Traumatic Intelligence: I wrote an article some time ago expressing my viewpoint on what makes up human intelligence. Intelligence is not a fully understood subject. -It’s much more complex and convoluted than what we make it out to be. So nobody can satisfactorily, fully answer what intelligence really is.
In recent times, research has newly defined a fascinating form of intelligence: It’s called traumatic intelligence.
This article sets out to see if you have traumatic Intelligence, a rare form of cleverness shown by strangely, exceptionally perceptive, emotionally intelligent people.
-This ability was not acquired from reading books or learnt in the classroom, or through years of frequent meditation. No, for an affected individual, traumatic intelligence came about through being subjected to a number of frequent trauma-based events over time periods, mostly during childhood.
The consequences of trauma led to this individual having a heightened nervous system trained with exceptional hyper-vigilant cognitive and emotional skills used to detect a safe environment.
Further developed skills included pattern recognition such as mood detection in other people, while exhaustively over-analyzing. It has been said that all these qualities contribute to making sure of safe surroundings.
This may give rise to much stress, making it difficult to be at ease. Because of these uncomfortable experiences, it may cause such an individual to withdraw emotionally…
In short, research shows that trauma doesn’t just psychologically wound people. No, it can rewire brains to become shaper. Be able to detect subtle signals, an ability that most people don’t have.
Here are 10 signs to indicate this quite unusual form of cleverness:
1.You can walk into a room and detect things way before anybody else. For examples, in your busy internal awareness, you rapidly detect someone’s emotion, mood, a micro facial expression, posture or body language…
-It’s your trained pattern recognition kicking in to see if you’re in a situation that’s safe. A form of scanning you acquired at an early age.
2.You have a deeply attuned ability to detect people’s energetic shifts. This ability has been dubbed by psychologists as hyper-empathy. When in childhood you needed this skill to decide if you were safe in the company of your parents, or other family members, or child minders.
3.While most people may buckle under pressure, you somehow are able to maintain calmness, with an exceptional ability to solve problems. Yes, you don’t sink, you swim. You learned to adapt to adverse situations at an early age.
4.You are a compulsive people analyzer. Another aspect that was forged during early childhood. Those with traumatic intelligence feel that a deep understanding of people leads to a better prediction of their behavior in relation to your well-being…
5.So far, the above qualities associated with traumatic intelligence; hyper-alertness, perceptiveness, high empathic ability, excellent analytical mind…, are genuine cognitive and emotional adjustments. -A testimony to how amazingly responsive the human mind/brain is to experience.
-This leads to something even more interesting when understanding how identity is shaped through traumatic intelligence.
6.You are a highly independent person. You have the knack of self-reliance, far better than most people. You’re not on the level of victim or victim consciousness. Not waiting in vain to be “rescued,” when things are down, you effectively adapt to adverse situations with a number of skills.
This ability may pleasantly surprise others, but, similar to 3 (above), your resourcefulness was internalized at an early age. A time when your environment was not conducive to feeling safe and those around you weren’t necessarily reliable. So you developed a confidence to take care of things all by yourself.
7.You have feelings that are more intense than others.
Music has a more intense effect on you than others. You can be viscerally affected by acts of injustice. When a stranger gives you kindness you are deeply, genuinely touched by this…
-In other words, your emotional depth is a feature of traumatic intelligence. That’s because having been subjected to frequent emotionally charged events during childhood, a structure called the amygdala in your brain has become primed.
You don’t just simply see the world. Attuned to a frequency, you’re able “feel the world” on a level that most people are unable to experience.
8.Trust is something that you don’t find easy to do. However, when you do, you trust implicitly.
You have a higher trust threshold than most people. Not because you’re more cynical and resigned than the average person, but because of your “adaptive skepticism.”
This means that during childhood you profoundly realized that not everyone could be trusted. So, as a calibrated response, you made a number of discerning filters. These filters allowed you to find relationships with people you found to be strong, genuine and honest.
9.Restfulness or stillness is something you don’t find easy. When you try to slow things down you feel uneasy. You may think that by slowing things down you could be caught off-guard. As if by doing this renders you unsafe as you are not alert in the quietness.
The ironic thing with this is that when those having traumatic intelligence master the art of resting, mind/body stillness, it’s a form of reclaiming. It has the effect of appeasement; a way of informing the brain that there are no threats.
10.You will not accept that your suffering (or other people’s) is meaningless. As a consequence of your early trauma you carry with you a deeper sense of purpose in life.
According to diligent psychologist researchers Richard Tadeski and Lawrence Calhoun, their research on post-traumatic growth has led them to conclude that: “A significant number of individuals who navigate adversity emerge with a deeper philosophical sense of clarity.”
Those with traumatic intelligence have a greater understanding of life, having a greater sense of learned wisdom.
Finally
That concludes the 10 signs to indicate this quite unusual form of cleverness. Well, do you have traumatic intelligence?
Having this rare ability is not exactly something to rejoice in or celebrate when considering the costs in early life that led you to it.
However, it has to be fully acknowledged that this ability is an example of how hardship experienced in early life has led to transformation.