Overexcitabilities: A Key to Understanding Your Gifted Personality

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Overexcitabilities A Key to Understanding Your
Gifted Personality
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PSYCHOMOTOR
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Billy Elliot

• Add movie clip

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Remember

• A person may possess none, one, or many of these.
  If more than one of these channels, or all five,
  have wide apertures, then the abundance and
  diversity of feeling, thought, imagery, and
  sensation will inevitably lead to dissonance,
  conflict and tension, but at the same time it
  enriches, expands, and intensifies the
  individual's mental development Piechowski,
  1979, p. 29).

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Psychomotor OE

• Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee was keen on
  teaching Heath Ledger how to capture stillness
  - one of Ledgers character Ennis Del Mars
  signature traits - which was hard for Ledger, who
  can get twitchy.
• Sometimes I find it hard sitting still, usually
  when Im in the spotlight or even in rehearsal.
  My nervous energy comes streaking out of my
  fingerprints. My hands go all over the place.
  Los Angeles Times, March 5 2006

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Psychomotor OE

• heightened excitability of the neuromuscular
  system
• "capacity for being active and energetic"
  (Piechowski, 1991, p. 287)
• love of movement for its own sake, surplus of
  energy demonstrated by rapid speech, jealous
  enthusiasm, intense physical activity, and a need
  for action (Dabrowski Piechowski, 1977
  Piechowski, 1979, 1991)
• may talk compulsively, act impulsively, misbehave
  and act out, display nervous habits, show intense
  drive (tending towards "workaholism"),
  compulsively organize, or become quite competitive

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Psychomotor OE

• derive great joy from their boundless physical
  and verbal enthusiasm and activity, but others
  may find them over-whelming
• never want to be still, thrive on activity and
  encourage others to "just do something"
• may talk constantly
• This Psychomotor OE child has the potential of
  being misdiagnosed as Attention Deficit
  Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

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Translation! You may

• Dislike labels in your clothing
• Love good smells, textures, tastes
• Cant stand bad smells, textures, tastes
• Be sensitive to bright lights and harsh sounds
• Love to be the center of attention

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When upset you may show your tension through

• Nervous ticks
• Increased competitiveness
• Organizing your environment

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Psychomotor OEs

• What is wonderful about having a psychomotor
  overexcitability?
• What is difficult about having a psychomotor
  overexcitability?
• Your Examples

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Psychomotor Strategies

• Allow time for physical or verbal activity
  before, during, and after normal daily and school
  activities. These individuals love to "do" and
  need to "do." Build activity and movement into
  their lives.
• Be sure the physical or verbal activities are
  acceptable and not distracting to those around
  them. This may take some work, but it can be a
  fun project and beneficial to all.
• Provide time for spontaneity and open-ended,
  free-wheeling activities. These tend to favor the
  needs of a person high in Psychomotor OE.

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STRESS MANAGEMENT

• Overexcitable individuals have increased stress
  reactions because of their increased reception of
  and reaction to external input. The key
  components are to
• (1) learn to identify your stress symptoms
  headache, backache, pencil tapping, pacing, etc.
• (2) develop strategies for coping with stress
  talk about your feelings, do relaxation
  exercises, change your diet, exercise, meditate,
  ask for help, develop organizational and time
  management skills and
• (3) develop strategies to prevent stress make
  time for fun develop a cadre of people to help,
  advise, humor you practice tolerance of your own
  and others imperfections.

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Stress relief for Psychomotor

• What do you think would relieve stress for a
  psychomotor overexcitability?

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CREATE A COMFORTING ENVIRONMENT

• Intense people need to know how to make their
  environment more comfortable in order to create
  places for retreat or safety. For example find
  places to work or think which are not
  distracting, work in a quiet or calm environment,
  listen to music, look at a lovely picture, carry
  a comforting item, move while working, or wear
  clothing which does not scratch or cling.
  Learning to finesse ones environment to meet
  ones needs takes experimentation and cooperation
  from others, but the outcome will be a greater
  sense of well being and improved productivity.

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Comforting Environments for Psychomotor
Overexcitabilities

• What environments would be comforting for
  psychomotors?