“We would like a stop button for our thoughts, but it doesn’t exist”. It is with these words that Alizé Lim, professional tennis player, describes the high intellectual potential (HPI). The young woman published her autobiography on May 19, Praise of the unconditional, testimony of a zebra on the court, in which she claims to be HPI.

The subject of high intellectual potential returns to the forefront thanks to the series HPI broadcast by TF1, where Audrey Fleurot plays a high-potential cleaning lady. This series, although taken to the extreme, shows a fairly realistic representation of high potential according to psychologist Jeanne Siaud-Facchin, specialist in HPI.

These people who have been called the “gifted” are characterized by “a great place given to mental activity, the need for intellectual stimulation, curiosity, the need for novelty, and difficulty with repetitive situations”, according to Emmanuelle Gilloots. This psychologist has followed many high potential people and has written articles on HPI in the journal Gestalt.

Also read: “There is a real amalgam between high potential and suffering”

” Jump from one subject to another ”

Emmanuelle Gilloots defines high potential by “a very great freedom in the associations of ideas. There is quickly a tendency to jump from rooster to donkey, ”describes the psychologist. For her, the thinking of an HPI person is not linear, it works by analogy: “They have an ability to start from a starting point and to broaden the thinking more and more, to the point that sometimes the person loses his train of thought. “

According to the psychologist, the neurological origin of the high potential remains obscure. “In very early childhood, circuit breakers are put in place, which cut off their perception of the environment in the event of excess stimuli. And it seems that in HPI children, these circuit breakers do not go into place, ”she explains.

This lack of a ‘circuit breaker’ could explain the hypersensitivity of the five senses in people with HPI. “It is further reinforced by the fact that he is interested in everything, the child is on the lookout for these stimuli. Boredom is therefore a big problem in the event of academic or professional under-stimulation, ”explains the psychologist.

Diagnosis through an IQ test

We speak of high intellectual potential when a person obtains a result equal to or greater than 130 on an intelligence quotient (IQ) test. However, this intelligence quotient test is not suitable for everyone, warns Emmanuelle Gilloots. “These tests are partly based on cultural knowledge, so they lead to underestimate cases of HPI in immigrant children or from very popular backgrounds. “

According to the psychologist, they should be adapted. “For vocabulary tests, for example, the psychologist asks you to find a short definition or a synonym. The further or further in the test, the more difficult or rare the words. A child who lives in a middle-class environment is more likely to pass this test. “

Read also: Gifted: a reliable IQ calculation?

Appear normal at all costs

In adults, these are other problems that can cause HPI to cover up. According to Emmanuelle Gilloots, this would come from a concern for the child, then the adult, to go unnoticed.

“I had a patient who added faults so as not to stand out, not to be 19 or 20 and get smashed in the court. In addition, teachers do not always have good reactions to students who have good grades without reviewing, ”she adds.

Living with HPI

On a daily basis, the high intellectual potential implies a “cerebral hyperactivity” and a “hypersensitivity of the five senses”, explains Alizé Lim. “It’s exhausting to feel everything, too much, all the time,” she adds.

Often, this functioning results in a lot of guilt: “This hyperlucidity points out what I did wrong”, says Alizé Lim. “I said hello in a way to this person and they looked at me a little differently, did I do something wrong?” I ask myself 50,000 such questions a day. ”

???? What does it mean to be “High Intellectual Potential”?
???? @AlizeLim, tennis champion and #HPI, answers this question. pic.twitter.com/MkcZ8WbBgu

– Allodocteurs (@Allodocteurs) June 1, 2021

“Adapt better”

Alizé Lim learned when she was eight years old that she was HPI, taking an IQ test for school. “But for me, it had no other meaning than facilities at school”, specifies the tennis player. “I discovered at the age of 27 that all my cognitive functioning, my hypersensitivity and my emotional functioning were defined by this high potential. ”

It came as a shock to her to realize that high potential influences her functioning so much. “I cried a lot, it was a relief because it gave answers. Above all, it allows to have the map of my functioning and to adapt better, better self-apprehend and less explode. “

For a tennis player, high potential may seem like an asset at first. “This allows a lot of information to be integrated all at once,” says Alizé Lim. But very quickly, the hyperacuity of her senses distracted her. “It got me out of my game and made me go elsewhere,” says the player. For the same reasons, many HPIs encounter academic difficulties.

Social difficulties

In addition, people with high potential regularly encounter social difficulties, according to Emmanuelle Gilloots. According to her, the reason is simple: “They are constantly breaking out of the mold, because they think differently and are seen as radicals. “

“In his company, one of my patients had a new manager who created a suggestion box,” says the psychologist. “My patient identified a problem and offered solutions. But the chef felt called into question, when my patient thought he was just contributing. It was not normal for a base employee to offer this level of analysis. “

What external signs?

In HPI children, boredom is a determining factor because they can very easily feel under-stimulated. This boredom can result in rowdy behavior at school, or in very great sadness.

HPI screening focuses on unruly children, according to Emmanuelle Gilloots. But we must not forget the depressed children, specifies the psychologist. “If he doesn’t have any friends,” answers questions about school in a bleak or vague manner, the HPI question is relevant. “

Caring for an HPI child

If you discover a high potential in your child, Jeanne Siaud-Facchin recommends that you first try to understand it. “In certain situations, the child will have ways of reacting or behaving which will seem unusual, but which are completely expected with the HPI”, explains the psychologist author of Too intelligent to be happy ?, a book on HPI adults.

For this specialist, there is not much to do “if he is well at school and that everything is going well with his friends and his class”, she explains. But in case of difficulty, you can go to his teachers. “It can be adjustments, class jumps, or that the child participates in certain subjects in courses at another level because otherwise he will be bored … Things that must be discussed in collaboration with the teacher” , she explains.

Likewise, you don’t need to sign him up for lots of activities just because he’s HPI. “Unless he is asking: you have to go in his direction. It will feed him, feed him, and not tire him. In fact, you have to adjust to what the child is rather than doing something. in particular, ”she concludes.

What about adults?

As for HPI adults, they tend to invest successively in activities that are not necessarily related, according to Emmanuelle Gilloots. Some have carried out several different professional activities, others have many hobbies that have nothing to do with each other.

If you notice these signs in someone you know, or in yourself, taking the IQ test is not essential immediately. According to Emmanuelle Gilloots, you have to wait until you are ready: “For some people, taking the tests is as if all of a sudden you no longer had the right to make mistakes and you had to be height is experienced as a new requirement, ”describes the psychologist.

Once the test has been passed, the person must then be helped to decode their environment, explains Jeanne Siaud-Facchin. “It’s a question of adjustment, we make the person understand his own functioning and that of others so that he can adjust. But it is better to avoid adapting absolutely, under penalty of exhaustion. “