of an ACE score; I had to look up what it stood for: https://www.christineortollcharity.org/post/adverse-childhoo...

I suspect I'm not the only one here in this boat.

ACE 4. I generally feel like adult life is very difficult for me, but I'm a fully functional adult. I'm in my 40s, married with young children. I suffer from depression, but I've come to terms with the fact that I'll be living with it forever. I'm totally functional otherwise. I have a career in software, a mortgage and I'm in good physical shape. I've spent a bit of time lately thinking about how childhood trauma may have affected my adult life in negative ways. I get bored and disillusioned easily in jobs, and find myself changing jobs every 18 months on average out of sheer frustration with how unfulfilling they are. I find myself annoyed at bureaucracy, and get impatient with less competent people. I never express my frustrations with them, but I feel a lot of negative emotions about my coworkers. One day I'd like to make some effort to address my frame of mind.

My ACE score is... Zero. I think it doesn't take into account other factors (e.g. being bullied at school, or being ridiculed by friends), as it focuses mostly on the family environment.

Anyway, it made me feel so lucky to go through the questions, and being able to always answer negatively. I felt so loved by my parents (more than what I already did).

I was gifted, for sure. I thought I had quite a hard childhood, but this puts things in perspective.

ACR score of 7 all the people involved in that score are dead save for 1. Don’t have any contact with that person except over a group SMS chat and it’s fine. I’m 48, married, two awesome teenage boys and doing well. Not sure why, all the therapists over the years I’ve seen with my wife are typically just perplexed by me. I do what brings me joy and take care of those that depend on me, that’s it. That strategy has worked out ok so far so I’ll keep doing it until it doesn’t. shrug

ACE 5, though I think this is inaccurate because the quiz seemed to focus on issues with adults, whereas I had at least two instances of major trauma involving peers (and one shortly after starting college), as well as several low-grade, long-running stressors related to my race, stature, sexuality, etc.

As for my gifted bona fides, 9x%th percentile IQ and SAT scores, gifted/competitive STEM track through high school, my bachelor's degree cost me $5,000, total (tuition was $30k/yr; I wanted the nicer dorm). I often feel stupid, but apparently I'm not.

Currently unemployed (since the beginning of the pandemic). Living at home. Money is tight. Whatever's wrong with me, I really can't afford to get it treated. I wouldn't mind if I was making progress on things that are meaningful to me, but I have a hard time keeping focused, and being confident in my plans, goals, and abilities. I can definitely feel myself falling behind. No, that's incorrect. I've long fallen behind.

What I think separates me from some of the other boys I know who grew up similarly and who ultimately had more success: a more consistently positive social experience. (It probably helped that they were large for their age. Why? Enhanced benefit-of-the-doubt in matters of athletics, romance, and maturity, even if you're being weird or hyper or spazzy or moody, leading to fewer derails of your attempts to build relationships. Greater confidence, greater stability, greater shelter from the things about yourself and your past that you can't escape.)

I might also be a bit of an asshole.

My score was an 8. Depression of course. All the usual problems.Thought I was unhappy because no one loved me. Turned out to be the opposite. Found my own key to a joyful life at 31. Had my first child. Cared for someone else more than myself. Cut off all contact with my family 13 years ago, except my kids. Second best decision I ever made. Best was choosing to raise my girl on my own. You cant fix toxic people, but you can leave them. Later I met a woman who can tolerate me. She prefers to work, is very happy she met a man who would rather hang out with our kids than work. I read "The Happiness Equation in my late 40's, had already stumbled into my own life solutions, but that book really helped explain WHY I felt my life had improved so much. You can get to a mental place you feel safe. You only get so many trips around the sun, take them with a smile, never waste a moment comparing yourself to anyone else. Best of luck.

ACE 0. Feels abnormal looking at everyone here. I don't consider myself that successful. Very average or below in career and also extremely below average in life outside of work. Not very many friends, never been in a relationship (I'm old).

Maybe some trauma really is needed in your childhood to produce more drive.

I'm wondering what's the distribution of ACE.

I started writing a reply about my childhood. But then I realized I would be sharing more than I'm comfortable sharing in public, I don't even feel comfortable creating a throwaway account to discuss this stuff.

I'm fine, I'm CTO of a small game development studio/publisher in the south of Sweden.

I was born/raised in Coventry in the UK and I feel comfortable with the idea of never returning.

I find it hard to make friends, but that's a combination of being a migrant, being an adult and being considered "very intense" by many- I pour nearly all of my energy into work because on a subconscious level I am terrified of going back to those conditions. And the state of tech (and the gamedev industry) is giving me some generalised anxiety.

Truthfully, the way people talk about sysadmins and devops and SRE also worries me because that's my field of activity and people keep trying to kill off operations as a discipline...

Other than that, fine I think..

ACE 7.

P.S: that test was annoying because I hit the markers but someone worse off than me could hit the same markers and wind up with the same score. :\

This test is very easy for the victim of an active and damaging abuser to score 3 or less. This is at best a triage test to inform immediate intervention; it's definitely not something to inform an adult in retrospect.

Especially this caveat:

> Having a grandparent who loves you, a teacher who understands and believes in you, or a trusted friend you can confide in may mitigate the long-term effects of early trauma

While true, from experience all of them can contribute directly to that trauma instead.

(ACE 4 in my 40s. My grandparents were dead, my parents were both cops who prevented friends from contacting me and controlled my movement, my mother used my father's abuse of her to threaten me, and my kindergarten teacher had my school principal beat me so hard for talking in class that I was mute for two years and gained a speech impediment that took another five years to mitigate, and which still affects me when stressed.

Three unsuccessful suicide attempts before I was 20. I'm still scared to death daily that my parents will find where I live, learn that I'm married, contact my spouse's family or employers, etc. Fantastic therapists and found family are why I'm not in a grave.

My last contact with my parents was 2 years ago, when my mom tried to claim my dad was dying and they needed me to come home to deal with estate paperwork. It was bait; nothing was wrong with dad, and I found out only because I hired a lawyer and investigator to go visit them to confirm.

My late first spouse had an _even worse_ relationship with their parents, hadn't spoken to them in 20 years, and the only instructions they left before passing away were to not notify them of death or estate plans under any circumstances. Probably a 2 on their ACE.)

I'm very satisfied with my life. My only regrets are not getting further away from my family sooner or cutting off contact with them as thoroughly as my first spouse did.

I took the quiz, but am going to decline to give a score or other info. Maybe consider me to be qualified to comment, however.

I understand "unsafe', albeit this is a little vague. But I get it. Given that, I surmise that your core resultant issue is unyielding anxiety. That's rough, and arguably the roughest.

What you are likely missing is truly competent support. Which would be either a smart family member, a rare engaged friend, or a rare professional. That's what most Autistic 1 people will be missing: a talented mediator between them and the world. Double plus so if the patient has trauma (ie: ACE 6).

If you are lacking true support, you are lucky that you aren't underemployed or even homeless. In that, you are quite accomplished. Keep in mind that many or even most other people in your divergent position aren't so. Good on you.

In my opinion, everyone with Autism 1 should be considered to be at risk for homelessness and provided with engaged support by one institution or another (under insurance). And that there should be specialists trained to socially assist those with Autism 1. Not with social training, but with workplace and associated mediation. And then with expert career guidance as a distant second. Logically in my opinion, a next step for screening the homeless and drug addicts, after they get clean, should be for autism.

Relentlessly seek that support, even if you have to pay for it, in order to help to continue to assure your good status. It may take awhile to find, but the search doesn't start until it does.

I'm a little bit curious about comorbid autism and ADHD. I'd make a mid-confidence wager that you are referring to ADHD-PI. On a personal note, I think that ADHD-PI is usually if not always a symptom of Autism 1. In other words, it is a spectrum symptom. But if the meds help, then they do.

ACE of 9. Founded two successful alt-weekly newspapers, worked on world-famous collectible card games, lost it all due to illness that nearly killed me, recovering and slowly making my way back.

One thing a high ACE score did for me was make me an irresistible force, even as it seemed to turn the rest of the world into immovable objects.

ACE is 7. Done more in the social realm and have a lot of friends and close relationships. Prioritized life stability in work over my 20s and early 30s to decent but not overwhelming success by self-teaching coding, but all of it started to unravel and I had to take years off from work to work on trauma, which really decimated my savings, but gave me a new lease on life and I feel like a lot of my traumas are processed now and I can live a real life. I spent most of my 20s remembering maybe a dozen total events from before I was in high school.

I’m currently looking to come back to work after 3 years off which is feeling extremely difficult. Places I apply obviously don’t want to know what I’ve been through, and so I have to fight the assumption that I didn’t have a job because of competence. Nearly went on long term disability but found it so onerous and restrictive I’d have rather died.

Just want to work again at this point so I can have a hope of not retiring poor - I never once expected to live this long.

I'm fine today but the decade following high school graduation was really rough for me. Stints of homelessness, substance abuse, depression, run-ins with law enforcement (some deserved, some not). I ended up enlisted in the military to escape my situation and it worked out for me. I'm in AAA games today but have had a good career in software engineering and we could probably retire today if we were willing to move to a LCOL area. But we aren't, because...

Today we have a rich and deep group of close friends, mostly formed around our children, and I pour myself into my family obligations. I'm trying to develop small communities where I live and it's starting to pan out. Again, it's primarily based around our children, but we've developed some lasting connections with a couple of other parents.

I'm currently building a 2D 16-bit platformer with my (twin) daughters, who are 5. I let them pick out some asset packs to use and, once I get this level editor finished, will have them help build levels. My aim is to get it running on a SteamDeck (will just copy the required files over) and let them play it on the TV via the dock. They've seen a bit of Mario and Zelda so far and are curious for more. I figured this way would be a bit more hands-on and they could get some sense of how the sausage gets made.

ACE Score: 0, therefore I apologise if this is too flippant since I don't suffer the depth of lows of clinical depression provides, although I've been through some unpleasant troughs in my time I'm sure I can't comprehend the potential psychological damage of most ACE scores above mine.

There's a particular line of The Desiderata[0] that says so much in so few words:

no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

It provides armour to me when the negative voices come. It reminds me that I am privileged to be alive at this point in time and help to remind me of the (good kind of) "holy shit" feeling I should have at that realisation.

Some holes are too deep for this to have an effect, but for the shallower ones, this has helped me escape them quicker.

You Have A Right To Be Here!

[0]: https://desiderata.com/desiderata.html

I find this test interesting because I received an ACE score of 1, but I'm the oldest child in my household and I'm realizing that my siblings would probably score slightly higher than me... :-(

I moved out when I was around 20 before alcoholism and divorce destroyed the beautiful family dynamic that I grew up with.

This makes me want to try and understand the differences between myself and my siblings a bit more closely.

ACE score of 7. I kept my head down at home with abusive parents and did everything I could to leave that environment as soon as possible. Got admitted into a state school for the gifted where you lived on campus.

I've been diagnosed with bipolar and depression, but I've had what most people would probably consider a successful career, but every day been a struggle. I've always struggled with depression and feeling abandoned by my family. Pretty much have a life by myself with very few people involved. I don't talk with my family.

Decades of therapy and medication, and it honestly really doesn't help.

I have a score of 5. I was in my district's GT program [0] from 5th grade until graduation (I only mention this since you said "gifted" in the title and this is the most "official" proof that I have). I failed many classes in high school (algebra, chem, physics, English) mostly from lack of effort. I had a lot of trouble attending class during high school and dealt with depression.

I went to college a couple of states away and being in that new environment helped a lot. By my senior year I was doing much better -- still had issues and only had a 3.2 GPA but I never failed a class. I was able to get an internship at AWS and a full-time job there after graduation.

Now (at 27) I'm starting a new job at Pinterest tomorrow, doubling what I was making at my last job. I'm halfway through my masters in computer science. I don't think I have any giant accomplishments, but I'm definitely comfortable and conventionally successful. The biggest dissatisfaction I have are around relationships and fulfillment, though I am slowly making progress.

I don't have any major diagnosed issues, but my upbringing definitely continues to have a huge impact on me. Therapy has helped a lot.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifted_education

A lot of comments and yours are heavily focusing on materialistic and financial status. While money or access to it is important to feel safe, it is not all there is to measure and compare.

What about friends and family? Partners? Children? Activities? Hobbies?

I scored a 2 it I noticed a lot of the questions focused on physical and alcoholic/drug abuse. I grew up in a culture/religion where none of these things existed but my I would classify my family and up bringing as dysfunctional and emotionally neglected.

Financially, I don't own a house nor can I afford one where I live. My job is secure and pays plenty to live comfortably renting. I don't think I will be able to retire in my country due to the cost of living.

I have no hobbies and very little friends. None Id call good friends. I have a partner and a dog.

Overall I'm happy with my life.

My score was 7.

I have ADHD, autism, and dyslexia, but luckily a >140 iq on a good day. I’ve suffered from depression at times, was incarcerated as a juvenile and an adult. Had a physical and mentally abusive father. I was also a convicted felon at 15/16 and again at 18 years old. Was an alcoholic before being legally allowed to drink. The list goes on.

That said life is great, I’ve exceeded all expectations my parents, family and educators had for me(the bar was low). I own my home, happily married and raising a daughter. I work at a FANG company and have a pretty decent net worth. Have traveled to almost 40 countries and feel like I add value to the world on most days. I even serve on the board of a non profit.

I would never say these things made my life any easier by any stretch but I learned to cope and it made me a “strong” person, in that I have confidence I can overcome just about anything and I don’t really fear much of anything that life can throw at me.

The one thing that’s crippling at times, being through all that with a photographic memory. Closing my eyes to go to sleep at night is hard… every single day.

I don't fit all your criteria. My schools didn't have a gifted track, but I scored highly on many aptitude tests, took the college in high school classes, etc. I wasn't diagnosed with autism until I was an adult. ACE score is 0 though.

I definitely feel like you when it comes to success. I would be considered moderately successful (grad degree, decent professional job, married, kids, etc) but just sort of average (median household income for our area). It doesn't feel like "I made it" yet. It's been a real struggle to keep my job, or really want to keep it. I can't stand the politics and the unknown standards that I need to hit. It also sucks that they can't give me the reasonable accommodations I asked for such as additional coaching and they even talked about putting me on a PIP this year. With the job market the way it is, I'm finding it hard to switch jobs internally or externally. Of course with my autism, changing jobs is also difficult and risky even in a good market. Also as you mentioned, these internal struggles are consistently unknown to those around me. Even my wife doesn't understand how hard certain things affect me and instead sees me as being very smart and very successful even though the data I see only supports the moderate versions of that. I don't feel appreciated at work or at home and I don't get to do very many things that I enjoy.

I'm not satisfied with my life. I wish I had my diagnosis before getting married and I would have chosen a different path. Although I think I'm also greatful for not having the diagnosis before graduating as I probably would have had a "what's the point of trying" moment at some of the difficult points.

I scored 3.

Took me a while to actually try hard things, because I was afraid of failure.

It wasn't until my mid thirties I started really pushing myself, embracing the fact that failure was a part of life, and changing my trajectory in a dramatic way.

~7 years later, I've got a nice house (2M), 1M in the bank, 2 kids, loving wife, and a handful of close friends I see often.

It was a tough road getting here, but life is good.

Beaten, neglected, molested, unsafe, etc. Many family & friends died from drugs, disease, poor life choices. Read books on success & business. Moved out at 16. Taught myself programming and business. Married a hot smart fellow nerd. Got good jobs, bought a business and monetized it. Had fantastic kids. Grateful every day to not be where I woke up. Retired to a farm recently.

My score was 3, which isn't indicative of a overly rough life. But I was a gifted kid, reading at 3, straight A's all the way through University. Always had bad emotional problems though. Turned into a really bad porn/sex addiction. It's currently ruining my life and health and Im going to SMART meetings because SAA wasnt helpful for me. 35 and not very much to my name. Mental health issues have haunted me my whole life, and the same goes for my parents.

I've been diagnosed with a few things, but none very concretely other than dysthymia and general anxiety disorder. My mom has adhd, and her sisters have schizophrenia. Also my niece was diagnosed with autism. She thinks I have Adhd but I can't really tell whats what until my sex issues are through.

Hey, also ACE score of 6 (apparently).

It's been a struggle, and I really should have gotten diagnosed with ADHD decades ago rather than years ago. I regret those that I've hurt (especially those that I love) and the times I was my own barrier to success or happiness.

I'm lucky to have a wonderful partner and manager at this stage in my life, and I've put a bunch of work into myself. It's been slow, but more and more of it seems to be "sticky", and that's incredibly encouraging.

Overall, satisfied with my life, especially in context of the world at large or relative to those with a similar background (makes me realize in some ways I'm pretty darn lucky after all).

Still, I feel the need to earn it. I don't feel like I deserve the nice things I do have, and I have a lot of anxiety of it going away. Therapy is currently helping me guide that and allow me to focus on the parts I can control while giving me the serenity to accept that there are things inherently uncontrollable, or even influencable.

Only thing I'd have to say is: never give up trying to get better. You're stuck with yourself for your entire life, one way or another. You owe it to your future, present, and past self to get better, and you owe it to those rays of sunshine that are the people you love or have given kindness, also past present, and future. You can't change the past, so don't dwell on it. Just try to do what you reasonably can. You've survived this long, which shows you're capable of endurance and survival at minimum. Have faith you can keep that, and use that as a rock to build a better life and a better (at least, local) world upon.

7

I’d say the biggest struggle hasn’t been financial independence, overcoming a rough childhood, or getting out of rural hell - it’s been dating. That was set in stone by my genetics being such trash. I’m 34 and only ever had one partner who would only stay with me on the condition that I paid for everything and would receive no emotional support.

By most measures, I am far more successful than most people you’d meet but I consider myself one of the least successful people because all I’ve ever wanted is for someone to love me and to build a loving family. Life is cruel.

I am quite taken back (and a little choked up tbh) by the high numbers that people are reporting in the comments. I can't even imagine what that means.

Seriously wishing you best to all of you.

Hard is relative. I scored a 3. My childhood would better be described as one of neglect rather than one of direct abuse. I don’t feel accomplished. I feel like I’ve been moving from one lucky break to another. But at the same time I’m able to see what I can contribute to roles I have versus my peers and have to conclude my calibration for what is successful or accomplished is very biased. It’s difficult to properly judge yourself when we have plain examples of the top 0.1% all over the internet. This sets up incredibly unrealistic expectations. If you’re able to iterate without constant guidance and able to pivot when you run into firm roadblocks you’re ahead of 90% of your peers. I’m constantly dealing with the dissonance of trying to reconcile that I’m nothing special with me being the only one capable of pushing certain projects forward.

It feels like so many people hit the first stumbling block and throw up their hands stating they don’t know how to do it. That’s where things finally get interesting for me. It doesn’t work. How can I make it work? What have I tried and what other people have solved a similar problem? 95% of the time I just find what someone before me did, copy it and move on. Why is that so difficult for many of my peers? A good portion of my career could be summed up as copying and pasting things I’ve found on Google. It objectively works. Why are others struggling?

I’ll never be a Carmack or an Asahi or any other super hacker that frequently drops incredible work in novel areas that extremely few other individuals could ever deliver. But I can follow their work. Learn from them. Apply their solutions to problems in other domains and iterate on it. But this all feels easy and natural to me so I have trouble understanding why my peers struggle with it so much.

ACE of 4, gifted child who literally got the passion for education beaten out of them. I feel like my childhood, or dealings with my parents might have actually been pretty bad...but better than the present day. I was bullied as a kid, and never really supported during it, which made me incredibly angry and aggressive and I walked around for maybe the first 25 years of my life actively thinking I would get drawn into fights at any time. Doesn't help when your parents will also beat your ass for perceived disrespect, bad grades or public failings.

My parents also are just malicious, non-cooperative, myopic people, and my dad is an alcoholic who basically went my entire life never getting checked until my mother walked out on him a few months ago, as a result of him doing a handful of things so repulsive my younger sister (the emotionally intelligent one of the family) cut him off and my mother realized that she didn't actually have to spend the rest of her life tethered to this person. My mom isn't great, but good for her. In the interim my dad has become even more of an alcoholic and he sleeps for 15 hours a day, only getting up to eat, pee and pretend he's not an alcoholic while he teaches classes on Zoom.

I've had a rough go the last few years with employment/career, but things might turn around for me in as little as a few hours. It's a combination of having to deal with poor boundary management in some situations, and bad situations outright. I'm not where I'd like to be in life, but I'm not old--just old enough to consider that I won't be here forever. But every day I become more aware of how my childhood set the stage for my life.

I don't consider adult life to be hard, when things are working well -- it's just that they often don't. I'm okay with life, but only because I have the tools to make it what I want. The day to day kind of sucks.

ACE 5, I'm mid 30s now, standard bad stuff, parents died years ago.

I stay somewhat mentaly healthy by being relentlessly busy. I don't give much weight to accomplishment, fear of being in a situation of poverty or vulnerability again drives me. I have some underlying mental issues, busyness helps keep them at bay and the sadness and pain has faded over time. At low points I try and remember it comes in waves.

I have a wonderful wife and young child, they are my satisfaction and I feel lucky every day. I don't expect to live long past 60 due to medical and historic reasons, so I intend to stay busy for the next ~25 years, do my best by them and try and leave a net positive on the world.

Didn't know this existed, thank you for posting, reading these has been an eye opener.

Ace score of 8. Outside of medical things outside of my control, relatively ok I guess. I have responses to things and a perspective on life shared by almost nobody I meet, which can make things a bit harder, more so it leaves me feeling out of place because I know the world and the individuals in it in a very different way that most never will.

I was surrounded significantly by organised crime growing up, and big parts of it, and the people involved were normalised to me. Sometimes I will speak of things I encountered or endured growing up, and people become visibily uncomfortable. I often forget that it's very confronting for others, because for me, it was so normalised, it's just a part of who I am, even today.

For instance recently a group I was in asked us to recount some experiences we had at a certain time and place, and they specifically asked about crime.

Turns out that didnt mean "tell us about how you had your head ripped open in multiple places with a steering lock and were left for dead on the street" because that's a story normies can't really gel with. Recounting such stories can cause people to look at you in a very different way following it.

I have a pretty modest ACE score of 2, the stories here are something else.

I am curious is having both parents with mental health challenges the common scenario? My father was depressive alcoholic who never worked in my lifetime, and as an adult I think that was more impactful than I realized as a child. My mom just had a pretty severe eating disorder but was functional adult.

I turned out fine, maybe higher anxiety than most and way way too risk adverse in every facet of life, but have a happy family and steady work and such.

My sister though has had a lifetime of depression and eating disorders, and even though has advanced degrees is living on disability since her 30s. I wonder if she had a higher ACE score, perhaps with non family members or something.

Both of us were “gifted” and valedictorian of our small school, so up to college had very similar paths.

If you think you know who I am, no you don't. I'm leaving major details out.

Principal Engineer at one of whatever we're calling the tech companies with ten figure market caps. A couple nice exits from previous jobs. Low seven figure net worth. Married. Lots of friends. In my late 30s to mid 40s.

You'd probably recognize some of my projects.

I was in a gifted and talented program for a while as a kid. Tested at 99.9th percentile.

ADHD, ASD, treatment resistant depression. ACE score of 5, but I feel that misses a lot of very specific trauma.

One of my previous partners abused me. That was many years ago, but I still have severe anxiety, constantly worried someone will scream at me for things I had no control over.

I'm so depressed I have trouble taking care of myself and regularly think about killing myself. In therapy for years, not sure if it's helping.

I genuinely have no idea how I hold myself together at work, it's like I'm a different person there.

How much more could I have been, had things been a little different?

ACE 4, raised by my grandmother and alcoholic drug addict mother in the projects. I made it out only because my aunt gave me a handmedown PC when I was 13, I lucked out into a magnet high school, and was granted admission with full financial aid into MIT (and was somehow able to graduate in 4 years). Grateful for it every day.

After I birthed my first kid in my early 30s at the start of the pandemic, my struggles with depression and anxiety seemingly vanished.

I've always been very risk averse, so I fear I'll never be able to start a startup or something like that. It's always sounded fun. Now that I'm very stable and well, and ok financially (the house cost way more than I'd like)... it still feels too risky for me to leave my normal job. Maybe I'll try in my 40s...

4 here. Been struggling with depression since 15, but got it under control since ~25 thanks to antidepressants, a healthier environment and a loving spouse whom I talk to a lot. I started drinking at 15 and had varying degrees of alcohol problems until my 20s. Never finished college - ended up with a lot of student debt and no degree. I come from a small city in Ecuador, a country which has gone through a lot of shit since I can remember: terrible education levels, insecurity, violence, political instability, etc. Parents got divorced during Ecuador's 2000 financial implosion. Dad went bankrupt, sank into deep depression and never fully recovered.

Luckily for me I'm good at one thing: coding. Eventually got out of town and found a job as a software consultant in Quito. Now I live in Stockholm Sweden. Got visa sponsored by a tech company at the pinnacle of the 2019-2020 tech hiring craze. Here I can say I'm slightly above average in terms of financial and career success, but I have it much, much better than my peers back home.

I'm kind of a loner (Sweden doesn't help tbh), I have low tolerance for stuff that triggers me and I tend to go back to bridge-burning mode from time to time, but my wife helps me stay on track and I have developed better coping mechanisms year after year :). My life is honestly wonderful and better than I could have ever hoped for. My home country is as violent as ever and I'm always worried that something's gonna happen to my family back there, but that's pretty much the only worry I have in my life now.

This exercise was great!

ACE score of 7. I am ridiculously happy. I have a wife who loves me, and two (little) kids who want to be around me. A successful and fulfilling career that lets me provide for (and even spoil, sometimes) my family. Multiple side-projects/hobbies/'hustles' that I can pick up or put down at will. Life is really, fantastically, pronoia-inducingly, good. It wasn't always this way, and I owe a LOT to great teachers in my formative years (HS and some college) who encouraged me to get the hell out of the house, city, and state I grew up in, and become my own man far far away from the place and family of my birth.

I'd been on the 'gifted' track since pre-K (I was reading books without pictures by 3, for example, and had read The Hobbit in Kindergarten). I made it out (barely) of one of the worst public middle/highschool systems in the country, and got a 70%+ 4 year scholarship into one of the best. My grandparents (specifically my maternal grandmother, may she RIP) busted all kinds of ass to make up the difference. "Family drama" almost made it to where I couldn't get transport to out-of-state college at the very last minute, and my paternal grandfather (may HE RIP!) showed up out of the blue, helped me throw my things in his truck, and drove me 12 hours one-way so I could attend college (no I did not finish, and dropped out after 4 years; long story)

The fear, doubt, and insecurity of my teens led to quite a bit of learning and growing in my early/mid 20s, and it just got better from there. "Getting the hell out" was the best advice I had gotten, and I am so glad I was able to take it.

My biggest concern these days is how do I grow beyond my damaged upbringing and not just be a "neutral" force in my family's life, but a "good" one. I'd like to be around for any grandkids (shucks, maybe even GREAT grandkids if the health and longevity sciences keep doing their respective things), and a positive presence in their lives too.

ACE = 4 here, 30 years old for reference. Pretty satisfied!

My net worth is currently less than a tenth of yours, however, because to get here I took the drastic step of moving to Europe and going no contact with my immediate family for a couple of years.

I chose to focus on getting married and starting a wonderful family first, with the woman of my dreams there, before I started really stepping on the career gas pedal, and I think that was absolutely the right choice for me at the time.

I have an ACE score of 4 and have been marked as gifted at various stages of my life, elementary, high school, college, and other somewhat impressive things during my 30+ year life.

The hardest part about being "gifted" and having a difficult childhood is being able to compete/achieve at high levels consistently. For brief moments I can be amazing at art, relationships, work, social situations, etc. But it all comes crashing down once I get too taxed or triggered. I simply don't have the energy or ability to be functional at the gifted (and even less) level for long periods of time. Even worse the recovery time from being drained is way longer than my close friends who grew up in more stable environments.

On paper things look pretty good for me. But keeping everything in order takes a lot out of me and I'm struggling to find the strength to do more and to live up to my "potential".

I got 8. My life is pretty great. I get enjoy every day look at the world and experience things I'd never thought I would be able to. I truly had no idea I'd live this long, and whether good or bad I get to experience a lot of first at my age in wonder people my age have done before. I hadnt even ever gone vacation until I was 23 and never been oversea long term until I was 31. I've gotten to go camping, buy a car, buy a home, and see the world at a lot older age so I feel like I am still in awe of those things.

Scored 8. Doing fine in terms of profession and money, quite a bit more than fine. I’ve made peace with never having much of a social circle or children or the normal interpersonal trappings of a life. I strongly hate and fear people, and that’s never going away.

I went through a period in my 20s when I was very interested in talking about it and doing therapy and getting diagnoses. Did the whole circuit of the books and techniques and medications that usually get talked about. Now I’m not interested in talking about it and don’t ID as having any condition.

I’m quite happy and satisfied with my life as a whole. There are many other ways to fill the day. Probably once a week or so I’ll wake up, and as the fog of unconsciousness clears enough for me to remember what and where and how I am, it makes me smile.

Thanks to all for sharing their experiences. To me, this thread has been like sharing battle scars. I am not trying to make light of people who have actual battle scars, my respect to them too.

ACE score 5 My abusive parent luckily died of cancer almost 30 years ago.

Me and my siblings turned our lives around in the first few years after that.

From being fast on way to a ditch, mentally, financially and physically I found the strenth to leave my drug addicted and alcoholic partner. I learned to admit amd recognize my own toxic behaviors and and took many years on my own to learn to set healthy boundaries and learn to live a healthy life. And to be a healthy parent.

Eventually finished University as a single parent with a full time job and I work with what I love today.

Own a house, a dog and have a good economy. No means financially rich, but in a long term happy relationship and in the best physical shape of my life.

ACE 6. I did good career wise, failure was just not an option to me so I worked hard. At school I was put into accelerated classes for gifted kids. But I feel like I could have done a lot better with more support at home. I see that people get points for diversity etc. in college or hiring, but there is no such support for people who suffer silently, and even if there was I have too much pride to let others know just for some brownie points. Life was particularly hard before I found employment, roughly from the age of 18 to 26. That was also the period when my mental health challenges were more difficult and I had not yet learned how to cope. I have not yet gotten any ‘treatment’ for mental health issues. I got some money after making some fortunate investment decisions that allowed me to climb out of poverty, it might be trivial sum for most people out there but it was a lot to me. Lately I get feelings of being an orphan, just out there on my own and not having my own people to share things with or support in life.

My wife is startled sometimes when I react as I do, she doesn’t understand where it comes from. I have forgetfulness and emotional regulation issues. But she is a nice person and helps me out.

I worry about money and the future all the time.

I would like to thank my mom and God for everything, and Jensen Huang. Will delete this later.

Sorry for poor punctuation and english.

Got a 3, product of the gifted ed system, with a few other challenges that aren’t counted in ACE, plus a healthy dash of what could be called self-sabotage as I began to make my adult way.

Now, decades later, I’m doing fine, better than fine actually, but relative my fears I am doing unbelievably fantastically. Of course, relative to the sense of limitless potential that the gifted ed system tends to implant, I should have invented cold fusion by now.

I long ago decided that the past was interesting but a terrible place to live. I consciously try hard to look forward and think about what I can do and not about what could have been or what other shadows might be lurking. That’s not advice, it’s just what I’ve done.

Are gifted children just like children who have early growth spurts? They end up average but for a while they were towering above their peers.

Score is 5 but factor in racism which is not accounted for in the test.

I decided age 6 I wanted to be Captain Picard or maybe phrased better: I decided to replace the absent positive male role model with idealised humanist diplomat/scientist.

It worked out very well for me. My net worth is less than it could be because I decided to prioritise happiness over wealth, but I habe a great live.

What saddens me is that, kids today do not even get stories that look positively in the future. Sometimes it feels all modern sci-fi is dystopian.

My biggest regret is not staying with my first job out of college. I loved it, and had I stayed my options at the age of 26 would be worth over $10m now. I left that job for a woman. I feel so stupid about it. I am good at math and bad at life. I should have stayed with that job. I was recruited out of university by men like me, who looked out for us.

I have found my peace, but large company nerd divisions are great for brilliant wierdo's.

ACE of 7, labelled as "gifted" as some point but was somehow talked out of pursuing accelerated education programs by a parent, grew increasingly disenchanted with the education system but managed to get my shit together enough to make it into a top-tier university program until family issues re-emerged and I ended up dropping out.

Still made it out OK as a homeowner with no student debt, but between the first 20-odd years of my life spent limping along and trying to pick up the pieces from my "adverse childhood" and another 4 or so odd years of pandemic lockdown, it feels like much of my early life was taken from me against my will.

I am satisfied with my achievements in spite of my tumultuous upbringing. That being said there will always be an undercurrent of "wasted potential" or "what if" I had the fortune of more fortuitous life circumstances.

As a sidebar I also am absolutely apoplectic with the blatantly sexist assumption in one of the ACE questions that it is the father who physically abuses the mother or threatens them with a weapon, but given that this is NPR I am not surprised.

ACE 5, as a child I was never tested for giftedness. From first grade till I took my SAT equivalent I never really studied, I just got things from class and I never did any homework. When I got to college (STEM) I had to repeat a couple of years because applying the same method as high school did not work - made me feel inferior.

When I started working I felt liberated, felt like life was different and because of that I had some success, but because I never really applied myself in school I lacked the exercise to do that and wherever I worked I was always the worst of the best. In my 40s now and I recently realized what it means to study, to put effort into something and this happened because I am now the worst of the worst - COVID took my depression to a new low, I'm just starting to go up again.

I have a child from a previous marriage that I don't know how to relate to, I keep trying to bond by I end up hurting them more - that's my biggest pain point. I am alone now, sometimes lonely, sometimes happy to be alone, but ideally I would like a partner.

In a logical world, affirmitive action efforts would be redirected to people with ACE score >= 4, regardless of ethnicity or race.

ACE 2. labelled gifted as a young kid. have always struggled with people pleasing, and I've had a hard time finding my own center and figuring out who I am. I just focused a lot on external achievement in my youth.

I have undergone some rough trauma but most of the worst of it happened when I was an adult, so I feel fortunate and quite sad when reading some of the responses here.

there's a lot of general disdain about 'former gifted kids' but I do think we often feel pretty 'different' from everyone else growing up, and that alone can be quite isolating.

I manage, I do pretty good work I guess, but I'm definitely not as successful as I thought I would be. home/family life has always been hard. optimistic about the future.

hugs to everyone here for making it this far, hang in there.

I scored 6, I turned my life "around" in some sense and pursued software engineering at 22 years old, after just neglecting my own wellbeing for at the time feeling like ages. Now at 28 I'm a senior engineer in a international corporation, it's not a tech company, but still something that i can feel good about. relationships and hobbies are good, but the pressure from performing on all fronts is some times so much that i fall into dysfunction and despair. but i feel like im building better coping mechanisms all the time when paying attention

ACE 4, late diagnosed with ADHD at 30 years old (M33).

Had a whole lot of anger about my parents and the world crammed up in me until the diagnosis.

Almost every move until then has been trying to peel back the invisible onion layers of protection I built up as a child and teenager (masking, cynicism, not asking for help or showing emotions).

Being blind to the coping mechanisms which you built up subconsciously but which don't serve you is what annoys me the most about this overall condition.

But it also gives me a sense of agency.

Currently reading "Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness", which I highly recommend.

So overall, I'm not satisfied with my career life as I feel many opportunities were taken away from me through no fault of my own.

I'm very satisfied with my personal life as I have of last year found a woman who I have been able to build a wonderful relationship with.

In all of this mess, I am extremely grateful for ADHD meds every day.

ACE score of 0. Based on the questions, I had a gifted upbringing. I need to do more with my life considering.

ACE of 8, IQ 170+, did absurdly well at High School. Am diagnosed ASD (at 50 years old) , have a psych friend say I'm ADHD but untestable.

I've had incredible highs (University Medal for example) in between various crises. My life is pretty shit, and I'll die alone. It took me a very very long time to learn to have nothing to do with family.

You're doing better than I am at this time.

I don’t think my history is important but I grew up in a home of 5 children (I’m the oldest), single (divorced) mother with far under the poverty line for a single person income.

I don’t know this test is very good, but my score was 7

My situation was not great, but I had many neighbors and friends in school with far worse situations.

I think, and have come to believe that, a difficult upbringing has many benefits in later life .

1. You know right from wrong, you’ve seen wrong 2. Empathy comes easier to you 3. You know exactly what you don’t want your life to look like 4. You value opportunity 5. You aren’t scared of people who have less wealth than you - further, you can figure out, quickly, who is poor but ambitious to improve their life, or poor and doesn’t care about anything. 6. Drugs are pure EVIL

All of my siblings have excellent careers now and excellent family lives, we all have wonderful spouses and there are 17 grandchildren with 1 more on the way!

I had over 1 million in net worth at 35. This continues to improve but doesn’t matter to me anymore, that was my milestone.

I don’t do scams, I don’t rip people off, I don’t do work or take money to help others accomplish dishonest goals. I am comfortable working alone or in groups. In groups took a lot of work.

Please, believe in the power of positive thinking. This was key for me.

ACE 0, happy childhood, very problematic puberty and adolescence. I was bullied.

Much later in life I discovered I was what is called a Sigma male and everything made sense.

I created my own company but was poor for a while(but very happy to do what I wanted). People probably felt sorry for me but I did not care about their opinions.

Very happy now. Not poor anymore.

7, basically was cut of from the last family member last year I had hopes in for over a decade after helping her to get back up, that cost me dearly in my career and private social life.

I pulled myself back up these year, don't have any holes in my CV and still have a job that pays enough so that I can put stuff aside. Which I'm taking as a win.

I do have some friends left that I can trust, which I take as a win.

Currently don't have a partner, but at least I not only recovered from the last break up, but I also got something slowly brewing that could become something or atleast another good friend. Taking that as a win.

Middle aged and most health problems are manageable or in progress about getting better. Taking this as a neutral.

Could have been in a much better space in life if specific people wouldn't have maliciously against me and I wouldn't have taken the risk on the one member I mentioned already. But I also could easily be, and see others, even some of my friends, in worse places.

So I think, I did quite alright.

ACE 5. I have been moderately successful in life and work, more so in the last few years, after I was treated for ADHD. Still have psychological issues to work through.

For me, the successes came from a combination of luck, and learning to make lemonade from the lemons life gives you. I was lucky to meet my wife in college, and even more lucky that she saw something in me, the confused and abandoned kid that I was. She filled in my weaknesses with her strengths, and I like to think that I had a similar effect on her.

I was the black sheep of the family, which drew me to entrepreneurism at an early age and made me not scared of taking risks. Either that or it was the toxoplasma. That's given me some moderate success in work and a comfortable life, but I don't feel fulfilled.

I turned out to be a total failure. I am to finish my uni next semester, but I was unable to find any sort of internship so I will have issues graduating. I am very lazy person. I don't have any sort of worth and I'm a disappointment to my parents.

Scored a 6 or a 7, depending on the answer to one question that I'm not sure of. I think more likely 7 than 6.

This pretty obviously impacted my happiness when I lived with an abusive parent and I have some physical issues that could possibly be related to starving so much as a kid and some others that fall out of not getting basic dental care, but I don't think it's obvious that my background is a dominant factor in how happy or satisfied I am. I find it plausible that my resilience in certain situations is lower than it otherwise would be due to my background, but it's not clear that it's even lower than average in those situations. And, overall, I was probably happier and more satisfied with my life than most people starting a couple years after moving out on my own until a few years ago.

Maybe the version of me that wasn't abused so much as a kid would've been even happier or maybe that version would still have above average life satisfaction today, but maybe not.

ACE 2: I dealt with depression and anxiety since early adolescence, with a lot of drugs and petty delinquency. Went to college for STEM and quickly became obsessed with a life in academia. Completed a PhD at a top 10 school, then a postdoc in an Ivy League university working under a NASA contract. Now I'm a tenure track professor at an R1 university.

Despite never fully feeling socially connected and depression/anxiety ridding shotgun the whole time, I'm very satisfied with how things turned out. Though, I think that feeling has less to do with my career and more to do with my partner; without them I dont think I'd be around to write this.

ACE score of 1, my parents were pretty great.

But if this test were applied to other kids, it would be off the charts. Abused and neglected in every way imaginable by my peers, growing up.

It's always annoyed me that if your abusers weren't your caregivers, your trauma is never taken seriously by the mental health community.

But it is what it is. I'm doing very well financially and professionally, I have a wife and kids, I am strong, fit, and healthy. But I have no friends, and it's impossible to relate with other people. Perpetually lonely, always the outcast, even decades after adolescence.

ACE of 8 here - I don't know how to qualify "gifted" but I believe I was and am a few std deviations away from median on most IQ tests I've had to take (therapists always insist I take one).

I don't feel the need to get into my childhood but there was instances of severe abuse/neglect, and extreme hoarding. Some light sexual stuff but it's all fuzzy. Our home and upbringing was a lot like that Turpin [0] family where they were basically forbidden outside contact despite maintaining normal appearances to the outside world. If that was a 10/10, mine was about a 7. I've had symptoms of PTSD since a very early age and subsequent traumatic events in adulthood.

My teens/early 20's were... difficult. I was independent by 17 and mostly was too busy trying to survive than to seriously attempt college. By my mid 20's I was able to enroll in community college and then transfer to a prestigious CS program and graduated with honors. I naively thought this would be the "end" of my problems - a lot of the trauma drove me to push through extraordinarily difficult circumstances during my time at school and trying to juggle several jobs.

In the decade since though, while I do have much more money and resources to get help than I used to, I feel I have declined. I've had persistent depression and anxiety for so long it's to the point I have difficulty recognizing it without the help of a therapist, who I see 2x a week. Found out I am very high functioning on the spectrum, and people often have difficulty understanding where I am coming from in terms of life experiences and I have difficulty relaying to them why I am the way that I am, so I often present a facade, which is isolating and lonely. My siblings fared a little better than I did and found family with their significant others that I for whatever reason did not. I suspect without being a gifted child I would have died a long time ago.

So all in all, not great, but probably much better than my peers in similar situations did.

[0] - https://abcnews.go.com/US/turpin-daughter-escape-happened-di....

Suicidal living under a creaking branch during a cyclone - it missed by a metre.

I’ve never heard of ACE but I just scored a 7. Once upon a time I got diagnosed on the spectrum, as well as PTSD due to various traumas.

I turned out pretty well: successful career, married a really long time, and raised 3 kids without neglecting or abusing them. I still feel like an alien among people, but I’m socially functional, great confidence, can handle myself in any sense, etc.

I never mention my diagnoses to others but I keep them secret and do use them as valuable tools on how to approach my own problems and challenges. I never consider myself a victim — that’s like a sacred sin to me.

I’m very grateful for all the good and all the bad I’ve experienced. It built me into a flawed person that I’m very proud of.

ACE 7, recently got my PhD in ML and am doing reasonably well, at least from an 'objective' lens (I have a well paying job and bought my first condo recently). My mind is still chaotic as ever (I have a mix of OCD / Tourettes / PTS) and it's still often hard for me to concentrate without overthinking some portion of my life or something completely unrelated to the task at hand.

If I can plug a Youtuber who really 'gets it' (mental health and depression), it's Dr Scott Eilers. Everything else is just clichéd garbage.

(Disclaimer: I am not 'gifted' but did very academically well during high school and uni)

ACE of 3 after I started living with my grandparents. ACE of 8 if you include the first 2 years of my life.

I am doing mediocre:

Career: bad

Love life: fantastic

The rest: hardcore self-dev mode

I am an insomniac and it’s fucking up my life. The ability to hold down a job because of it is really hard, unless I do intellectually easy work, which programming isn’t for me.

I also had a horrible career start. I had top marks at my university but I didn’t know anything about hiring cycles. So I just chilled for a year and then had a rough time finding a job, took a job I didn’t want for the sake of it and then had a few patches of jobs that I didn’t feel fully okay with, except for my last job but then tech layoffs happened and interviewing became hard.

Some people say I should become a dating coach as opposed to a dev but I have no idea on how to do the marketing and sales for that. I currently feel tech is more sustainable.

It’s funny:

I taught people in 3 month coding bootcamps when I still was a CS student and they are more senior than me.

My friend that studied business doing no programming on the side is nowadays more senior than me.

I paid a career coach $5000 which is a lot on a yearly salary of $35000 (if I have a job), but it’s not helping. It’s probably in part because I am Dutch and he is better in the US market.

I feel it’s a cruel joke. I did all the “moves” to not launch a career at all.

I could use some help but I don’t exactly know what kind of help as my blind spots career-wise are big (otherwise I wouldn’t have overindexed on uni, 2 bachelors and 2 masters). It doesn’t help that I am immigrating to the US at some point (marriage) for my current job search in NL.

I am currently also in therapy in the diagnostic stage. I probably will be diagnosed as autistic (at 33+ of age) but the jury is still out, could also be adhd or both. I sought help for my insomnia.

I currently meditate 2 hours per day since 2 weeks ago. I don’t think I will ever stop that again. I can feel that it helps a lot, especially with executive functioning (prefrontal cortex - doing your tasks) and somewhat for sleep too.

ACE 7 here.

I'm doing OK in life. It took a long time for me to stop running away from things because I didn't trust anyone for a long time. I'm still cynical and paranoid, but I have a steady government job, a solid early retirement plan, and a supportive wife that loves me.

People are surprised I didn't amount to more in life, but I live my life 100% on my terms, and that's what's important to me.

Not rich, not poor, but I enjoy life in general.

ACE 7. I feel good about some parts of my life, but mostly I hate it. I miss human connection deeply, but I don't see any path to having it in my life after my relationship of a year ended. I feel disconnected from my upbringing and like I don't know how to function as a white collar worker, and I constantly feel like I don't deserve what I have now as an engineer. I love my cat and my family though, and doing computer graphics for a living is a dream come true in a lot of ways.

I'm a 7 but I grew up in the 80s lol. Diagnosed HFA as a child multiple times, high-IQ, was in gifted / IB programs

Honestly most of the abuse I suffered happened at school, as the autistic "gay" kid I was constantly bullied and there was no interest on the part of school staff to do anything about it.

When I was 16 I fell into a nicer crowd but they drank and partied a lot and I ended up dropping out in grade 12. Got work as a computer technician, did that for a decade or so, moved on to other stuff.

The autism has been a real struggle that has become more challenging with age, and the memories of abuse do haunt me.

The larger the expectations, the harder it is for some to appreciate progress, and easier it is to not try at all.

A self-destructive defeatist nihilistic attitude is easy to cultivate, especially among the bastards of the gifted.

Off-topic, but did anyone attend Johns Hopkins CTY camp as a kid? I did it for 9 straight summers, and while the name is a bit pretentious, it was one of the best experiences I had. I am curious if anyone is an alum, since the overlap of CTY and HN seems pretty unique atm.

https://cty.jhu.edu/

Ace of 9.

Adulthood ADHD diagnosis. Came from a dirt poor abusive background. Declared gifted, but dropped out of school.

Now an engineering manager / lead developer making over £250k a year.

Rough lad done good. Could've done better.

Scored 9. Nearly everything except for 'priestly' abuse.

Feelings are a bit too complicated, I think. Jury is out. Perhaps for good.

Professionally I'm great but that matters very little.

My ACE is 0 (lucky me, my solidarity goes to all of you). Although childhood problems are a grave impediment for life, do you think you come out stronger / more brave than people with no problem?

For example I turned out a workaholic because I couldn’t find how to have success in my affective life. I’m 40, fit, correctly rich, but with a deep unsatisfaction about romantic life. Should I just be brave about it and satisfy myself with being single, or would a brave person deal about it?

Those affected by this post might appreciate this book: "The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self" (https://www.amazon.ca/Drama-Gifted-Child-Search-Third/dp/046...)

ACE score of 6.

I'm in my mid twenties. Got a decent SWE job, net worth around 0$ but I just got rid of most of my debts which is nice.

Extremely anxious all the time and depressed, still traumatized by a lot of stuff, zero social life at the moment, never managed to maintain any long term relationships(both in terms of friends and partners), not great physical health but it's getting better.

I'm not completely unsatisfied with my life, given the circumstances it was much more likely to be a lot worse. But it definitely could be a lot better.

"I look accomplished to people, but I don’t feel accomplished."

You should be proud of yourself. I have accomplished nothing in life and I had a STEM PhD. I think I am even bad in Science.

This book comes to mind. I have not read it yet: https://www.amazon.com/Drama-Gifted-Child-Search-Revised/dp/...

ACE 6, no need to delve into the details beyond physical and emotional abuse and neglect.

I’m happy with where my life is now. Spent many years struggling with severe anxiety and depression.

Therapy is key. If you have a high ACE score, see a therapist. It took me years of therapy to even begin to overcome some of this.

I’m very grateful for the life I have now, especially my spouse and kids. I have the opportunity to not be my parents, and I’m taking it.

What is "gifted" supposed to mean? Money? Career path? Not being sarcastic, but reading through the majority of comments is much more sad than any kind of gifted. What does being a CxO really mean when all your fundamentals are messed up? I'm afraid what success means to many people.

I would suspect that a lot of the gifted children that didn't turn out okey, aren't all that much on Hacker News.

ACE 2, which seems lower than most here. ADD, only diagnosed in my early 30s (I'm 52 now). I guess I'm OK, if you consider "fairly regular job instability but also fairly high highs" OK... it's certainly more dramatic.

So I guess I'm just here to support the rest of you! hah

Wife is gifted and ACE 8, at age 33 with years of therapy and support she's finally able to go to community college this year and explore a field she's interested in. It takes a long time but it can get better.

ACE 9 - Happy and fulfilling life. Just want nothing tragic to happen, and continue to enjoy a wonderful existence.

6.

I only live because I've failed at killing myself every time I've tried. I just need to wait it out. in the meantime I've got a good job that pays for shelter/food/entertainment. I have no ambition, no real drive towards anything. just serving out my time.

I believe an ACE between 2 to 5 will be standard among most non-Western people with regular childhoods. Corporal punishment was (and is, to a large extent) a very common part of disciplining and raising your child in Asia, ME and Africa.

ACE 4.

I passed gifted school entrance exam in my home country of Iran when I was a kid. Didn't tell my parents because I didn't like going there and I wanted to have a normal life.

I currently work at Microsoft and have a PhD in Computer Science / Compilers.

The worst thing is not failing. Could have excuses to justify a bad life due to family, poverty, violence, war, decadence, health or whatever but nothing worked. Always float back up with success, somehow.

You have a brain, it solves problems without your permission.

I have an ACE score of 6. I vastly benefit from trauma therapy: EMDR, IoPT (constellations), hypnotherapy, somatic experiencing, nonviolent communication. It helped me get out of most of my previous addictions, and I do not need to take any medication. I consider myself to be quite happy, and was able to build secure attachments and bonds.

> My biggest concern with my quality of life is I don’t feel safe

Not gifted in anyway. But check my profile and follow the link, to see if what I have written catches your attention.

(p.s: I won't bother with my ACE score - seems like an indulgence in self pity )

ACE 5. (I have some questions regarding the simple yes/no but never mind for now).

Suffered from severe depression in the past.

Got treatment, worked hard. I have a good and happy life now. Own my home, have good savings.

Relationships of any kind are still difficult sometimes.

ACE 8. I didn't know this was a thing and took a test which accurately described my entire childhood with every question.

I don't know where to go from here? I want the daily pain to stop.

I got 5, was annoyed it only asked about mothers being hit, when it was my mother doing the hitting, learned how to take a punch from her... ...but anyway, turned out alright I think.

I mean, one rather disastrous marriage, but I've got full custody of my amazing kids.

And yeah, I'm the same, don't feel accomplished but reality is I'm doing financially better than most people in my country.

I am currently working on undoing a lifetime of negativity towards myself, left home at 15, never graduated from high school, never got a degree, but have managed to take some computer science papers via correspondence. (Diagnosed with ADHD at 40, but obviously had it as a kid, my mother preferred a pseudo-science approach, which didn't work)

I would be wary of drawing conclusions from this cohort you are questioning on hacker news.

It almost certainly holds only a small portion of the individuals from rough childhood backgrounds.

And don't forget that a number suffering the most will have taken the 'ultimate opt-out' from this forum.

ACE of 1, but I grew up in a poor gang infested neighborhood and experienced many of the things in this list from other children in the neighborhood and school rather than family, and it definitely affected me.

How smart are you really if you're going to let society's idea of "gifted" hang over you?

Highly gifted here (ACE 7), skipped two grades. Burnt out young before career really took off. Still did well enough to be comfortable - worked in research for a while. Spent decades trying to find answers from doctors who were all useless. Found out much later it’s ME/CFS from hEDS (TNXB) and it’s a lot more frequent that people realize, especially in cohorts selected for intelligence. When I was young I was warned by the gifted program coordinators that skipping multiple grades was bad for kids because they always burnt out, I think they noticed a direct link between the extent of giftedness and the likelihood of burnout but missed the causation.

So I agree there is a strong link between such household behaviors and giftedness but it’s because genetic predisposition to anxiety issues, dopamine disregulation, chronic fatigue in a world that can’t identify it or manage it. So these people get sick and not only can’t get help but the whole world gaslights them. I don’t blame my parents for who they are. And as tough as it has been for me I wouldn’t trade it back for my IQ especially in an era where intelligence is at such a premium. I just try to get the message out in the hope that it helps others, hence posts like this.

I just got a 6 on the ACE test you linked.

I lost interest in formal education and ended up having a baby and dropping out, then going back to study psychology as the foundation stuff covers child psychology and development a lot. I found a combination of this and being mindful not to repeat the mistakes of my parent(s) really helped raising the kids incredibly easy. We were never going to be rich, but we were happy.

I got into health and fitness, which I always considered lame, because my dad died from being unhealthy and unfit and didn't want to inflict that pain on my own baby. It helped me think clearer and faster and made me feel safe, confident and I became quite extroverted. I felt that this and reading a good chunk of philosophical literature in my spare time really "fixed" a lot of mental health issues I had. I've spent most of my life working jobs around my lifestyle, even if it means having less money, I seem to be pretty good at living off a small amount of money and not living in misery even with the family, I have more in savings and investments than people I met that work 2-3x more than me. I work less hours so I get more time to read, create, be with family, get exercise and sun, meet friends, prepare meals, work on community projects etc.

Maybe it's a cope for being constantly told that I'm going to "go far" and being too lazy, distracted or disinterested in doing it (I wince every time someone praises my intelligence) but I'm happy that I have the freedom and opportunities to always be improving myself and trying new things, my only complaint is that life is too short for me to possibly indulge in everything that interests me.

I got a 6.

My university scholarships were based on a few factors including my area code / postal code being considered as “deprived” meaning high crime, low income and low education attainment.

I personally don’t have any issues (I don’t think).

I think you have to grow up a bit. There's more to life than the rat race, and if you score high, you should be participating in the direction of life. Not just follow the crumbs laid down by others. Or chose their side.

You're not a rat, and it helps other people if you don't act like one scared little mouse. Especially if you got decent brains. It's hurts them morally when they have to compete with you when they should have an ally.

Yeah, there is so much pressure to just stop living (and follow the crumbs), and there's no way to achieve anything of worth outside of it. No friends for example, supposedly. As we all are trapped, and we do it to ourselves, self apply the Matrix and tragically be the enemy of our loving destiny.

Those who realize they are trapped have traditionally, and wisely, kneeled to Christ, and have typically been rewarded with a new life. Amen. But if you have decent brains you might also compassionately reason a way out, or identify those that have done so, and join their quest.

Stop living your life as if it's just you. It's not. The rat race lies about you. And the collective lies about you. Grow a spine. These are the facts of life. And as Christianity fades they get pushed into our faces. We have to deal with a self serving collective, that makes us into enemies. Especially us in the software realm mindlessly masturbate to our own bank accounts, while we know better, and that political future needs us. Instead we mindlessly empower ever bigger titans. Karma will come round.

Yes this alternative future needs a business model, to take care of the individuals that are currently starved out of resistance, including by you, and out of their potential to be the good they know they can be.

While there is no business, you still have an excuse. But once it exists, in it you'll be working to empower the ones on your side, fully and completely sharing your life. Our beautiful but deficient society demands it is so extreme, for it itself is a tangent.

Therefore the king shall work his way up, and be compassionate. And as he rises the powers that be will see an enemy, and will fight with fud. And all what their profits can buy. But they will also see a prophecy taking aim at them. The angels in high heaven, and their master, which surely do not exist, right?

Do what is right and the future will come to you.

ACE 4, AuDHD - not very satisfied with life until very recently at 49. Diagnosed autistic at 42, and with adhd at 47.

ACE 10, currently in my late 30s. Severe clinical depression and anxiety throughout life, many associated issues around that. Psychopath father, borderline mother. Alcohol and drug issues. Siblings have not fared well and have life outcomes that follow what you would expect. These sort of experiences destroy lives before they begin.

Have faced serious issues with dissociation, and have complex PTSD. Still working on it, it's not a smooth ride but have made progress. Had a lot of issues to work on and have changed significantly over the years. There have been highs and lows.

I've managed to have some success with relationships and life goals in spite of it. With the right support, time, and considerable effort things are improving.

I think a lot of people here have similar experiences. Intelligence is a protective factor that gives you the ability to skip your life script, but it's a difficult journey. The only people I know who suffered severe childhood trauma and recovered are above average intelligence.

Autism, ADHD, and a staggering range of other mental and physical issues have causal links with childhood trauma. For many kids, a diagnosis of ADHD is a nice way of saying "your home environment is abusive and illegal, but saying that is problematic. You live in a hellhole and for some reason can't pay attention. Here's a pill."

Horribly, lol. I think 6-7 out of 10? I have no idea what these classifications mean though.

ACE score of 8. I'm mildly satisfied, depends on the day.

Similar thing with ADHD, also with sleep apnea (severe, 79 AHI, untreated till final year of college, which made things much better :)). Probably autistic, if you ask anyone close to me, I keep meaning to get evaluated for it (see ADHD).

But yeah, I have done a lot of awesome stuff over the years, despite a lot of my trauma sources remaining into my post childhood years.

Some of those folks have died, others I've since cut off. I am thankful for some close friends who I think of as family.

I've always been an exercise person, which I think is partially to regulate my emotions / depression. It mostly works, but I still take Sertraline for anxiety, which has really changed my life. I wish I had started before I turned 30, but better late than never.

By the way, this book was at least mildly helpful: https://www.amazon.com/Adult-Children-Alcoholics-Janet-Woiti... - Adult Children of Alcoholics.

Only one of my stepdads was alcoholic, but it applies outside of them. If you grew up in a bad home, it'll seem familiar.

I think in terms of the Hierarchy of Needs, I'm still struggling with the love and belonging area. I hope I can reach the upper levels one day.

How do you know if you're gifted?

My ACE score is 2. I am extremely dissatisfied with my life. I wrote hundreds of words in a reply to this post and deleted them because no one cares.

My net worth is whatever. I need to manage money better but frankly bills haven't been a concern for long time. I live within my means and need to invest instead of holding cash.

I have few friends, and when I had a depressive episode a few months ago and told people? They all evaporated.

I'm convenient. Friendly, affable - yes. But not worth much else. Been a hard one for me but I just work now instead. The ROI works out better.

The people that live in my home notice me, and that's about it.

ACE 0, iq 125, never qualified as gifted beyond teachers and others saying "you're smart! you just need to apply yourself!"

Talking with wife and mother about my childhood made me understand that I've had untreated adhd (got diagnosed only recently, in my late 30s, now in the process of seeing if I'm also on the autism spectrum).

Life seen from the outside looks fairly okay, educated, employed, wife, kid, 3 homes, 2 cars, no mortgage.

From the inside: depressed and chaotic, self hatred, lethargic, I can't ever remember wanting to be here, and always finding external reasons to stay, first I didn't want my parents to get sad, now I don't want to fail my wife and kid. But so far, this life has been for others, no myself. I'm not suicidal, I just don't find it particularity thrilling to be alive, it seems like a lot of trouble for very little reward.

So in short, I'm not satisfied with my life, and it's not really depending on external factors, just the way my brain is wired.

I remember in particular an episode where I was 5 or 6 years old and I asked my dad, "why are we even alive? what's the point?" he got mad (I concluded at the time, because he didn't know either, but in retrospect, might have been because it might have sounded like a dark or provocative thing to ask for, but it was an honest question).

Aside- why is OP heavily flagged and dead for perfectly substantive and even supportive comments.

ACE 8. Despite a promising start in life, things deteriorated rapidly.

Mother was in and out of mental hospitals during much of teenage years, abusive, narcissistic. Father was alcoholic, absent, frequent bouts of adultery. Eventually they divorced when I was 12. Sent to live with grandparents who didn't want me, very abusive, cruel and neglectful. Changed my opinion on my family during those years.

Father eventually remarried, mother did not. Mother died of suicide at age 58. Step mother also died of suicide at age 48. No relationship with any other family members.

Diagnosed with ADHD, depression and anxiety. Also was born with severe hemophilia and had to deal with all that on top of everything, gay. Despite all that, was able to train myself as a software engineer and have a decent career.

That said, knowing what I know now, if given the choice from the beginning, I would choose not to live this life even if it meant a chance of having a worse life.

ACE 7

Most of my life, until recently, I've suffered from anxiety and anger issues. I've also suffered from depression for several decades, but that luckily ended about 15 years ago. I'm 54 now.

I've changed jobs and careers many times (that's part of our profession, but I also think it's due to my trauma), I'm twice married, I don't really have many friends (although in my older age I'm realizing I like my alone time).

And yet, I am now very satisfied with my life, although this hasn't always been the case. I retired early, I have an amazing wife, and two incredible dogs. The key for me was to work extremely hard on healing myself with therapy (this took years and lots of money), never give up, try different things if something didn't work, and to not be afraid of going out of my comfort zone. Also, having another life that depends on me, like pets, really helped to get me out of focusing on my troubles and also helped to put things into perpective.

This is definitely not for everyone, but it worked for me.

My ACE score is 7, but I don't feel like that for 2 reasons:

1. there are some questions that technically I should answer "Yes", but is of milder scale of the spectrum. 2. I occasionally shared my upbringing to other people, and they are all very surprised. Once I shared with a group of "trainee chaplains", the teachers are commenting something like "why I'm describing my experience without the emotion", that is, when I talked about something very sad, I am smiling when saying it out. And they also pointed out that I often are asking "why" when facing different situations. I.e. I tends to become "philosophical".

May be because of my upbringing then, I loved mathematics since I was a kid. I remember myself once said when I was very young, "I love mathematics because it concerns truth, that is independent of our existence, nor the existence of the universe for that matter." In the hindsight, I think it might be some sort of protective mechanism for me to escape from the reality.

But perhaps because of my upbringing, I've taken many detours in life. When I was in secondary school, I have no motivation to study anything, and so my academic results were very bad. Fortunately, I like to read books, and got interested in popular books on math and physics, and also read a lot of computer magazines. That helps me having good grades in those subjects. Eventually I was discovered to be gifted because of physics olympiad. And that changed the course of my life. Had that didn't happen, I'm not sure if I would even got into university, let alone having a PhD.

So in this sense the "gifted" part of your question becomes my ticket to get out of my "hard life".

Unfortunately, life is complicated. First, having a "hard life", I don't have anyone to guide me making good decisions. Like the sort of decisions about making life choices, how to pursue goal in life (or resist the temptation to pursue too many goals), etc. Or work ethics, self-disipline, etc. Raw talent can only help so far, and as I ages I found that while my will can be strong, my body is getting weaker (e.g. can't get too much all nighters anymore.) Finally, I made a fatal mistakes to want to help everyone, including my parents. That puts me into a financial disaster and almost ruined my career and life.

How satisfied am I with my life now? "Thinking" helps. As a christian studying the bible theologically, it does shape my world view in a way I can "let go" and don't dwell in the hardship I had. As a researcher, my "thinking" is my primary value to get a job. A bonus of being a researcher is that I'm far away from home, so that I get much less connected with those negativity back home than in the past, and the change in my wellbeing is noticeable to my wife. Loving "thinking" means I love reading and listening to podcasts, enriching my perspectives in life.

The most fulfilling part of my life is my family, I have a lovely wife, a lovely baby.

Financially we aren't brilliant. But somehow, even as both my wife and I grew up from very poor families, we don't value money too much. I just don't find it motivating to make a ton of money, nor measures my success based on that. (It doesn't mean we don't have financial stress, as supporting a family of 3 including a baby in the UK is quite harsh.)

I feel that your life is getting better, but not to the point you felt satisfied yet. I hope you'll find your satisfaction, and meanwhile, don't worry too much. You have seen many hardships. You're tough and you can handle it when it comes. Don't dwell too much on those that may come though. Good luck!

I drove myself too hard, survived 3 cardiac arrests, no longer interested in sacrificing my health, sleep, food, hobby time, mental health, and time spent with loved ones, and finding it extremely, extremely hard to find exciting opportunities that are compatible with this lifestyle.

I want to work on things I love working on, but 40 hours a week. I want to sleep 8 hours a day, cook 80% of my meals, and spend time in nature exercising. I also want to take 4-6 weeks of vacation a year and learn about other people and cultures. The whole "it doesn't feel like work" thing that every single silicon valley founder who works 100 hours/week parade around is fucking annoying. It's annoying because I used to be egged on to be that person, and I almost died. Stop virtue signalling. (a) You will die early (b) You an ass to your family and you aren't even there for them while you're still alive

ACE 9 Didn't know, Now I do. This tracks.

I don’t have anything fashionable like ADHD or Autism or Dyslexia but I do have something you’ve never heard of

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizotypy

Which doesn’t have an autism-industrial complex or addictive pill mill complex behind it which is why you’ve never heard of it.

I got numerous psych evals that always missed it, the first was before STPD (highly flawed, missing at least 1/3 of the phenomenon including the one that looks like ‘ADHD’) was added to the DSM. Maxxed all sub scales in the Weschler IQ test except for problem solving where I was just one SD over the mean (my brain shorting out caused that). I’m terrible at chess but got really good at math in college despite never being able to score better than 90% on a math quiz in high school. (got a PhD in theoretical physics). My verbal intelligence is too high to measure because I’ve maxxed every test I’ve tried. As a kid I would go to the YMCA every Saturday for gym and swim and then check out 10 books from the public library and more or less I do that today.

I’m an arch reductionist and don’t believe in any of it but I am great with crystal balls, dowsing rods and ouija boards. Knowing what I know now I should have been an onmyoji. Somehow I can’t form a ‘whole’ the way other people though but I can hold two contradictory systems inside myself simultaneously. I can be a bridge between two groups for a while but eventually it goes bad.

Got bullied as a kid, graduated from elementary school the same way Ender Wiggin did. No complaints about parents but they were working class and had no idea how to help me in professional life, couldn’t afford to get me more than one year in a private school. (Where the bullying stopped) Got a lot of great opportunities, blew many of them.

Been with the same woman for 30 years, had a child, had steady work except for the times I didn’t. My rank in terms of ‘living in a beautiful place’ is probably better than my karma rank on HN. My wealth is probably better than the median for my cohort but I haven’t ’made it big’.

I still do strange off putting things that drive some people away (always failed at trying to have an affair); I understand a lot know about the how and why but it is very hard to stop. When my condition is inflamed I have paranoid ideation towards physical objects (I was waving my arms around but it sure seemed I was attacked by the potted plant I knocked down) or family (why the hell is my wife standing where my pills are and why did she move right to the sink after I got them?)

There is very little clinical data on my condition, I’m a bit afraid I’ll get really mean and psychotic if I develop dementia.

I am sure some of you who think you have ADHD and/or autism have it too.

I only got a 3, I've had an easy life material-wise but still managed to be depressed or something. I think I'm probably pretty autistic. I'm on ADHD meds and they do something but not enough.

I have trouble connecting "I'm looking forward to this" with "I'm enjoying this" with "I remember enjoying that".

Seems like a lot of times I just don't remember positive things, or I don't feel good about positive things that have happened, or I can't comprehend that I'll be happy when I'm feeling down, which is a lot.

I don't deal with romantic feelings or attachment in a healthy way.

You know, the usual shit.

Score of 6. Started and sold a YC startup

   All happy families are alike;
   each unhappy family is unhappy 
   in its own way.

I have a pretty clear idea of how and why my childhood was the way it was. I could stretch and analog my lived experiences to fit the questions.

Gifted has been bullshit in the water where I swim for a long time. Invisible. Dissolved. Gifted was a reason to be othered. Formally. Informally. By institutions, neighbors, family.

The ACE questions were useful to me this morning. As a starting point. I’d forgotten how being labeled gifted actually felt. Worse things have happened to other people. I am not competing. Good luck.

ACE score of 8.

Doing pretty well as an adult.

I'm not autistic and my family was more emotionally neglectful than anything else, but I had a miserable childhood nonetheless. I was a child prodigy who could read aloud by two and a half, I was studied by pediatric developmental psychologists, etc. IQ of 185 at last check, which was 30 years ago.

Unfortunately, I either inherited type two bipolar depression or it's just what happens when you're very smart and see the world as it is. It has undermined me my entire life. But I also have zero competitive streak and I find material ambition embarrassing. So I've never been particularly financially successful.

Been a coder and writer my entire adult life. Started writing professionally when I was 18, had a column in an alt weekly in a major city before I was 23 and was Pulitzer nominated when I was 25. At the same time I was first a web designer and then a dev. I've worked for a few promising startups but they always did what most startups do. In retrospect, I was already burned out by the mid-2000s but I kept going because I thought I'd either get rich or find something worth my time.

Had a heart attack at 38 and another at 42 that nearly killed me. Had a triple bypass and moved to England to marry my girlfriend. Now I've got heart failure and spinal problems from a lifetime hunched over a computer and all the health problems you get from a lifetime of being a freelancer or contractor without insurance.

But I've lived an amazing life so far. I've traveled, partied, been witness to history, done what I wanted to do and followed my heart and will. I've done some good things for the world, I think. Now I'm writing a new social network app to fix the problems with the existing ones, working on a book about how to survive climate collapse if you're not a billionaire, and writing the best music I've ever written.

You won't make yourself feel safe by getting rich or powerful. You'll feel safe when you've surrounded yourself with people you love and trust. That's all. It has nothing to do with success or ambition. However you find that, whatever it takes, make that your ambition. And to use whatever the universe gave you to make things less hard on you and everyone you can.

If you're as bright as you seem to be, other people probably seem stupid. Maybe they are. But that doesn't make them any less human or any less important than you, and if you can see ways to make life kinder for them, do it and you'll never regret it. Everything else is just ego and self-reinforcement to drown out the things in your head that tell you you're not good enough or living up to your potential. Fuck that.

If you try as hard as you can to make the world a kinder place than you found it, you've won. That's all you can do. That's the only real wisdom I've ever found. We are born falling from birth to death, and all we can choose is how we use our time in the air: we can enjoy the rush of the air in our ears and the view, we can try to make sure everybody falling around us has their parachute open, or we can open ours without a thought for anyone else and still fall...alone.

I hope that helps.

Never heard of Ace but in grade 3 iq of 137 in south africa

im not satisfied honestly

still feel like im in my 20s

ACE 3 (but that feels one too high). I consider myself to have had a good childhood with loving parents. My father never had a relationship with his father. I think that abandonment is a factor in some of the emotional dysregulation issues he's dealt with throughout his life. I'm the oldest and, when I was really young, he also had some issues with drugs and alcohol that were basically dealt with by the time my siblings came along.

I was identified as gifted in 1st grade. It got to a point where I was teaching myself and working from 3rd and 4th grade textbooks in class, so the school basically told my parents I either needed to skip grades or go somewhere that would allow me to work at an accelerated pace because "otherwise, he's going to get frustrated and end up hating school." Parents moved me to a private school that taught in kind of an alternative style. The closest thing I can approximate it to is somewhat Montessori style. Starting in 1st grade, I basically sat in a cubicle and self-taught myself every subject. I had a minimum amount of course work to complete for each subject each day, and I was also in charge of grading my own work. If you got your work done, you graded and corrected your work accurately, and didn't get in trouble for anything else, then they had a "privileges" system that basically allowed you to play board games or, at times, wander the school grounds to do things like shoot baskets. I remember days where my school work took maybe an hour total. When I was in 9th grade, that school moved to a more traditional high school class setup, which was pretty boring for me. I'd been so far ahead before the change though that it allowed me to take a couple honors courses at the local university 1st semester of senior year and then graduate a semester early, where I spent that semester interning on Capitol Hill.

Growing up, I always did really well on standardized testing. I'd think I did terrible if I scored below the 97th percentile. For the college entrance exams, I scored National Merit Scholar level. In college, I tested at 137 and 142 (different IQ tests, don't recall which two).

Because the private school was small and "unaccredited" at the time, I suspect that led me to miss out on potential opportunities at more exclusive universities. Instead, I ended up attending a large state university (still a decent school). There, I had to teach myself how to study (never needed to before) and learn to balance attendance (for a subset of classes, I could skip lectures and still score highly on tests, but that sometimes bit me because I'd get dinged for missed attendance). Around junior year, I was officially diagnosed with ADHD.

I've spent my career working in the technology side of consulting. I'd classify myself as "somewhat satisfied" with my life. Career-wise, I've consciously made some decisions that I knew would potentially slow my career advancement in the interest of my family and trying to have a more sustainable work/life balance.

I'll be honest, I don't feel like my brain is put to great use most of the time. (Counterintuitively, that seems to get somewhat worse the more I advance.) I stay working in the field mainly because the nature of the work brings change and new challenges (new clients, new problems, etc.) and because I highly value working with intelligent people (and I'd put most of my coworkers in that category). Once in a while, something comes along that really allows me to leverage my natural strengths and shine. Between, I can get very bored and almost go on autopilot at times (some of that is the ADHD). Or I'm been viewed as performing well, but know deep down that I am only doing a fraction of what I am capable of. I constantly battle my ADHD tendencies.

I've had to adapt over the years in many ways. With the way I grew up, I'm very self-sufficient, so it took concerted effort to learn to delegate. In general, I had to learn patience. I think I was an okay manager but getting better at both of those things made me much better on the management side of things.

The rest of the "somewhat" response stems mostly to some marriage challenges over the past few years. That's another story but some of what I've described plays a small role there. Ex: it can wear on a partner when the other partner has a strong memory and is usually right, or when you the other partner is several steps ahead of the other when thinking something through, even when it isn't a competitive thing and you are just trying to get to the best or most accurate answer.

ACE score of 4 though I think it should be 5 or higher as I lost both parents, at separate times, before I turned 18. If one parent is a single point...both parents should be scored significantly higher.

IQ in the 140-160 range (depending on the time and test), in gifted/honors/AP programs all throughout school and college.

Youngest child of a large Brady-bunch style family (6+ siblings, all half). I was the golden child, the spoiled one. The one that got their own room when everyone else had to share.

Many of my brothers and sisters had rough teenage years and some of that flowed down to me. I saw fights with brothers/sisters, between each other and my parents. Some getting physically violent.

Around 8-11 years old I was initiated into sexual play with older male, teen family(not my siblings), no adults ever touched me. Being too young to understand that was wrong, I then passed the abuse down to many other family members younger than me. It was never forced, but wrong none the less. The older ones knew better. I should have known better. The younger ones did not know any better. As far as I know they do not struggle with anything related to that now.

Father was mostly working and minimally available until I lost my mother at age 11. He went to a dark place after that and was unable to care for me, so I lived with other family. Some moderate physical abuse happened then but nothing significant.

During this time of minimal supervision I discovered the internet and porn, and became obsessed with it. It quickly devolved into consuming illegal material.

My father eventually recovered and I went back to live with him, but the seed was already planted. I've continued those bad habits throughout the majority of my life. I used to struggle with it, hating myself for it. But have come to terms with it now. It is who I am and it's not going to change.

I lost my father at 15, which was far more devastating to me emotionally than my mother (at least based on my present memory). I had grown very close to him after losing my mother and truly a piece of my heart was ripped out and is still gone to this day 15+ years later. I miss my mother, but that pales in comparison to my yearning for the time I missed out on with my father. I wish every single day of my life that he were still here. I dream about him, I can't listen to the kind of music my parents listen to. I can't go to the type of churches they went to. Any of those things just wreck my ability to cope and maintain composure. I miss him dearly.

After losing him, I lived with some family that took decent care of me after that, no real abuse but also very limited supervision especially of my online activities.

I was essentially kicked out after graduating high school and sent to live alone at the house I grew up in. I was left with a small inheritance which I was given full access to at that time, and it was gone within 2 years. I spent the next 10 years with little to no money though I did have a place to live. It was poorly maintained and became less and less safe, but kept me mostly dry.

I got in trouble during that time for my online activities (possession of CSAM) but managed to avoid prison time. I still struggle with it today but have come to peace with the attractions just being a fact of life. I have not touched any child in any inappropriate manner since I was in my early teens and will not ever again.

I am relatively successful now by most measures. I met a woman, who is now my wife, who drove me to improve myself. We now have two amazing children. Our combined income puts us in the top 5% of the US overall but we still struggle with impulse buying and living within our means. We make plenty of money but it seems we never have any to spare. We have no real assets other than our $1M house that is about 70% financed and some very small (<$100k) retirements accounts.

I'm very happy now other than the financial struggles. My wife is amazing, I cherish our kids and they are doing very well. We have strong family ties and see them often. Her parents are involved with the children, as well as some of my siblings play a grandparent role. We mostly beat the tough times and are all doing decent, financially I am doing the best out of everyone.

So like you, I would be viewed as accomplished by many, but still struggle daily. The only thing that I truly live in fear of is that something will take me away from my children and family(death or legal). A car accident. Work accident. Health issue. Some skeleton from my past rising to the surface and causing legal problems. I'm trying my best to ensure that doesn't happen, that my kids don't grow up without a father. But it is a daily fear.

Late 30's, ACE 6 (I basically had a sociopathic, druggy, gambling step father who has a talent for making others' lives miserable. My house chores included watering the weed plants).

Although parts of my childhood weren't the best, I actually had many good things in my life growing up as well. My mother and father are very caring people, and I was involved in many extra curricular activities (music, sports etc). I went to university, got a CS degree, Masters and have gone on to have a decent professional career.

It's been emotionally difficult at times. I learnt some years ago that my dad was a functioning meth addict, and I felt a bit like I was leading a double life at times - when I'd go home to visit, and was literally at his then gf's house where she was dealing... my dad would be shining a torch on some rocks, asking me if I could see what he could. I'd then head back to where I was living and get back to my software job. My dad was very sick for a while and was given a few months to live. Luckily he's still around. Another emotional strain are alcohol issues across my family.

As I'm getting older, I'm trying to let go, to be supportive of family members while realizing that I can't control their lives. They have to come to the conclusions they need to, and they need to want to live differently.

I do my best to look after myself (I've always had to do that!), to stay fit and healthy, and to grow personally. I am not my parents, nor am I the surroundings that I grew up in. If I blame them for the bad, I also must blame them for the good, and for the unique perspective they've given me.

One thing that has helped, has to have been around other high performing people - in many different aspects of life (academically, financially, sports, music etc). Martial arts has given me a lot of confidence as well.

Otherwise, I'm usually very much future focused. I try to stay positive, to keep things light-hearted and help others out when I can.

ACE of 6. Only child, divorced parents. Family of engineers and scientists, third generation programmer, started with QBasic at 7 in 95. Won some math and programming competitions, changed schools two times, ended up in the best math high school of the country. Played cello, didn't know how to talk to people and have friends until high school. Went to uni for bioinformatics.

Dropped out, went to gamedev, in general spent a lot of 20s in random search. Found a startup at 22 and got funding, it was first failure out of many. Moved countries, married, divorced, went to therapy, moved countries again and again. Played in a band, played as a DJ, tried a lot of things. Sold all of my mined Bitcoin in 2012.

Now I'm a senior developer, and for the last few years I've been working for american startups remotely outside of the US. It pays fairly well, I love my work and colleagues, and I genuinely think that my work is meaningful and improves other people's lives, even if in a small way.

But at the same time, I'm a semi-forced immigrant (can't really call myself a refugee) with questionable legal status, no significant savings, and questionable career prospects. I don't have legal right to work in the US, which is the only job market that matters. I work as contractor for now, but I'm very anxious about availability of US job market for remote-remote developers such as myself, and about what happens to my career as I get into 40s and 50s. I don't feel safe either, and I despite the fact that I'm comfortable, I feel that I could have achieved more.

I beat myself up about a lot of things. I imagine that if I just kept studying math and CS, I would have won a lot of programming competitions, get really good at fundamental CS, got into Google 10-12 years ago (while it was still the place to be at), probably quickly moved to the US, worked on fundamental hard problems, and in general had a much better career than I have now. I'm still a great programmer and have a better job and compensation than about 90% developers of the world (give or take), of course. Or I could have gone into ML. I toyed with different genetic algorithms back around 2010, and with neural networks too — even before AlexNet. I got very serious about ML around 2014, did the first Coursera course, and if I kept at it, I once again could only imagine where it would have got me in these 10 years.

It is very seducing to look at other people's achievements and think that you could have done the same, if only you made the right choices. But then I think about all of the experiences I had instead. I've met so many people and explored so many different things that life has to offer. I've learned A LOT of things that previous "nerd" would have thought impossible. I learned confidence in confrontation, public speaking and romance, and very lucky in the latter. I've learned a lot about business, art, music, journalism, history and a million of other fields. I've grown as a person, I found people that I like and trust. After years of therapy, I had to admit a lot of baggage that I had to take care of — and did it. And I don't think that these people that I envy had to deal with baggage like that.

It's hard to accept things that you're not, and things that you will never become, and it's easy to take for granted the things you have. I'm an anxious person. I always think of the worst and find a way to feel guilty about every failure, possible or imaginary. But now that I know and accept these flaws in my own thinking, every day I make a conscious effort to correct my attitude the other way. And day after day, it slowly gets better.

TLDR: Struggling due to suicide attempt

Due to neglect, I grew up with facial and foot deformities. I often hid my illnesses for fear of angering my parents. Things improved a bit after they left and I began living with other relatives. One summer however my parents asked me to visit them in a new country but would not allow me to return afterward. For a year or so, they refused to take me to the dentist until a caries destroyed most of the crown of my tooth. I could not bite on that side for almost a decade afterward. They constantly made fun of my body due to my congential conditions and tried to isolate me from other people by telling me that doctors are evil, that I was disgusting and causing those conditions myself. They often pressured me into acting as their accomplice in breaking the law or exploiting others. If their dealings did not work out, they would blame me for being useless (book smart as opposed to street smart), that had it not been for me they would not have been stuck in poverty.

At my school, many teachers believed that smart people were "selling out the country and good for nothing". They harassed me for doing well in class, tried to fail my midterms by misgrading them, accused immigrants like me of "stealing jobs" from local students, tried to steer me away from applying to colleges. Bullies would beat students up, myself included, right in front of the adults because no one around cared. My parents were not willing to be involved with the authorities due to their fake immigration status but still wanted to pretend that moving to the new country was a "correct" decision. They sided with the teachers in saying that I would not be able to handle "real" academic workload and that intelligence is useless or even a liability. They said that as an ugly, defective person I should get used to abuses, because life was never going to be better.

To say the least, I hated almost everything then. Eventually I attempted to take my own life and have been struggling with the medical consequences ever since. I could work only odd jobs, although most of the times now I am no longer suicidal, so at least that's an improvement.

The linked ACE test is from 2015 and probably outdated. *Admitted to a top-5 university globally with scholarship, many signs on the spectrum

I long ago gave up any faith in the "ADHD"/"Autism" religion, which has all the mechanics of a cult, and just decided to live my life without the labels given to our society by Nazi scientists.

It has been a huge relief, and frankly a major deal-breaker with regards to escaping the destructive feedback-loop of self-evaluation/comparison with others. The for-profit "ADHD"/"Autism" industry does not have the individuals' best interests at heart - it does, instead, wish to perpetuate its own culture - which fundamentally boils down to classism and authoritarianism, wrapped in a velvet glove of narcissistic self-loathing.

If this offends you, you're probably in that cult. Just think about it a bit more - in what way does it help you, personally, to evaluate another person and label them with these conditions - does it help you position your own life in such a way that you have a 'relevant' context, or does it fix a handle to that person with which you can further manipulate them? Just stop. Take a deep breath. Nobody in the world is helped by these labels.

>Currently, I look accomplished to people, but I don’t feel accomplished.

See, this is what I'm talking about. To which people do you 'look accomplished'? This kind of navel-gazing is self-destructive.

A cure for this behaviour is to take a long journey to another culture, step outside the total authority of the culture that makes you think this way, and re-evaluate the fundamental mechanics of your life. Your autism or ADHD can be cured with one week in a village, away from the machine, learning to catch and cook your own food, find your own shelter, dig your own latrine. It doesn't matter what 'mental illness' you think you have in comparison to others in your society - everyone needs to eat, sleep and shit - and that feeling of safety you feel you lack is going to be strengthened once you live in a jungle for a while.

In the jungle, "ADHD"/"Autism" are only as relevant as they provide you with food, water, shelter, sleep. Go live in it for a while, even if its just a vacation, and you'll feel much, much better about things. I promise.

(Note: fully expecting to be downvoted into oblivion for this, but it doesn't matter. I've got my next trip to the jungle scheduled already. The only thing I care about is that someone, somewhere out there, also has that jungle trip in their mind, on the horizon. I'm sure some of you will see this before the text fades into the collective, reactive oblivion...)

ACE score of 8. I grew up first generation Mexican American in a bilingual home (I spoke English with my siblings and Spanish with my parents). I'm the youngest of 8 and the only one to go to college; only half of us graduated from high school. I'm 40 now, married, the mother of 2 little girls, and a licensed mental health professional (my husband's in tech and told me about this thread).

I was sexually, physically, verbally, emotionally, and psychologically abused from birth through adulthood, with it slowing when I moved out of my parents’ home and only fully stopping when I went low-contact. I would regularly show up to school with bruises and cuts. As a 6-month-old infant, I was dropped on my head and shattered my skull due to severe neglect. I underwent 12 hours of emergency surgery and have a Grand Canyon of a scar running across my head. My sister tells me doctors said I would likely experience significant developmental delays and not be “normal”. My mother likely meets criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder (Sociopathy), and definitely meets criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and chronic PTSD with psychosis. My own diagnoses have included Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Complex PTSD, and my first therapist was monitoring my symptoms for OCD-primarily for obsessive presentation, since my compulsions were mostly internal/mental.

I was ahead of the curve at math and science growing up, but struggled with reading comprehension and writing, likely due to the TBI and being bilingual. As a result, I wasn’t in the gifted and talented program, but still outperformed my gifted and talented peers in math & science, graduating with high honors. I have a BA in Economics. I worked in finance for 4 years after graduating undergrad and got my trading licenses. I eventually left to join the Peace Corps and picked up two more languages during my service. I then went to grad school for a Masters in Social Work to become a therapist as I wanted to help others on their healing journey.

I’ve struggled off and on with depression, anxiety, and suicidality since I was a teen. I started therapy when I was 24. I was depressed, anxious, dissociated, and miserable despite having done all the things that represented outward success. I had been trying to hold my shit together for three years at that point. My niece had died when I was 21 and that completely broke my history of complex trauma wide open as she was murdered by her mother- my brother’s ex. Even still, it wasn’t until a roommate, seeing me come home crying every day, told me to seek help that I sought out therapy, starting a healing journey that continues to this day. As an adult I still struggle with being hard on myself and self-worth despite being objectively accomplished.

Financially, I’m doing okay. I have my own private practice where I charge more than most in my field at $185 a session. I work very limited hours as my girls are still little, but I’m looking to double my earnings into the low six figures by next year while keeping to my part-time schedule. I don’t function well in a traditional 9-5 job. I still become overwhelmed at times with juggling parenting, my private practice, and my own trauma triggers and history but my mental and emotional health have become more manageable. I noticed a big shift into wellness last year once I went very low contact with my toxic parents and some of my siblings.

I’ve done a ton of EMDR therapy and believe it has helped me and continues to help me transform my endless list of traumas and negative self-beliefs. I don’t struggle with MDD or GAD or suicidality anymore. My main motivation to continue to heal myself has been to not pass down my inter-generational trauma to my beautiful girls. I don’t ever want to hurt them the way my mother hurt me, and I am proud of myself for being a good mother and providing a safe home environment for my girls.

I wish everyone on here all the best. The journey is hard, but healing is possible, one little step at a time.

Much love to all!

ACE score of 5. I turned out badly. Rich, but badly. Just ask any of the data faking cheating scientists I channeled my trauma into exposing who got me kicked out of academia. But that's how I got rich. Money changes everything.

You will never feel safe. You will instead build a life, a portfolio, and a network of friends as a surrogate for feeling safe. And you can trust my words, I'm shadowbanned.

I never heard of the ACE score, I just took a quiz and I would score a 6. I am a failure since high school, never went to college and had a period of 12 years of scraping the bottom of the barrel but I got a tech support job through a friend after not touching a computer for 15 years and then retaught myself programming after not doing any since middle school. managed to leverage that into a job at a quant trading firm by luck. I am still a failure but I have used my ability to learn and absorb information to build a stable life. success is always just beyond arms reach but luckily success doesnt matter I am just happy to be alive able to keep learning and making things. and now I have LLMs to help me

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ACE 3-4. Not very satisfied at all.

I find it hard to call what I went through "trauma" when compared to other situations people have posted - they definitely had it a lot harder than I had. It's hard to not compare your upbringing compared to other and minimize your trauma.

Anxiety, Depression, ADHD. Verbally and occasionally physically abusive father, with an emotionally absent mother and an intellectually/mentally disabled brother. If I had to draw a comparison - it was like being a kid in a family where the parents should have divorced decades ago but stayed together "for the kids".

I never felt comfortable with bringing anything about my life up with either of my parents as they'd fight and argue all the time, and they'd never really _listen_ to me when I had problems. So I absorbed myself in the internet on the computer I was given one Christmas when I was 9 years old. Not a healthy environment for a kid - 4chan, porn, etc. all had their effects on me.

Now I'm looking back through all the arguments, all the fights, all the emotional breakdowns I had, all the gaslighting, all the lies, manipulation tactics, etc. and I can't help but be depressed about it - so many times I passed the guidance councilor's office at school and thought "man, I could just walk in there and say my dad yells at us all the time, and my life could have been much different". So many times I wanted to do things but I was just too scared and didn't have a person in my life to support me.

Personally, I wouldn't say I'm successful - though that's probably because of my lack of motivation. I work remotely for a larger IT firm in eastern Canada and make okay money (Canadian economy taken into consideration), but I struggle so much with pushing myself and goal setting, time management, etc. I was never able to figure out what I really wanted to do because I was living life for my parents and not for me.

I struggle with social situations because I don't feel valued. It's hard for me to make friends (especially when you're in your late 20's early 30's), I feel like everyone has moved on with their lives and I'm still stuck here the way I'll always be - the party's over and I'm standing at the empty bar, getting in the way of the cleaners vacuuming up the floors of confetti for a party I showed up to 10 minutes before it ended.

As I get older I'm coming more and more to terms with the idea that I'll never be in any kind of relationship and/or have kids because of how messed up I am mentally - I push people away from me when they try to get close because I'm horrified of rejection. Biological clock ain't getting any younger either. I never know what to say or how to interpret things in conversation - doc says it's from my inexperience, but part of me wonders if it's a hint of Autism that's undiagnosed.

To avoid this being even more of a somewhat glorified trauma dump - for anybody else reading these situations, if you're suffering from trauma, please get help if possible. I hope there are free or low-cost options wherever you live, whether a phone hotline, support groups, etc.

You don't get to take the easy way out while the rest of us have to stay behind and suffer! ;-) /s

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