What is Low Latent Inhibition
What exactly is Low Latent Inhibition?
Latent inhibition
In order to even attempt to explain what low latent inhibition is, I feel it is vital that an understanding of the term “latent inhibition” is reached. Latent inhibition is a term used to explain how our observation of a familiar stimulus (e.g. something we see, hear, smell, feel or taste that we’ve had before) takes longer to acquire meaning than a new stimulus. It’s essentially a mental tool you develop in order to experience the world in a manageable way. You use latent inhibition in your day-to-day interactions with the environment.
For example, consider how you experience a doorknob. You are familiar with door handles and how they work, what the purpose of them is and in most cases a door handle wouldn’t interest you enough for you to pay it any notice. Why should you? You know how they work already and have seen them before. Your brain applies the same rule to different types of door handles on all sorts of doors, “It is there so that I can open this door”. You do not question the choice of door handles or look into the finer details in terms of why that door handle in particular was chosen, because if your brain had to do this every time a new stimulus presented itself it wouldn’t be able to cope and would overload. This is why we have Latent Inhibition. It allows us to distinguish familiar doorknobs from unfamiliar doorknobs so we can simplify how we experience the world.
Low latent inhibition
With low latent inhibition, an individual almost treats familiar stimuli in the same manner as they would new stimuli. Think of the details you notice when you see something new for the first time and how it grabs your attention. From those details all kinds of questions may arise in your mind. “What is that, what does it do, why is it there, what does it mean, how can it be utilized” and so on. The more of those questions you are able to figure out or answer, the better your understanding of that stimulus. The better your understanding of that stimulus, the more logical connections you are able to make between that stimulus and others around it. With the use of human memory you are then able to remember which questions you’ve already answered in relation to a particular stimulus, and those answers may then result in more questions. Low latent inhibition will usually result in extremely accurate instincts due to the sheer level of thought, processing and logical connection that has been made previously when faced with a stimulus or multiple stimuli.
So in terms of what we might see, somebody you know who’s generally always worn glasses might approach you having bought a new pair of glasses that look almost exactly the same but for a slightly different logo on the side. You usually wouldn’t notice the change of logo because your brain has almost dismissed the minor details that go with the pair of glasses they wear as ‘unimportant’. It’s your brains way of ensuring that it doesn’t need to constantly process new stimuli that probably won’t have any significance or importance to it. Yes they might wear glasses, but so what? In this example we simply see the glasses then move on.
An example of how somebody with low latent inhibition may see the same scenario could be that they almost instantly notice the smallest changes that seeing the new pair of glasses presents to them via the observation of stimuli, which may then lead to connections being made that people with normal latent inhibition might not make. For example from seeing the new logo, somebody with a low latent inhibition might deduce that their friend had been shopping since the last time they saw them, if they had been shopping they might have also recently received their monthly salary which meant they were able to buy the glasses. Did the friend have some insecurity with the last pair of glasses? If the person with low latent inhibition also knows the surrounding area well (and knows where the stores are that sell new glasses), and they know when the last time they saw their friend wearing his old glasses was (2 days ago), they might be able to work out the exact locations their friend will have been to, and depending upon which food their friend likes, where their friend might have eaten, and depending upon what their friends interests are, which other stores they might have been to after having been paid and what kind of things they might have bought…all from a small change of logo on a pair of glasses.
That same process can be true when any form of stimulus is observed by someone with low latent inhibition, and can be particularly effective in everyday use with regards to problem solving, data analysis, creativity, artistic expression and an infinite number of other possibilities. How do you think somebody with low latent inhibition and a high IQ (so that their brain can handle the constant influx of stimuli), might fare if stranded in a forest for example, miles away from anybody else and with no tools or no help readily available? The low latent inhibition would allow them to not only process and understand all stimuli in their surrounding environment, but to utilize that stimuli to further their goal and to help them adapt.
A great example of how a lot of people work with LLI is their brains naturally work on a “why, why, why, why” basis until they get to the root cause or origins of anything, rules, thoughts, someones intentions, someones actions, machinery etc. An example could be that most people when asked “why do you clean your teeth”, would answer “because i want them to be clean”, “Why”, “because I’m hygienic and i want them to look nice”, “why”, “because if they look nice other people will notice and i want that”, “why”, “because i want to look attractive to other people”, “why”, “so that i can find a partner i guess”. THERE is the root cause, they want to find a partner. People with LLI (at least like my own LLI) are always automatically asking and answering those why questions based on our intuition and perception, and because the intuition and perception of a few with LLI are based on far more stimuli (and therefore details noticed) they are extremely accurate. So in the above example if someone with LLI was asked why they think someone cleans their teeth – their intuition and perception going by the person in front of them would usually instantly result in an answer of “because they want to seem physically more appealing to a potential mate” (we would not starve to death if we lost all our teeth in this day and age). Their brain will have already asked and answered many WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY questions. That same automatic process applies to almost everything someone with LLI comes into contact with.
Further Details
Almost all those who have low latent inhibition are unaware that they are experiencing the world in a totally unique and different way compared to other people. It is generally only through interaction with people who don’t have low latent inhibition and the reactions of those people that brings about the feeling of being ‘unexplainably different’. People may for example laugh at your ideas or the connections that you are able to make or ridicule them (due to lack of understanding on their part), or may look at you as being extremely arrogant or a ‘know it all’. This is because extremely advanced logical connections made by someone with low latent inhibition will often feel like common sense, when in reality those without low latent inhibition wouldn’t even have considered those connections as a possibility. It can also mean that you come across as very intolerant at times (because perfectly reasonable suggestions by people without LLI might just seem stupid to you). There are many different characteristics than can be attributed to the condition; you will find some on the “advantages and disadvantages page” and many, many more on the Facebook awareness group and our forum.
Although low latent inhibition can be an incredible gift it does require a high enough IQ in order for your brain to handle the constant processing of stimuli. Without a sufficient IQ level, having low latent inhibition may lead to various forms of autism. It should also be noted that most autistic people have a lower than normal level of latent inhibition, which is one of the many reasons it is so difficult to confirm an LLI diagnosis. We believe that a lot of cases of LLI are actually missed or misdiagnosed as OCD, ADHD or Asperger’s syndrome but to name a few.
Do I have low latent inhibition?
It is incredibly hard to self-diagnose and we are finding that it is much easier for people to reach a successful diagnosis by meeting others with LLI. There is an exceptionally unique sense of relief when you meet other people who are ‘exactly like you’, your whole perspective on life and living with low latent inhibition will change and hopefully become more comfortable. For those out there with LLI, chances are that most of the difficulties you have faced or have yet to face have been experienced by others with the condition too. A lot of the relief we have witnessed by people who come to the Facebook group stems from knowing why they have felt different, that they are not alone and that there are others like them who are there to help.
We also believe that it is important to acknowledge that there are probably thousands of people if not more who have a lower than usual latent inhibition and that it’s not as rare as people may think. The very rare side to LLI is possessing true creative genius, or not suffering from autism as well as having LLI. Almost all autistic people may indeed have LLI, but that doesn’t mean their brains can handle having it, or that they can utilise it to its full effect. It’s extremely rare to have LLI and be able to use it in the incredibly unique ways in which its benefits can be used throughout life. It’s even more unlikely to have high IQ (over 130), and LLI, no autism and have manageable anxiety levels.
We would also like to stress that LLI is not one specific trait or characteristic and that it’s different in every case. Many might have a lower than usual latent inhibition but in such a way that they don’t feel many benefits and aren’t creating any masterpieces or aren’t extremely gifted in several areas. It is important to not panic or feel down if you think you have LLI but that it’s not making you a genius or that it only seems to give you trouble, as that is far more usual than having LLI and being classed as a genius. To use an example easier to follow, if LLI is chicken in terms of food recipes, ADHD might be salsa, OCD might be barbecue sauce, Asperger’s syndrome might be salad, and your IQ level might be the seasoning. There are obviously many other combinations or other ‘recipes’ you could make, but only a rare few would achieve the ultimate true taste that you’d want.
There are currently no official diagnostic tests for low latent inhibition, and no scale in terms of just how low ones latent inhibition might be. Both of those are things that we are currently working to address and we will be publishing our finds as we continue to delve into the area. We are also researching the work of Carl Jung, Katharine C Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers with regards to personality types, as we wish look into just how different personality types can characterise low latent inhibition.
There are many different interpretations of low latent inhibition out there; some written by those who don’t have it themselves, some copied from an original source and pasted throughout the internet and some that we and I myself cannot relate to. I decided to write the above in an effort to reach as wide an audience as possible and to try and clarify exactly what LLI is. Here on the resource and discovery centre you will come across several different descriptions of low latent inhibition, all given by people who live with it and have spent years trying to understand and manage it.
There will be much more information coming soon in the forums, and we would also encourage you to join the low latent inhibition awareness group on Facebook, the official low latent inhibition community Facebook page, or to follow us on twitter. If you wish to meet people with low latent inhibition or you wish to talk to us, please do so. We are here to offer our help and support in as many ways as we can.
Please note that the ONLY groups to be associated with the official low latent inhibition resource and discovery centre are the two groups listed above. The admins for these groups have been diagnosed with low latent inhibition, in order to for them to better understand LLI and to provide accurate insights for anyone who joins whether those joining have LLI or not.
We look forward to meeting you in the forums.
Dale Webb.
I Am Strongly Asking For Some Guidance.
i was diagnosed with ADD as a child, i am 26yrs of age at the moment and medicine only drove me more to troubled as a kid , school was very tough for me and my parent’s…mostly cause teachers never took the time to actually help . but that’s not what this is about as i got older i thought i had ADD until a friend of mine introduced me to a Psychiatrist (Parent Of My Friend) and what i told him in our meeting he said it is possible i am ADD ..but what i was describing to him was more on the lines of Low Latent Inhibition . and at the time there wasn’t much on the subject . not like today . and i noticed i was different .. i was declared random alot mostly cause i thought outside the normal guidelines most people usually live by …i am constantly thinking like in your description i am constantly gathering information ….and i had friends who were ADD but they weren’t like me .. so i felt maybe i was on a different level of ADD ..so growing up i held alot in ..kept to myself very private …till i started to get older then i realized i was evolving and it would get worse..i wouldn’t make it noticeable ..or draw attention mostly cause i didn’t want people to think i was crazy and hearing voices in my head ..i recently had a incident at the central library in phoenix i went to go see if they had any new information on LLI. because i was out dated . and walking through the halls and seeing all the books made me very dizzy because my mind wants to process so much at one time . luckly for me i am one to keep my composure .i am not or will ever be a violent person ..thats not what im afraid of ..i’m just curious on how to stabilize it a lil more. i have no problem when i go to music event’s . so i started to think why at the library would i start to get overwhelmed with my environment ? for me the things calming to me is music , singing , composing music…etc i also was very computer suave growing up taking apart computer component’s .and now till this day i am able to understand 3 different computer Operating System Language’s … also might be known to many as HACKER. i will not lie i do steal music before it comes out and deliver to the people on a personal blog i made . i notice creativity is a big issue in the discussion . well i constantly find myself doing great in things i feel i am great at . like music and computer hacking ..i do not cause harm when i hack. i am not that type of computer hacker.. but i do realize i am developing multiple attributes as i get older and as i try and go fourth with my life i have many options to take in career but i find myself alone in decision making even though i have all of these wonderful ideas and options in front of me its difficult to choose where to put my efforts and my strong points toward… although on paper or educational test may say my skill in IQ may be low. i can say i am very smart in multiple upon multiple areas in my life, i have a way of solving problems with ease ..excellent hearing, my verbal skills and conversations are up to par .i am usually a good listener, i am told i give good advice , i am a good person , i got love for with no hate due… i try and do right by people i don’t see my self as a harm to anyone …i don’t see it in my future to have a mental illness… but i notice that i am evolving … and when i recently told my mother about it she said i was just ADD but if i feel like i was miss diagnosed go see…to be honest i may or may not be LLI but once again i find myself trying to explain something when in reality not many can fathom …i’m just looking for answers or guidance or a institute to help mold me into the man i was destined to be . i recently had the urge to pursue music composition .. i enjoy music and i have many ideas on music mostly because it is one thing i found i love the most and my human energy is really drawn toward it and although my symptoms are still there i feel i have a slight peace of mind when im doing something i love to do … i have much more to say but i think i have taken much time to whom ever is reading this so a follow up email would be nice . i will be joining the group for low latent inhibition on facebook and look forward to upcoming information on the matter . thank you for your time.
Joey Martinez
AedioN
Pure Hearts
I’ve left a comment in the Facebook group for you joey, I’ll reply in full shortly. Thanks for your post.
I recommend to anyone in this state to learn, learn, learn! Learn about everything that interests you, systematically educate yourself. A lot of things in life relate to one another. If you know what lies ahead, you will experience less sense overload. Explore things logically. Keep emotion, whether positive or negative, out of the equation. Do your homework about places you are going, you will already know the basic components of your environment, so there will be less input to process. Also, know what you are going to do before you do it. If you are going to the library for a specific task, stick to it, while filtering out the rest as irrelevant. Remind yourself that you can come back later and explore when you get this one thing done. Perhaps you are meeting friends at a restaurant Friday. Go by the place Tuesday or Wednesday; when you see the building’s exterior, most likely you will know the layout from there. When eating out don’t read the menu, know what you will order before you get there. I always break it down like this, most places to eat offer three basic entrees with several variations, beef, chicken, or fish. If you can’t decide before your arrival, do to your particular craving or mood, at least pick one of these three to narrow the menu down to a simpler selection.
I have found that the higher my IQ gets, the better I am able to process information and make more logical, sound decisions in all aspects of my life. This reply is just an example of one area of coping with sensory overload, if anyone has questions about this, feel free to ask.
“I have found that the higher my IQ gets…”
So, what drug are you taking that raises your IQ? 🙂
feel that! 🙂
i found IQ is depending on LLI “mood” level.. it seem everytime i have an IQ test, i have different result
thank you for advice
For me it is hell. Everyday. I wish I could be just as slow and clueless and seemingly ignorant as the average person and blend in. This ‘thing’ has its advantages but the frustration with constantly being 80 steps ahead and having to slow down for everybody else drives me insane. Make a point and I am arrogant or sometimes even laughed at, then having to go back and explain my thought process and why what i said wasn’t irrelevant or random. Problem is, it’s almost like I’m just given the answers because they are worked out so quickly due to having more information at hand to make more logical connections, and when I’m asked, I need to go through and think how I would have got to that conclusion. Almost like there is a me and a brain and we are two different people. Truth is I feel alone with this even though I know I’m not. I have skipped through the comments here and it is obvious the ones that for some reason are acting as if they have my gift/curse. I just want a like minded people to talk to. I think an island full of us would be a nightmare haha but just to have one person that understands would be great.
Gavin,
I am sorry you are alone in this process. I am too. It is an isolating disorder. I just wanted to send you a message and let you know that you are not alone in your feelings and your message above helped me not think I was alone today.
Thank You
Thank you so much for that post. I felt like I was saying that myself. (In relation to my everyday life.) That was truly incredibly worded.
Have you noticed if drugs like ADD treatment or caffeine made your symptoms worsen after you reached a certain age. Before they helped me manage but at the beginning of this year they stopped having the same effect and recently it’s progressed at an alarming rate and I find myself better off without any stimulates in me. Also I feel like the biggest eavesdropper in the world, plus my mind won’t stop at one conversation it has to listen to every single one along with any background sounds in the room. It gets so bad sometimes that I can’t maintain my own thoughts and become consumed with sounds that ceased to have meaning at that very moment. I have memorized many places and mastered many things, but my social life baffles me. I find the easiest way to make a situation awkward is to state my opinion on the current subject THEN explain why. When I read joey’s story I thought “this is a autobiography of me!” There has never been someone who who has had the same problems, gifts and hobbies similar to me. I mean we’re far from identical; but still to have someone list problems that I have. Right down to the things I don’t talk about because they make a going-insane warning go off in my head. I will talk to my doctor about LLI. But until then does anyone know ways to make it manageable. I don’t think ill last much longer at the rate I’m progressing at.
I have listed some of the problems that I am most worried about. I leave the Benefits out because they very and I’ll be awake until I need to go to work listing them.
I am like you. I gather infomation wait for all the pieces and out comes factually connected information that can be proven right. I think the pieces you need I could have but without understanding you would need more details. Can not lie steal and surround myself only with trust. I to have done amazing work. On a three year piece of work right now. I can also be dumb as a box of rocks. I found a different solution for the reason you hacked. Me for some reason had a better perception of my thought process then most and read about it in the blood in exact text .I see how you show respect in how you express yourself. If someone around me trys to pretend to be a person of good to use it for self interest I tell them to their face what they are. I may be able to help you understand the process of this thing but as you know only you can connect the dots.If you contact me not through social media but by email I will give you this information.
Thanks for sharing Joey. My son is your age and as long as i can remember he has always been different. He recently explained to me about LLI and everything I’ve read is so accurate of who my son is.
thank you .. like you and many . were just looking for someone to relate too. that for once ( Get’s It)
Well, I know how Joey up there feels. Im only 19 and life has been a bit tougher than expected. At a young age i was diagnosed with ADHD. It was because i was told not “daydream” and start paying attention. And when i would ask questions both having to do with what we were learning and something else, it was seen as just random questions that often got me into trouble. I understand what this is and ive come to live with it but, it sucks knowing that i went through pretty much my childhood not having a single friend that saw the world at least a little bit the way i did. Id tell people of my dreams and aspirations and they think its just over the top nonsense. im very passionate about listening and making music. Making art and skating. these things are calming to me. kind of a relief. I know im still young and have a whole life ahead of me. I dont fear this condition at all, what i fear is not ever finding someone who i can share my thoughts with. Thanks for listening. 🙂
Dear Kevin,
I’m sorry that you have had a hard time growing up. Please believe me when I tell you that almost everyone has a struggle of some kind while they are finding out who they want to be in life. I’m so sorry that there wasn’t anyone to support you through this difficult time but perhaps that has worked out for the best. Only you can walk your path in this world and only you are the best judge of yourself.
I’m a very old guy now and things like LLI, ADD, ADHD and the like were unheard of when I was growing up. I was pigeon holed as disruptive or argumentative and was socially misadjusted.
However I was deeply interested in almost everything and everything I learned led to to new associations of information and new analyses.
I read that you love art and music. Great! Focus your attentions on that, be creative. Take it to the next level, learn about the history behind it, learn about the construction of musical instruments. Suck up everything you can about it but remember…. in every new situation, you should start with the premise that you know nothing.
Life isn’t torture, you don’t have to fit in, do your own thing and let others follow. Expect to be alone, enjoy that silence… be thankful for what you have.
There is nothing wrong with you. You have a gift. Be thankful and use it wisely.
I’m posting this publicly in the hope that it doesn’t just help you Kevin but reaches out to anyone else who feels how you do/did.
All the best for your future.
I feel like bursting into tears. My intelligent quotient is 157 and I believe I have low latent inhibition. For many years I have spent a lot of time wondering what is wrong with me searching but never finding answers. I have always been quite private and often thought that I should keep my ‘inadequacies’ to myself. I took the Mensa tests a couple of years ago and until that point I thought I was just a bit weird. How wrong I was. My whole life is like a set of plans from a Haynes manual or airfix kit, I automatically deconstruct everything and my brain gets bored rather quickly.
Sometimes I can spend time profoundly thinking about life and the universe which I have been reliably informed are called ‘absences’ or ‘absent seizures’ but I think that is just verbal garbage from professionals who don’t really care. I have had several electroencephalograms with clear results and never any epileptic seizures.
I am in the process of writing several scripts for various novels and a play whilst studying for a degree with the OU, but the more I do the more I want to do which can be a reciprocal nightmare. At times I get very tired of just being! I have spent many years discovering life and all of its intricacies which has given way to more and more questions.
It is a great comfort to know that there are other people out there with Lli and any constructive conversation would be great.
Steve
Hi Steve, it is very touching for me what you say. You are the first person who mentions the problem with periods of deep thinking about life and the universe and you also say that the more you do the more you want and need to do.
I had many periods of deep thinking about the uviverse and the infiniti and I was even on medication because it was just so terrifying to be that far and alone! And I know so well the problem of the more I do the more I want and need to do … because with each idea come 100 more and where ever I look I see ways of doing things and it can be really overwhelming and scary …. and as you say – I automatically deconstruct everything and my brain gets bored rather quickly.
I am more than certaint that I have LLI and I recently took the iq test and my score is slighly over 130. I just turned 36 today, I would love to do some documentary movies about certain social issues and I would love to become more effective in life however, some level of pasivity is the only protection from the forked, multiplicating ideas in my mind which grows with each activity.
I am glad I could express this :.-)
All the Best.
Marie
What an amazing find.
I have been taking things like radios an engines from way back as a kid 6 years old.. and putting things back together. Repair anything great with my hands but get a mental block when i overthink things.
Any 1 want to become a millionaire let me know got some great ideas haha.. i missed out on so much school because it was boring knowing answers before the question.. getting called a cheat in a biology test because I got 25 out of 25 in an easy test and was top in the class.
I was called a cheat and taken to the heads office by the teacher. No proof no nothing and branded a cheat!
I was only at school 3 years out of 5 choosing to wag it lol. So how could a kid like me get 25 out of 25 ? When I’m at school I’m daydreaming or absent physically or mentaly. Anyway that was decades ago and has been in my mind ever since.
I remember to my surprise that i got better exam results in 50% of the time than my freinds did fulltime.does that make me stupid or them lol..
Make me angry that I didn’t go to uni and not worked in F1.. i could give them a few ideas i think also the electric cars.. easy solution…
Anyway it would be great to have a chat with fellow LLI or wierd and different people..
Yes i include myself in wierd and different..
I get calls from family an friends asking for advise.
Even represented my nephews friend in court because 5 solicitors could not find the angles…being called a legend was great!
I’m not clerererer than everyone just a bit different in my thinking…very different and now I know why..
Thanks you all
Ps if anyone wants to organise a group outside of facebook please get in touch..
Hello,
Im glad to finally find a group facing similar challenges,. Living in dismay and loneliness got me doing poetry, novels and working on new inventions. I always thought myself a crazy or rather weird person wanting to analyse almost every detail of things around.
My familly constantly consider me a genius for always overthinking and critical reasoning though sometimes i end up with serious headaches and blocks.
I mosy feel sad since ive never met someone with same mindset as myself.
I’m wondering how they got clear results about a seizure from an EEG reading. EEG just measures charges on the scalp that are the result of action potentials in the brain. In other words, it can tell you the general area that brain activity is going one, and how busy it is. I agree that “absent seizure” isn’t a good term to use as I doubt its related to ischemia or hemorrhaging in the brain. Its most likely caused by a problem with executive functioning. Those are the brain processes that allow you to regulate and control your actions, including self motivation.Of course, I’m no doctor, so I could be way off base.
I often return to the real world when I hear my wife say ” where did you go?”. I’ve almost always been been deep in some form of thinking that would take so long to explain that I usually just make something up to tell her what I was thinking about. It sucks because I usually just get frustrated trying to explain what was really going through my head. One reason is that I regularly have multiple simultaneous thoughts going on. Sometimes, they’re not even directly related thoughts.
Never had an IQ test, but I am a 10th grade drop out with no college. School didn’t work out, but my every job I’ve ever held has been extremely complicated, technical, “creative specialist” type of thing. I can’t explain why I’m able to do it at all, but I can and it’s comparatively easy for me. Odd.
Hi Steve
I can most certainly identify with your moments of self collaboration and journeys of discovery for purpose. I am currently finding myself in a Gordian knot with what I think of as life’s greatest contradictions. The first is this. When we look at everything in the micro and short term. Life and the universe is full of purpose. From the colour of a petal giving it the ability to attract a bee and then go on to procreate, the position of our planet in the solar system allowing life to thrive upon it and even the intentions and actions of people that can be full of purpose and effect for the good or bad it may evoke. There is an abundance of purpose to be found in almost everything. So much so that one may reasonably expect that the biggest picture would also reflect the smaller purposes which came together to create it.
However when we look at the universe in trillions of years to come when its expected not even our solar system will exist let alone be full of thriving life. Whether a person fought and died to save another or further a cause millennia ago will not matter nor leave a trace of it ever happening. The fact that the colour of a petal lead to the spread of a species across a planet that no longer exists would suggest that all of these micro purposes have been cancelled out by the bigger picture.
What do you all think? Is purpose like life, limited and subject to an expiry date and as such should be relished and enjoyed for what it is or is it continuous and all these minor purposes do indeed add up to an ultimate conclusion.
Look up the “Zero theorem.” NOT the movie! The actual theory. I don’t know how much math you got but it explains how the universe makes sense if negative infinity and positive infinity are treated as actual numbers, and the author on the site I found labeled them Alpha and Omega, respectively. Then, in this “new” interpretation of Zero, it is looked at as representing EVERYTHING. As the universe expands, it gets farther from Alpha and closer to Zero. We are afraid of the nothingness, yet the concept of Zero being nothing is our own, and very human, construct. What if we are all heading towards a perfection that is unimaginable?
Well said- my personal theory on the subject is the past is a memory the future’s a concept and present is everything that was- is and has ever been. Logic says this makes no sense- but the complexity of proof lies in is simplicity, one can say they have a past and there is a future but if you were able to bring time to a complete stop- retrieving the past or reach into the future.………it’s a no ca do.
I get it- I’m a 10th grade high school dropout, yet I work at eight engineering firm as an inventor and reverse engineering things, I also write quotes- music- poetry- and simultaneously writing two papers on my theory of the universe among other things. I think the best part about all of this is- I have only basic math skills- my spelling is total shit and although outgoing and funny I can’t explain hardly anything without major frustration, the details my mind holds and what comes out of my mouth are like night and day.
The cons: I’m only able to work part time and have a hard time staying motivated, I am so bombarded with ideas from music to machine the theory’s of our universe that I quite often accomplish nothing due to having to think it all out, I unfortunately (this sounds like depression, it’s not) can only find relief by sleeping- but in saying that it remains elusive most of the time.
Hope my jumbled up message helps in someway, if you have LLI I’m quite sure you understand exactly what I’m trying/attempting to say. Lol
David
Maybe this life is just one stage out of many stages in a meaningful existence.
I get confused when people say it’s hard to diagnose, because for years I was un-aware of having LLI, but now i’m almost certain I have it. And I have most symptoms. Maybe i’m too aware so I know I have it?
Good afternoon, after reading your article i started to connect the dots and i think i may have LLI, since i was a kid i pay a lot of atention to the details, i was once diagonosted with ADHD and i was forced to take rytalin pills to pay attention in classes, for example in fisics i used to ask to many questions that dosnt seemed relevant to the teacher. I dont know my IQ, but i have a very good memory, i dont know if that is characteristic of people with LLI, i also like to make connections and see all the variables of a situation and try to guess the outcome, the final result. Im not good at math. Anyway thanks for the attention, if you know any way that i could know for shure if i have LLI, maybe talking with a psyquiatrist or a psychologist, if you know anything please contact me
Best regards
I’m sure everyone that reads this will agree, that the knowing and understanding why people without lli will never truly know us deep down, and how could they? it’s not like you can explain it to them.
You can’t have low latent with the spelling mistakes in this statement, it seems you’re definitely more towards ADD.. Sorry.
Is LLI genetic?
Based on a few of us considering what our parents are like, and a few of us having children who are displaying signs of LLI similar to ours we believe so, yes.
Best way to find out is to check if there have been any studies comparing monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins with the disorder. If monozygotic twins have a higher chance of both having the disorder than dizygotic twins, then that would suggest high heritability. Of course, as with nearly every disorder, environment likely plays a small role too. I don’t think I have LLI, but I am curious about it. Have you ever taken medications for it? I’m wondering what treatment tends to work best. Perhaps stimulants such as methylphenidate to increase dopamine levels. Of course, if this disorder can mimic schizophrenia, then dopamine might be the last thing you would want. Whoops, ranted a bit there.
Out of personal family history I would lean towards L.L.I. likely being a genetically passable trait. I have an uncle on my mothers side of the family who was seen as extremely intelligent as he was growing up, but as he grew older he increasingly became more O.C.D. and eventually slipped into paranoid schizophrenia. I have also been told of my mothers great Ant who committed suicide because she wanted to block out the world.
In my life I have been many things, an auto mechanic, a computer technician, and now I am a software engineer scripting in almost every language across many platforms. I do 2D and 3D modelling for use with my C.N.C. mill and 3D printer. I design and develop R.C. and autonomous airplanes and multi-copters. While continually having to hear from my parents that I worry them because I’m so much like my uncle. It was an ex girlfriend who finally pointed me towards L.L.I. after she was explaining to a friend about my various tendencies towards not being able to leave something as considered broken, or even my continues re-positioning of boxes on store shelves. I couldn’t even begin to explain about the countless times I’ve been told to stop trying to reinvent the wheel while doing tasks at previous workplaces, or how many times I get strange looks from people as I break down and try to explain how things work. I also use to find myself very annoyed when someone would say to me they don’t want to know something, or don’t care about fixing something. It wasn’t until I realized that my obsessive compulsive need for answers wasn’t generally shared by most people that I actually found myself doing much better in social situations. (But it still bugs me that people are happy with just not knowing. And I still am a horrible passenger in a car when I realize the driver has no actual idea of what is really going on around them.) The funny part though of all of this, is that the same friends who look at me funny and tell me to stop being such a know-it-all, still call me every time they can’t find something in their own homes or shops/garages and a far majority of the time I can tell them exactly what shelf, cubby, or counter it was on when I was last visiting.
One of the things that has brought a sense of pride from my little mental deviation is the fact that I have had several my clients ask me to manage their companies while they are on vacation, one of which employs close to 20 people. The fact that I am considered over top of all of their existing employees to run a business in a field that I have never worked in before is a real confidence booster.
The down part would have to be that I lost a traffic court case because the fact that I knew every make, model year, and color, including markings, of every vehicle within my line of sight over the course of about 15 – 20 km was highly unlikely / borderline impossible and that I had to be making it up. As stated by the prosecutor and agreed by the justice.
This is the point where I realize I’m doing it again.
‘continues’ = ‘continuous’ now that is going to bug me…
Here is a fun game, there is also an ‘of’ missing… please posts need edit buttons.
IQ TESTS ARE BROKEN AND IRRELEVANT… And Mathew — Your thoughts appear “scattered” to me. Maybe you should look into mind discipline?
How many of you are automatically spell checking ?It is somehow comforting to know others are also LLI…AND some of these folks here don’t..
I was diagnosed with ADHD, I’m not sure that I have LLI but many of my symptoms are much closer to it then ADHD. For instance, my friend who has ADHD is very talkative and often just talks non-stop about everything and not only does he talk a lot but he often repeats everything like 3 or 4 times throughout a conversation that I usually don’t take huge part in. I’m a kind of person that my friends would call me a “know it all” even if I state my opinion, because I throw out too much detail. I always have an answer for small practical problems. I’ve been called sensitive, too serious and apparently I over-think everything. I have realized that when people say I over think something it really means I am making way to many connections that people usually don’t make. I come up with questions that seem to make a lot of sense yet people just don’t think are related at all. I was on a body dysmorphia blog a few days ago and brought up LLI and Its symptoms and that body dysmorphia could maybe be caused by LLI, Individuals with LLI often process old and new stimuli almost the same so that could have something to do with person taking in detail of their body that others usually ignore, and maybe not being able to get used to the way you look because people with LLI tend to see the details even when they don’t care. Not to say that Its the main cause of BDD, but certainly could have something to do with it. I’m not sure If I do have LLI but I do have a small case of BDD.
Other possible symptoms:
Creativity:
I would not call myself good at any musical instrument but I for some reason able to create very difficult riffs after just few days of picking up and instrument, and often on the spot.
If I draw without thinking it always comes out good, usually even better then if I have something in mind. I call it absent mind drawing that works the same with music,cooking,and speaking. Maybe having the ability to freestyle has something to do with it as well.
perfectionist to the point of not being satisfied with anything, sadly very cynical, even though I don’t usually care to bring up my views that I know could offend people.
Memory:
I think I have very good long term memory, being able to remember details from childhood. Conversations I had, How I though as a kid and even exact map of the environment I grew up in, both inside and out. I don’t live there anymore and have not seen it in almost 12 years. I’m 20 now so that was when I was 8 years old and It was in Mother Russia, Moved to America at 14.
My short term memory is mostly average, maybe even poor because I got bad anxiety and can’t sleep for days at a time. And the main reason I think I have Low latent Inhibition. I just have too much of something on my mind that I can’t even describe because Its more then words, I can’t understand my own thoughts sometimes, Its hard to actually put my thoughts into something worth talking about, even if I know the answer I can’t say it without contradicting or giving too many alternative outcomes. The only way for me to sort out the information and to make sense of it all is to be alone for a long time, sometimes up to few days, just writing whatever comes to mind. After like 2 days I usually waste like a notebook on very random thoughts that don’t make any sense when I think of it as a whole but somehow I manage to make something out of it, like a song, a poem, a drawing, inspirational speech.
Social
I love being around people but it can’t be too long, I get very frustrated if I spend hours at a wedding or even sitting at church just gives me a headache. I especially like to socialize one on one, or if I’m doing something with a group of friends. I can’t just meet random group of people and socialize just for the sake of socializing, I just need a reason.
I get a feeling like people don’t like being around me because they feel I will judge them, and I don’t but I could see why, and It just takes a few conversations to let people know that I don’t judge, and usually I care less how someone acts as long as I’m not a part of it. Its possible that I give off the vibe that I don’t care, I guess people that crave attention would find that a bit offensive and most of the population are extraverts.
I read an article about LLI and autism, most individuals with autism do have lower then average LI and even many of the same symptoms, like sensitivity to smell, touch…. the thing that sets them apart from just LLI is they are not very good at understanding emotions. So many people who seem to be almost autistic may just have LLI alone, and the best way to find out if person has autism or LLI is to record yourself talking to a close friend. I know its bit weird but don’t let your friend know your recording. At one point I thought that maybe I had a little autism, so I asked few of my friends if they think I did and they told me, I’m too sensitive to be autistic, I’m pretty sure I’m an empath when it comes to emotions, and that might be other thing common with LLI.
Wow, great location to find others that have also been feeling outside the norm and have also been wondering why for so long. Thanks for providing the forum. I’m grateful to those who have chosen to share a lot of details; I’m coming to better understand why I am the way that I am and it’s not as scary as I was concerned that it might be. I don’t seem to have much of the constant unwanted mental input that I’m reading so much about here. However, on an emotional level, it is constant, often unwanted and usually intense. At least from what I hear from others it’s intense; just feels normal to me. I would rather experience the highs and lows than just muddle around in the middle of the emotional scale; I really enjoy the intensity that life has to offer. I’ve found that it takes the lows to be able to experience the highs, so I’m willing to take the crap to get the cream. I’ve always felt that I was different but couldn’t quite grasp how. Understanding the issue was always just out of my reach and no one that I talked to had a clue either.
I have always felt alone; even in a crowded room and never able to fully connect with anyone; spouse or kids either. I just kept getting pushed away; not a nice feeling. No matter how hard I tried, things only got worse. It finally dawned on me that it was getting worse because I was trying. Unfortunately, knowing something and being able to implement it effectively aren’t necessarily connected so, luckily for me, I found this site.
Yep, I’m one of those that found this through Prison Break. I instantly related to Michael on both fronts; the tremendous input and the caring rescuer. Fortunately, I get to choose what I focus on mentally and with some effort I can usually direct it to something useful and unless I get too excited about it, I can turn it off, too. I really relate to Michael’s ability to just stop and formulate a useful plan and to remain detached enough to not let his fear or other negative emotions run away with him. When I’m in dangerous situations my mind drops all superfluous input and hyper focusses on my immediate needs and/or solutions. Sometimes time slows waaaayyyy down too. Twice, I’ve had less than a second feel like it was two or three minutes. It was weird to be able to think clearly in those situations and yet not be able to get my muscles to respond at all. Afterwards my mind kept trying to come up with a way to slow down time again whenever I wanted to ……………… no go. Boy, would that be cool, or what?
Soooooo ……………….. does anyone else’s head overheat? I have to use a special pillow or my super hot pillow keeps waking me up. I can’t ever be in a stuffy place for very long either or my head overheats and my body thinks that I have a fever and starts mimicking flu symptoms. What a drag.
In ’03 I had brain surgery to remove a benign tumor and that was followed by a stroke which only left me partially paralyzed, temporarily. I have recovered about 80%. Anyway, the weird thing is that I noticed that I only have about 20-30% of the high-end functioning left. A lot of the burden dropped away too. The upshot of the whole thing is that I have the very rare opportunity to see life from two almost opposing points of view. Talk about a chance at objectivity. I’ve also “developed” a delicious aptitude for forgetting. I can re-read books and re-watch movies and enjoy them almost as much as the first time, now. I also get to forget when I get emotionally injured. That alone is an amazing blessing. I can, now, just blow things off. Life is soooo much easier.
Does anyone else relate to any of these points?
Nuf fer now.
Ryan
I’m not 100% that I suffer from LLi but like you I seem to have alot in common. I to found out about it from prison break. For years now I struggle with everyday circumstances., To a point where I have to shut of and sleep. I get depressed alot and panic when I can’t figure things out. I don’t have a high IQ and seem to think that that’s why I have problems in life. I’m 42 now and I seem to be managing life better. I’ve often thought about the antidepressants but I don’t want to rely on the fact that a drug has to run my life. I don’t go out much. I find it hard to socialise and get the feeling of being left out. Now that I’m aware of LLI and this forum I think that my life might take a change for the best. .Thanks lee…!!
Ryan — Regarding the overheating problem, I think you should read about neurology & the sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous system.
I found out about this ‘disorder’ if you like from the tv show prison break and it seems great. It seems like there is so many ways in which you can utilise this gift. I kind of want it now.
Be careful what you wish for……….
You want it now because you don’t know what it’s like to have it
Omg is this mj you are my inspiration
No – this is a good friend of MJ, Dale =)
You kind of want it now? Ha.. Try focusing for a day or two with LLI.. Or try having a conversation with people who don’t understand you whatsoever and think you are just some stupid arrogant SOB that bluffs his way through life.. You kind of want it until you realize it’s very difficult to balance how much of it is a blessing and how much of it is a curse..
I am writing a white paper on the problem of ‘tolerance’ in addictive disease and writing something else related to quantum computing while listening to Ted Nugent — AND — MY HEAD FEELS LIKE IT’S GOING TO EXPLODE BUT THERE IS NO F&*KIN’ WAY I COULD SLEEP RIGHT NOW. Does that sound like “a good time” to you?
Oh u don’t it is sooo hard sometimes it overwhelms me a lot and im only 12
I always thought I’m just an OC but reading something about LLI somehow makes me question this. I’ve always been into details and my current work actually feeds my need to fix. Im able to box out situations, chop events and pin point where the weak links are in an event. I find it easy to profile people. Some think Im seeing too much or is looking ahead too far. Mental stress tires me more than physical activities. And I remember details of my experiences. I honestly don’t know what this is but often times when I get to share a story to new friends they always get this stare and I can really tell they are a little freaked out. having any kind of disorder is not discussed openly where I come from. I’m just glad I get to share a little here.
My school tested my IQ when I was 14, and they told me I have an IQ of 144. I definitely relate to many of you and then again, I don’t. As a kid, I have always had hyperfocus. I never have been diagnosed with ADHD or ADD; I was always a calm and quiet child. I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, manic depression, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. To say the least, many wrong diagnoses and few right. I have memories from when I was one year old, and I verified the setting, the purpose, the people, and the location of my memories with my family members. My long term memory is decent, but my short term memory is horrible. I have severe thought blocking as an adult (I am not schizophrenic; I am 26 years old), which I began experiencing at 24 years. I learned to read and write at two years old but became fluent when I was three. I mastered Shakespeare at six years and went on to be a bit of a Nietzsche nut from 11 years onward. I self-taught the piano at seven years and then the guitar when I was 13. After all my struggles I became a successful businesswoman , who continues to struggle with fostering connections with my clients and peers. I also fail to pay attention. I am extremely distracted where it negatively affects my work, and my brain gets easily bored. In college, I never went to class and taught myself the material (and still ended up with a 3.5; I went to a junior ivy university), because the class pace was too slow, and I would get distracted during class by watching people’s mannerisms, defects and markings on and around the seats, and which doors were opened and closed. Even with a high intelligence capacity, it is a struggle to relate to others, to not close myself off, and to be successful in my professional and personal lives.
Hello Ashleigh, just let me tell you a “few” things, I have Asperger Symdrome with LLi probably, I’m socially weird, very depressed in the pass, never went to college, but love science, from Quantum to astronomy, and future of our universe, From RNA and evolutiom to present ecology and human cultures and how they relate. I theorize human brain is changing, natural selection is working crazy on many us, we are a new breed, with supercharged upgrades, “is not perfect” but I see a pattern. I see the creative potencial in LLI mixed with a high IQ; anxiety to me, comes when focus goes into overdrive and overloads the precessor, like a “wild horse” with wings we need to learn to fly. It’s just my opinion. I believe you have a very attractive and beautiful mind.
Hi Ashleigh, thank you for sharing this, i would say i wish my iq was as high as yours, probably my challenges would have been reduced i dont know if i have a high intelligence capacity like yours because i have never taken intelligence tests but atleast i know i have survived this only because my iq is good. I have a memory that i consider my first memory. I was three and i remember what i watched on tv and the setting in the sitting room and my relatives. When i was five, i was playing with my cousin and i told him i was going to break my toy car and he argued but i did it anyway, and all the feeling i remember was that i wanted to know what was inside and how everything in the machine worked. Over the years i have had an imagination disorder. Ever since i was five, i went into an imagination stance to the point that i would imagine on everything that could be thought about and as my friends played along, all i wanted was to isolate myself and think. Later as i grew i started to notice that i became sensitive to why things happened and how objects worked and i became interested in the subject of imagination and being smart. I started to research about intelligence and smart people for about five years now. I idelise the likes of shakespear, leornardo davinci and my favourite movies were sherlock holmes, limitless and all that crap, i was looking for clues about what could be happening to my head then oneday as i watched prison break, i just added it to my clues. I would probably be insane right now if i hadnot taken the initiative to start trying to find out what was happening to my mind. I had and still have struggles in my mind i cannot explain, voices and near illusions, things run so fast in my mind i try to slow down. And i feel the surface of an object and its whole perimeter and i feel so awesome when it happens but it cant do on everything at once and i feel dizzy and exhausted in my mind. In high school it was so easy in english tests i would write compositions without even trying and get the top marks, in poetry i would simply write my feelings without even focusing on the elements of ryhmes and ryhthms and onomatopeia etc as long as whatever i wrote sounded to me like a poem and i would get the top marks. As everybody else struggled, me, it was a piece of cake, a natural talent but my talents worked only where i was interested. Physics, chemistry, i would not read and perfom well but not highly simply because class was extremely slow and why would teachers even keep on repeating things as if kids didnt have any brains? I used to notice writings on furniture, count windows notice things like window locks and so many little details about people sitting aroun d me like there shoes, clothes, rist bands, sizes and colours, voices, chants, gestures and i would get dizzy with so much light coming into my eyes and everything zooming in. I would try to sleep off but surrounding stimuli even from far distances kept on coming into my mind without my permission of it and worst part was i coudnt handle it. Sometimes i was referred to by my friends as a young boy with a mature mind
Yeh, well… I believe you because I can relate to everything you wrote + your thoughts are too organized to be a personality or mood disorder, etc. Will you marry me? HAH!! I am j/k — I like to laugh…
I am only 14 years of age, and I was not aware that I had any problem or difference from my class mates and friends.I am now certain that I have a Low Latent Inhibition and here are some reasons why.
-I seem to think harder and make things more complex than they have to be:
Just today in class we were learning about the underground railroad. I asked my teacher what if I wanted to escape slavery in another way. He asked me to explain. ” Well what if I found a good hiding spot where my master couldn’t find me, this will cause him to think I escaped and send a search party after me. The slave hunters would assume I have ran off far when really I was right there all along. I would find the direction they where going and go the opposite way.” My teacher said I was crazy
– I notice everything people don’t notice:
Yesterday my friend and I went down a flight of stairs at school. After we got down I asked him did he know how many stair steps that was. He looked at me and laughed. It seems like I cant relate to anyone.
-Lastly I have a Huge distraction problem
With today’s technology there are so many things to look at. I always find myself looking at things and asking myself questions. What does this do? What is inside of it that makes it do that? What kind of a genius could come up with that? It doesn’t matter if its something I have seen a million times or never seen at all.
If you have any help contact me by email Thank You!
MJ, first of all, what you’re dealing with is really difficult to handle. There absolutely are not any easy answers to the whole situation (at any age). That said, there are some simple approaches that help. I’ve found that focusing on the parts that you’re grateful for turns your attention to what it is that you like about the way that your brain functions – and brings some peace along with it. Remember the coin principle: all personality traits have two sides – one service oriented and the other attacking/destructive, to both yourself and others. The side that you feed (focus on) will be the side that grows.
What happened with the way you were thinking about the underground railroad in class; I call that scenario-izing. Do you have a strong empath component in your personality package? If so, you can focus on what others might be thinking and feeling and scenario-ize about that. Use your amazing mind to scenario-ize about the underground railroad and what the teacher is actually talking about and ask questions that you think will help further your classmates understanding of what’s going on. This approach works in all aspects of life. Even if things don’t get any easier, at least you end up feeling happier and more at peace. (And might be a lot more fun to be around, too.) ;o)
You’re still in your formative years and your brain is more “plastic” now than it will be later. Habits form channels in the way that your brain functions and determines how you will naturally act in the future. What you choose to focus on is what works itself into habits. Therefore, remember and accept that your actions will always lag far behind your new desires; that’s called being human.
You’ve obviously noticed that your email address wasn’t included so I chose to respond here.
Books that might help:
The Brain That Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge
Emotional Intelligence, by Daniel Goleman
These might appear to be over your head but who knows with the way your brain functions. Persevere and get out of them what you can – it might help with coming to a better understanding of what you’re dealing with and why. Just a thot………
Ryan
P.S. Do you also scenario- ize during movies, TV and books???
OMG. I’m thrilled to have found out about LLI and to have found this site! Two days from now I will be going to a follow up apt. with yet another shrink in an attempt to get some relief from my own head, and this was right on time.
After reading the above info and comments I am almost sure I have LLI. The above comment hit home so hard I almost cried with relief- Ive always known that there were other people who thought simlilarily to me, but I had just chalked it up to others having a high IQ like myself ( I test somewhere between 140 and 150, depending on the test and my mood) and I assumed that they were suffering their own form of madness, just like me, alone.
Finding this and getting a label to put with the way my mind is working means so much to me right now as I’ve noticed an intensification of symptoms (or maybe it’s more of an inability to tolerate them) lately, this coming with a period of many changes in my life. I’ve spent countless hours trying to explain to various mental health professionals my “racing” mind, inability to sleep consistently, excitement in certain situations, ect. in vague terms- I’m desperate for some relief, but the frustration of no one being able to do anything that really helped has made me feel like there was something not quite right with me and that I was less of a person for not being able to cope with things that people not as “smart” or “talented” as me sailed thru with ease.
I’ve learned to deal with the excess of stimuli in my day to day life to some extent thru various “tricks” I’ve acquired such as; music to sleep by, schedules to follow with alarms to remind me of the time and keep me from distracted absences, loud music in the car along with applied “tunnel vision” when driving, and routines to follow, but I still struggle with places like the mall or fairs and amusement parks. I sometimes have to call in help from my family to deal with the anxiety that comes with doing “normal” things so that I can retire to my bedroom- lights off and blankets over my head. Venues with loud music are “ok” because I can focus on the music and the volume helps to exclude the other stimuli, or at least push it to the back, but explaining to someone w/o LLI why I can walk into a bar or concert and be fine but have to leave a grocery store or church is difficult.
I have many friends and have an easy time making new ones because of my high degree of empathy, but I am often told I am a “know it all” then later praised for my foresight and ability to help people with their problems.
I hate having to explain to people why I do things the way I do and trying to break down the steps I took (mentally and in seconds) to reach the solutions or results I needed.
Almost everything I’m taught I learn quickly, breaking every step
I don’t know if I have LLI but I have the same things, I was diagnosed with ADD but the doctor never did anything to confirm. I have always explained something in a more complicated way than I could have. I’ve had anxiety and depression. I have always been a loner and I like it that way. If you had to guess, would you say I have Low Latent Inhabition?
That’s exactly the same as me (not the situation)
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Yes I defiantly do that when reading a book because the image isn’t in front of me. I imagine it in 20 different ways at once.I also find my self inside objects that I have seen before when I close my eyes. For example today I was out of the house and I closed my Eysenck for 10 seconds.I some how imagined my room and then my fan with the screws the bolts and everything inside the fan. It seem like I saw some things that most people over look
MJ, fortunately a lot of what I see, think and feel is “normal” in that way. Seeing the parts of things isn’t something that I have to deal with unless I’m building or repairing mode. It sounds like it could be fun from time to time. Give me some of your more interesting examples, please.
OK last night I had a dream about screw. It was a flat head and it was just sitting there, So im just looking at this screw and its giant by the way, then my view zooms out and I see a window. I stared the broken down parts of the window for hours it seemed. Eventually the view zoomed out again. And what I had realized was that I came from one screw to an entire building. A 147 story building with over 800 windows. As my view was rotating I woke up.
Noew you see how a person with low latent inhibition normally see’s things. A normal person see’s a building as a whole. While a person with LLI see’s much more.
Hope this explains it a bit more!
MJ, I can’t exactly relate to your dream scenario. When I have 3D in full motion/color with extremely clear sound, I am usually having a lucid dream. When I have those dreams I am solving a problem either in life or related to my life’s work. So, if my picture began to rotate I would have resisted waking up until I got the vision I was looking for. Can you relate to this?
I’m impressed that you knew it by name- was it a phillips or a common??? lol This is interesting, do you just sense what the interior parts of things are or do you really know? Like do you take things apart or just assume what the parts are? Do you have a strong interest in the physics of things? How’s your memory?
Haha looks like you know your screws it was a slotted PAN head. Most of the time if I pay enough attention to the stature and structure of an object. I can connect the dots and think about whats inside. Yes I take things apart in my mind but its a sub-conscious process. Idk I see numbers and the inside pop out at me like i’m looking at the Dimensions. Yes in fact I do have a strong interest in physics of things. I actually tried to take physics this year but I have to be a senior or something. So I just studied the subject myself.
Anyways do you break things down in your head? Do you scenario-ize?
Yh i do that a lot
I loved woodworking as a kid and my Dad did some so I got to turn our detached garage into a shop. He said that I should draw things out before I built them but I usually could see it in my head so drawing just seemed to be redundant. I could remember sizes, relationships, cuts and holes and my brain had this little card file index that if I made a change I could open it and all by itself it would pop up little red flags and then I’d mentally pull up each of those cards and the new sizes and shapes would be there. I’d data entry that into my existing mental image and remember all of the new stuff. I thought everyone did that too. And yep I senario-ize the job from beginning to end to make sure that all of the pieces work right and all of the customer relations work out well too. I also do those exploded views in my head when I’m working on cars – very helpful.
Wow thats really interesting. What do you mean when your working on cars. Are you an engineer?
Nope not an engineer – but thanks! NOT an English teacher either but – you’re and your – have two different meanings. lol lol (Not that you didn’t already know that.) ;o) I meant that I enjoy repairing my cars when needed, nothing so great as designing them. That would be kinda cool though, huh?
How much control can you exercise over your LLI skills so that they’re useful to you? Or maybe the better question would be – which parts do you have control over if any?
MJ, curiosity question – how’s your memory – for instance, can you go back to your Sunday night dream and still pull up the details?
To be honest it seems that I have no control over anything that has to do with LLI. I cant block the sounds everyone else blocks out. I cant seem to ever look at anything as one whole ever. I can use these things to my advantage on test because without paying attention I see more details then others. Especially on IQ test ( probably why I have a 137)
My memory has a mind of its own. Sometimes I realize things that are there better threw my memory than actually looking at it. I don’t ever really have dreams unless its of some object.
You notice grammar mistakes as much as I do.
You sound like a classic example for here. So what are your plans/hopes/dreams to be able to deal with this? What input do you get from your parents? Any possibility of training your brain to better serve you?
Has anyone else on this site had any successes in retraining?
My hopes are that I can control everything, that has to do with low latent inhibition.My parents are the last people I ever want to talk to about this with. They are just closed minded and don’t see what is really there. They say I just see things differently than others, and that I dont have any problem. Its hereditary you have a genius uncle they say.
I dont know of any possibilities of training my brain to better serve me. I hope maybe I will though
Did you check into those two books I mentioned. Both together might give you some ideas to start out with.
Yes I have but I didnt get the full books I like the brain that changes itself so fart
I can definitly relate to this
Currently in the process of breaking in to my subconscious so I can better control my premonitions.. Difficult process, but definitely possible.
Hello, I’m 15 and I have just began to notice things that are a lot like the scenarios being described in this article/comments, and Im glad I have found this site because I am not sure if I have this LLI or not. I have not been diagnosed with anything like ADD or ADHD or autisism, but with my background and childhood, I’m sure anything is possible. With this said, Before these past two months, I have not noticed anything wrong with me, I just concluded that I was a classic teenager who over thinks situations and posibilities.
But after searching I’m pretty sure I may have LLI, for say I also think and see things differently than my peers and family. For example, in class my teacher will do the problem one way, my peers will do the problem the easier way with a short cut but I always skip shortcuts and the calculator and do it the hard way.
I also am distracted some what easily at times, I say sometimes because I can concentrate for long periods of times when I want or need to, but if someone’s tapping their pencil, or if the clock is ticking, or If someone is talking, I get “distracted” often.
I am also “over aware” and “over observative” of my surroundings and of the people around me. Like in busy restuarants, every movement, every conversation, every time a fork drops, or the numerous times the door creaks as its swung open, I have to notice it all. I describe this as; there being eight televisions switched on, they’re all tuned into different channels and no matter how hard I try I can’t focus on one or switch the others off, like I have to see every detail because each piece is essential to a bigger picture. With big crowds like these my head starts to throb and it feels like my mind is fried, and music is often a temporary cure because it gives me a constant object to focus and busy my mind.
As I said before, music stops the over processing of the conversations and things going on around me but I can’t listen it forever so I often take comfort in numbers and science. I have been obsessed with the Fibonacci sequence since the seventh grade and I carry around a notebook that every page is the sequence written over and over, I never get bored.
I also like to think I percieve things differently than most people for example, some people are like “the glass is half empty” or “the glass is half full”, but I’m like; “the glass has water in it, it’s both equally empty and full, who cares about its density, I’ll end up drinking it anyways.”; or I’m like “this is a sock, but not just a sock, it could be many things: a bag, a glove, an arm warmer, a arm band, an weapon, a bracelet, etc…”. And when I walk into a room I’m like “this room is slightly cooler” or “wow I’m walking into the kitchen, my hand is touching the refrigerator which is touching the wall, which is touching the foundation, which is touching the dirt, there fore I’m touching dirt.” Or Im just completely “normal” and get do what I came in to do but as soon as I walk out I remember ever small detail that I am able too.
I have not spoken to my parents about this but I bet they suspect something is wrong with me ( I ramble a lot and lecture my family on completely random topics (they don’t see that my thoughts are interconnected)). I am adopted also so I don’t think they would know if my bio family had any mental problems (except for my birth sister she is MR and I think I heard them saying something about my bio mom not being completely all there). I have always excelled in school and resently (seventh grade) made the transition from being strong in English and social studies to math and science as my more dominant subjects.
So my question is do i fall into the category of having LLI, and if so wouldn’t my therapist from the adoption agency have noticed this? Or is it something that could of just surfaced in the past year? I’m a little confused. I would like to know the details of this disorder (is that the right order) because I have just started keeping a record on my behaviour and course of actions in the past few days. Also I don’t think I will talk to my parents until I’m out of the house or until it becomes unbearable because I can’t quite share my “feelings” with them and I’m afraid of being judged. Also does this mean I will go mad because that would be quite unfortunate. And will this get in the way of my career path (Im thinking of being a nuerosurgeon, an evolutionary genetisists or a FBI agent, can’t quite choose.)?
Sorry for rambling, hope I haven’t caused you to much problems (to whom ever is reading this).
Yours truly, V.
You have a mind like Sherlock Holmes have you seen the movies? He knows all the details…. the number of stairsteps, a stain on someones ear ring anything. The difference is he has a normal brain that was trained to focus o everything at once. Try to train your brain to work to your advantage
V, this is my daughter! She is adopted, she is 15 yo, she IS you! I hope we can continue to share thoughts. I would love for her to chat online with you as well. Would you be open to this?
Oh, and she is also fascinated with the Fibonacci Sequence!
Good luck with school this year.
Hello, That is really fantastic that I found someone who is experiencing the same as me. I would love to chat online but not with email because my mom would have a cow if she discovered, not that I blame her. But this is really awesome.
Sincerely, V
PS; I go by Vari
i have changed my profession thrice in 2 years time after my graduation and guess what i am already bored with this new thing, everyday i think that i have to quite and do something i would enjoy but i don’t know is there anything which i would enjoy for long duration (at-least more then 6 months). I have never been in relationships, i want to but i’m afraid, i don’t like anything of anyone, i break people heart by saying something that i should keep to myself only. everybody have something that irritates me. People are easily attracted to me because of my knowledge about many things but when someone gets close to me i feel like getting rid of them. i have only 1 friend from my childhood and he’s my only friend till today. I’m always irritated from him, because he ask too many questions from me about me, you okay? what happened sort of things, and i hate these questions. i know, he doesn’t know me, in a way i know him and his affairs. but i also know if we are friend till today for 25 years is only because of his patience and kindness.
I’m very successful in my career, wherever i have worked, whatever i have done, i achieved excellent results, i’m an excellent learner, i pick things which people might take 10 years to pick. i’m good with number, even better with intuitive & rational judgments, but somehow i always feel frustrated, anxious and maybe even jealous. sometime it feels like i’m in ugly syndrome (i don’t know).
I speak to myself for hours and comes up with some great ideas, but i have stopped writing them now as i felt they are making me more frustrated like i’m sort of day dreamer (but stop writing doesn’t stopped/reduced my frustration). the best time i ever have is when i’m alone and talking to myself. i can work for weeks without sleeping and eating, even drinking sometimes. i have tried many kind of therapies suggested, but nothing works on me. Back in 2008-09, there was a time when i use to know what people are thinking, even when they are not around. somehow i got to know thing which i doesn’t suppose to know (rationally). few years back a group of classmates were arranging a small get together for me and i don’t suppose to know because i have not been speaking with them for months, i got this voice in my head and i called her that to let her know that it wouldn’t be a surprise for me after all. now All i want is some peace, like everybody else have at least that carelessness that they have.
BTW, i did tried to commit suicide in 2006-07 but somehow, i was dis-engaged, somebody came from somewhere to help me which i didn’t needed. after that i dropped that idea and tried to work upon my personality, started my education again, and here i’m same as i was in back then, maybe a little worst.
It is a great comfort to know that there are other people out there with high IQs and same rush of stupid ideas/thoughts as in my mind.
Sajjad
I am 50 years old. My son made me aware of the having this condition or “personality trait”, and yes, I have a high iq. At age 9 I was diagnosed with MBD which years later became known as ADHD. I don’t quite have problems concentrating, but my brain does need a certain level of input for it to engage. I have no issue following multiple conversations concurrently and interacting with them, at one point successfully doing translations concurrently for six parties that were trying to interact in English and Dutch. In school I always found it very frustrating to slow down to the pace the class was going at, and if I became too bored, I would engage in direct dialogue with the instructor, which had mixed results regarding how the remainder of the students would feel about this. Sometimes they would be irritated, a few of the times I was reminded of many years later, because while it had not really not registered with myself as being special, my classmates had been very impressed. To mind comes a discussion with the school principal while in sixth grade, on the topic of Einstein and relativity, which they claim took all day. I have very little formal education (went to university for two years taking mathematics, but never finished. For years I worked in a renowned academic institution, rising through the ranks, my coworkers all had masters and PhD’s yet if my salary was any indicator at all, the piece of paper they had attained, appeared to be less appreciated. Over time I found out that I had often been used as a political pawn, and became more and more aware of the politics of my environment. Once this happened, I tried to explain to them that I did not find that acceptable and that it disgusted me, because it interfered with the students being able to learn. When I saw that brown nosing the president of the institution and getting recognition was more impotant to them then educating (which I still see together with research as the primary tasks of an academic institution, I resigned. This resulted in a day long talk with the head of human resources, because they could not understand why I wanted to leave. They were not able to convince me to stay, however, and I left. This was all years ago. I have been somewhat active in trying to bring about social change and took some time off to reflect and re-evaluate my goals, during which my son, who was studying psychology at the time dropped the LLI bomb on me. It explains a lot. I think the problem for me is that I was much more effective while I was oblivious. I have become more seelf conscious of how people often see me as an entertainment center. I have rearranged my life in such a way that I now interact with small groups of capable minds, and when needed I isolate myself to further process whatever input was passed along to me. I now avoid bars and other places where the background chatter is non-relevant input, because I find it annoying to have to store irrelevant input. I care deeply about humanity, because I realize how similar we all are, and am very skeptical about the emphasis on individuality, and the lack of compassion saddens me. I currently have high hopes for mirror neurons, which need eye contact to be activated. I will not be joining the facebook group, because facebook filled a gap in a very dysfunctional way. It filled the void between people, but in a way that now everyone uses it to communicate, but with no eye contact between the parties involved, it lacks the ability to make those communicating realize their commonality and makes it cold and very superficial. In using skype with a good friend who also “reads people’s emotional state very well (I am always very aware of how people feel, and understand why and how, and care deeply) we became aware of how communicating fully was hindered by not being able to have eye contact concurrently, since, when you look into the camera, the other person looks into your eyes, and vice versa, but it is impossible to do so at the same time. Regarding facebook, I am just not interested in being liked with a thumbs up. I am willing to work on improving the human condition. I hope to help in stopping the unsustainable abuse of resources, and to help people become more happy being who they are. Money is silly at best. My most valued commodity is time. I can not get it back once I spend it, and do not appreciate it when my time gets wasted. There is so much more that I would say, however, I realize that preaching to the choir is a waste of time. Here are a few things I found partially by applying my mind and thereby LLI.
1. The NRA claims guns are the equalizer. I am sceptical. However, giving every person on this planet a gun is cheaper then a year of sustained warfair, and furthermore there are plenty of weapon depots so it may even be possible to do so without increased production. So, NRA, show me, please.
2. No matter from which angle I look at it, it is NEVER a positive thing for a government to lie to its own people, and it is something that should not be tolerated by its citizens.
3. If the United States wants to play the alpha nation, it should start taking responsibility for its actions.
4. Dear United States of America, you scream freedom, yet you have more people incarcerated (3% of your population) then all other countries combined) stop your sickening propaganda, and revamp your policies so your actions at least match what you preach.
5. Efficiency as a concept needs some scrutiny. Our computers are becoming faster, and better. My question is, faster and better, at what, exactly.
6. I don’t have the time and energy, and know all to well how you can determine how things look using statistics, but the amount of heat produced by computing and the manufacturing of computing equipment has more effect on global heating then is admitted.
7. The first amendment of the US constitution now protects freedom of speech (the right to complain etc.)
Would it not be more beneficial to have it altered to “the right to be heard”? It seems that a lot of people are finding, that noone is listening. As far as I can tell it would greatly decrease the amount of high school shootings and the likes
8. When people are in pain, they are blind to the amount of pain they cause.
I try to apply my thinking on a global level, because we only have one earth. If we make it into a hell, it will be our own fault, and we are not good at dealing with guilt
I will start this letter in the same manner I am so used to prefacing much of my communication—with apologetics and qualifying statements: I realize that what I am going to say might very well cause you to perceive me as arrogant, pretentious, or delusively grandiose. This is not my intention. I implore you to hear me out with an open mind. I have explored my personality, situation, and difficulties intensely and critically thought about my situation very carefully. I know how very flawed I am; I do not believe I am rationalizing my personal schemas for the purpose of self-interest. I strive to objectively analyze myself in order to grow.
I am writing this letter because it is difficult for me to verbally express myself thoroughly to people. I express myself best through writing (although even this is often misunderstood). I have done many hours of research, talked to other people who have this condition, and tried to objectively evaluate myself (understanding the concept of selective perception), to find out whether I truly am characterized by a neurological disorder called low latent inhibition. Basically: “As you may be aware, LLI doesn’t enhance a person’s senses or cognitive prowess; it is simply the decreased function of the inhibition mechanism of the brain (that is, the function that removes unnecessary and irrelevant sensory information, streams of thought and connected memories/dreams from our conscious thought.) In simpler terms: the inability or reduced ability to ignore.” I feel I fit this criteria. I ask for your unbiased interpretation and assessment.
Please understand that I do not see this disorder as something to be proud of or happy about; it is a huge hindrance and a powerfully destructive force. It affects every moment of my life and causes extreme amounts of stress, anxiety, depression, disappointment, discouragement, hopelessness, loss of focus, memory problems, exhaustion, the inability or diminished capacity to take action and react efficiently, diminished self-esteem, resentment, poor time-management, asocial thoughts and attitudes, lack of intimacy, unrealistic goals, lack of identity, poor job performance, and I believe it even causes physical pain produced by stress.
I did not come to this conclusion lightly. Since I was nine years old I knew I wasn’t like everyone else and thought much differently. I vividly remember one instance as a child when I wasn’t thinking about anything and I literally perceived my environment as occurring in slow motion and lost all sense of hearing. Surprised and feeling strange, I immediately told my closest friend. This only happened once and probably lasted less than a couple minutes, but this event has stayed with me as one of the most powerful memories I have ever formed—I can still vividly remember the exact scene in motion.
When I was fifteen, I realized I had a problem. I was examined by innumerable family doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists. I have been misdiagnosed more times than I can remember. At the age of nineteen, I became very reclusive, believing that I possessed a character flaw that prevented people from liking me. A couple years later, I dedicated my thirst for knowledge to the endeavor of learning how to best respond purposefully in any situation in order to gain control over my life and my environment. This new quest afforded me many new passions such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, communication, martial arts, general self-defense, meditation and many subcategories such as body language and organizational skills, Now, I am twenty six and have many models at my disposal to utilize in nearly any given situation. By the way of meditation, introspection, and critical thinking, I have gathered much clearer insight into my relationship with the world, but am still no less conflicted! Because I have learned so much, people simply conclude that I became much smarter and I am asocial because ‘I am too smart for my own good’—this is not the case.
By mere happenstance, someone close to me told me that they had heard of this disorder and thought of me. I carefully compared and contrasted signs (I will only attempt to list a couple here—I could, and, in fact, already have discursively written hundreds of pages on this purportedly unique problem of mine). For the first time in my life I feel comfortable labeling my condition (with the information I have discovered thus far). It also feels empowering and encouraging to think that there are people I can relate to and learn from.
• I am excessively aware and continually cogitating acutely on incoming stimuli. While I do have keen sensitivity to physical stimuli, what I recognize as markedly strange is my unique response to information.
o I unknowingly, but consistently, correlate a plethora of information to seemingly unrelated concepts or experiences.
o I analyze my response to information to such a degree that it would seem ridiculous to most people. I explore every factor of every outcome of my decisions so thoroughly that I find negative scenarios arising from all or nearly all possible choices. This often results in my inaction or inability to authentically express or defend myself because of my fear of potential consequences. The problem with this is that what I gain in security from my extreme caution I lose in self-respect; I preclude my ability to retaliate against someone who has a disproportionate amount of leverage over me, whether they actually know it or not. This makes me appear weak. In many regards, I am often unable to command respect in situations where a normal person with similar resources would demand it because their reaction is derived from instincts and snap judgments devoid of intense critical thinking and advanced logical assessment.
• The entirety of my life experience so far has shown me that I do not relate with ANYONE I have met.
o This is not caused by lack of effort. I am very outgoing and approach people all the time. I research, study, apply and practice numerous models and concepts relating to communication and human interaction (I started listing all of the areas and realized the list is too long for this reading) almost to the point of obsession. By way of intense critical thinking, introspection, and evaluating how I present myself, I find that many models do not work for me because of the very nature of my thought processes.
o I attempt to identify with every type of person in certain explicit respects, but specifically look for people to meet who are curious, intelligent, or even socially awkward to build rapport and ultimately identify with—all to no avail. I have even tried assimilation with no success.
o I feel I am adequately confident, thoughtful, cheerful, funny, loyal, honest, and caring enough to communicate effectively. However, my immense curiosity and complexity of thought overpowers the interaction and people generally see me as someone who is challenging them. I have attracted many people by hiding this part of myself in many interactions and relationships only to find myself feeling unfulfilled, dissatisfied, terribly bored, and surreptitiously judgmental.
o This feeling of being completely alone and not identifying with people, despite incredible effort to do so, is very vexing. I often times feel the endeavor is futile. Humans’ desire to belong is undeniably strong and I feel very discouraged because I am unable to meet this desire. This is why I have focused this writing to this aspect of my personality. Additionally, I have unique challenges and circumstances that arise from this condition such as: anxiety, depression, energy, motivation, memory, education, career, decision-making, fear, resentment, anger, and physical health etc…
I have trouble communicating because my mind always is looking to advance as far as possible in logic and reasoning. The degree of evaluation and the sequence of logic, conclusions and questions far surpasses most people’s expectations of logical development with regard to the amount of, and time given to, the information presented. This is a problem because the person I am communicating with is still talking about point A while I want to move on to point Q with justifiably-valid logic. Being very polite and thoughtful, I listen genuinely to people, give them plenty of time to speak, and limit my interruptions, but I already understand the point they are trying to make and simply want to move on to further thoughts for collaboration. I wind up attempting to retain and progress my thoughts while simultaneously listening intently to the other party—this eventually leads to me losing my train of thought. This is one way which hinders my ability to express myself adequately. The other party is generally not very interested in critically thinking about or logically succeeding the conversation in order to find meaning. Or they simply spend an unnecessarily large amount of time expounding on basic premises. My head swims with ideas that I cannot express because most of the time people cannot follow the expression of my train of thought. I become bored, impatient, frustrated, and sometimes resentful in conversations because I cannot express myself. I often frustrate my teachers by asking questions (based on their current teaching) that they were not planning to address for some time.
I am very intuitive and generally able to read people very well. People often say I am a little intense. They admit to having dissimilar values and interests. Professors and people who know me call me smart, but that isn’t the root of my quandaries. I took an IQ test when I was in high school, and while I did score fairly high (in 140’s), my score wasn’t off the charts. I have met many very intelligent people and am still unable to relate to them because we do not share the same level of desire with regard to developing the best schemas; instead of communicating openly and creatively with passionate curiosity and an ability to question their own beliefs for truth’s sake, they aggressively assert their own preconceived and limited schemas and/or passively listen to or accept my reasoning with no interest in collaborating for the purpose of reaching a goal of deeper understanding—they want to show what they know rather than critically think to grow.
People obviously get frustrated or impatient with me because they feel I ‘over-analyze’. These people also often openly admit to not caring about learning anything that will challenge them to surpass what others’ expectations of them are. My concept of the generalized other is one of ignorance and arrogance. I have tried, but do not know how to change this.
The tools I have learned and developed to cope with my issue(s) are: meditation; mindfulness techniques; organization; personal philosophy and rules to live by; intense and very long studying; escape through entertainment; consciously altering my physiology in order to alter my mood, outlook on life, and self-talk; exercise; and martial arts.
I need a tangible role model and people to surround myself with that will challenge me, people that have the same intense desire for collaboration as I do. Despite taking the correct academic steps, I still struggle with a career choice and expressing myself authentically. I could really use some guidance or help—I am unsure where my own devices will lead me.
P.S. I do have many positive attributes and capacities that allow me to set and reach higher standards, in certain respects, for myself than anyone else I have personally met. I am very innovative, creative, and original. I have an innate knack for problem solving and improving efficiency. I am drawing close to receiving a baccalaureates degree, have a perfect 4.0 and a few outstanding letters of recommendations from appreciative professors. However, creative and efficient problem solving does have a downside at times. I have given well-planned-million-dollar ideas to employers on many occasions only for the ideas to be disregarded because they did not come from upper management. Time and time again I would improve the cost and time efficiency of manufacturing processes tremendously only to be reprimanded for violating procedure. I decided to quit working, until I can have reasonable autonomy, because I determined jobs like this have no meaning. They could simply hire a sophisticated robot to do the job, if it existed.
I realize many factors that surround my problems and wish I had somewhere to post the hundreds of pages of deductions, epiphanies, and solutions that I have written regarding many numerable topics like how to deal with difficult people.
A couple key factors that hold me back or cause me problems are my lack of resources, and my lack of direction or discovery of true passion. My fears stem from insecurities caused by my lack of resources such as financial and interpersonal. My thought is that I need to climb Abraham Maslow’s proverbial ladder of self-actualization. The difficulty I reach is figuring out an exact method of how to actually transcend his specific levels of security.
I struggle with identifying which one of my passions I should follow. I fear that my current passions are a product of my environment and merely interests; once I satisfy my interest by learning that which I am interested in, then I will no longer be passionate about them. I also recognize the immense depth and complexities of the grandiose goals my current passions are aimed toward; I know that it may take many years or be completely impossible altogether and these interests might never be satiated. E.g. identifying the key mechanisms that are involved in appealing to universal desires, and developing applicable models to essentially influence people who need change, but will never realize it by appealing to universal desires. Or more simply put: how to, on a macro scale, change people who do not want to change, but need it. I recognize that lack of compassion is the primary reason for suffering; this problem plagues me and I spend countless hours working on a solution that would work on a global scale. Shockingly, I am actually making relevant key discoveries! However, I need collaboration and cooperation to see a solution come to fruition. I have lost touch with many of the passions I remember having as a child; I ponder the possibilities of reverting to these aspiration. Are they my ‘true’ passions? Do I still have the capacity to realize these passions? There are so many components to consider. Maybe I will post one of my writings once a day if anyone shows interest in my doing so. I look forward to any replies and hope to connect and collaborate with like-minded individuals.
Lol…God why can’t I be normal?!
Chris, thanks for the post. I get a large charge out of reading someone describing their feelings instead of me having to guess (So much more accurate, doncha think?). Plus, it feels safer here and feels like most people will actually read it and understand the good heart behind our shell, which is usually all that is seen by others.
Wouldn’t it be cool to find a way to all get together and form a think tank/brain trust business that generated ideas and solutions on demand; to be able to work at our minds pace instead of imposed, established, cultural mandates? Free to think and create and learn and grow to our greatest extent and to the limits of our desires. Maybe being surrounded by others that think and feel in the same generalized way that we do would provide a plethora of information to all of us on how to deal with this in all aspects of our lives. I’m sure we’d have a sub-group specializing in just such an endevor. I’m thinkin’ that the biggest challenge might be finding someone to lead that could also tolerate us. ;o)
Ryan
I was thinking along the exact same lines as Ryan.. A think tank! A brilliant idea although other people would likely see it as a bunch of mutant nerds getting together to discuss matters that don’t make sense.. It drives me crazy how stupid I feel some people are. No arrogance just loneliness.. You all get my drift? Sometimes I wish I could help people understand what I’m thinking, and other times I find it best to just sit back and be a shepherd, instead of being a black sheep or wolf. Does this make sense? I feel like someone on a mission to help those who think differently, but when you say it like that it just makes me sound like a cocky you know what.. Ughhh why do I have to come across so arrogant? Grr
I love the “shepherd” part. I don’t feel that anything to any of these posts feels “cocky” or “arrogant” although I understand the need to include disclaimers and to constantly evaluate one’s own intentions and check oneself to make sure that ideas expressed will be interpreted correctly.
It’s important to remember that experience is relative, but ultimately one must live with oneself the way that one is and I for one am tired of apologizing for being what I am- the “gifts” come with their own burden, and if they could be used to alleviate human suffering then at least something has come from that.
Haha. Wow man. You just described me, only i had to find myself through years of emotional and physical abuse and isolation. Honestly the stress almost killed me, but i think if i hadn’t had the understanding i have of the world i might’ve blamed myself for it and killed myself anyway. It takes a lot of reassurance that most people in the world are simple minded, cling to stereotypes and proxies because its “easier”. Its a world that dismisses truth for something that looks like truth and instead of giving power to those who would use it best, they give it to those who “look” powerful. I totally share your resentful feelings of being unappreciated, and also have had brilliant ideas that go overlooked just because i dont wear a badge that says i’m qualified to comment on it. A few years ago i had the idea to combine OLED screens with 3D motion tracking and projection mapping to create holographic images in a pair of glasses. I was told it was impossible, or that i didnt have the resources, or it was a nice thought but it just wasnt practical. Its now called google glass and its selling for 1000$ bucks a piece. I could have made a killing, had anyone actually listened.
I found in dealing with other people its best to really confidently emphasize your talents, and also to say only one part of the bigger picture. When i tell people i am a photographer, they are like, “oh, thats great”, and they tell me how wonderful my portfolio is. But when i tell them i am also pursuing music, visual effects, graphic design, that i know how to program computers and create 3D models of cities, they dismiss my photography as a grandiose claim or somehow less significant in regards to the bulk of my entire work. I thought being so multitalented would HELP my ability to sell my work but its actually negatively impacted it. Why? Because people dont want a generalist, they want a specialist. Each of my skills are not mutually exclusive, they interconnect, and my understanding of one improves upon the other. But no one sees that, much less cares. So i tell them i do what they are looking for, and dont mention anything else.
Pretending i’m much more simple minded helps not just in professional situations, but social situations. I realize most people think if something can’t be said simply then it just isnt worth believing. Although i do a lot of thinking, i can’t just SAY my conclusions because regardless of how logical it is people will argue it just because they dont know the steps i took to get to that conclusion, and explaining it all to people is counterproductive. In the words of the Tao, let your methods remain a mystery, just show them the results. For me, anything else is a headache waiting to happen.
I understand and I skipped large chunks of what you wrote.
When I was 15, there was no internet. No adhd etc. If you thought you were different, you just lived with it or didn’t. I’m sure you know where didn’t leads. So I won’t say it.
You’re depressed by thinking that you lead a terrible life, but you don’t. Everything is great, huge, amazing, made up of intricate parts and movements. Even little insects, little flies, plants, trees, stone, everything is made of up so many things, and you can find out all of these things about everything and it’s interesting. It’s not a bad thing. It’s a great thing, the only problem, the only real issue I’ve had, is trying to explain how great life is, because no one is interested. Even these days, with the internet, with it’s millions of computers and souls connected, people aren’t really interested in how it works, they’re only interested in specific things, how a mobile phone works and even then, only how to switch it off or on.. limited things, but there’s so much more to a mobile phone. so much more to everything.
I don’t know if I’m considered thick or intelligent by standards.. I don’t see how an iq test really means anything, it’s just a test of some logical thoughts, but it doesn’t mean someone is smarter, it just means they’re smarter in a particular way. And I see no reason to worry about this. Neither should you. Life gets better every day.
We are all alike. You and me have the same problem we over think things to the degree of it doing more harm then good.
Personally I could not care less about putting an official diagnosis or being validated by a label for the way my brain has developed for whatever reason or reasons in different ways than most others. I have suspected for quite some time that the combination and presence of ADHD, Anxiety, gifted and twice-exceptional, OCD, high IQ and EQ, empath, HSP and other terms that describe at least in part our unique thought process which is very different than most everyone, will be called something else completely and the comorbidities are actually all symptomatic of the same diagnosis or label. Until we have a way to simplify with one label so other people can better accept and at least try to understand that we are the way we are because our brain works that way and it is different than most. I didn’t do anything to train or make myself this way and brain process is automatic so I know that what seems so obvious and clear to me, just isn’t for most. I have the same desires for emotional connections and relationships with people though and so I have to sound like I am riddled with psychological disorders that I have to apologize for and blame for my inability to think like them. There’s so much reinforcement of “it’s my problem, not yours” “don’t take it personal it’s my ________ talking, etc…” and we say “you’re normal, I’m disordered and I need to conform to your normal” and it’s so exhausting to even explain over and over so someone can just simply take what we say as what we truly mean. I just want to have a few people to have relationships with that stimulate my mind without all the usual hiding and downplaying so I don’t seem to be trying to debate or one-up others. I don’t debate because it would mean sticking to a one argument or position and reinforcing it to win the debate or be “right” so that I can change what other people believe. My brain can’t help straying where the connections take it and that can become an intricate web that looks very chaotic and random if even attempted to be explained. But it makes total sense and I know there’s an order but it’s expanding exponentially with more and more connecting, more and more connections on connections and connections on those connections and back to first and more now on the original one etc… I would love to just not feel like I had to waste my time with the apologies and blame and just be real and honest because ego is just an annoying block to truth. We seek each other out to feel the way everyone feels all the time, normal and unapologetic. With the internet there is a way to be able to do that basically just like other outliers
Chris, from someone who has deeply needed your opening and so desperately trying to explain to people who always ask me questions about why and who and what and how and this and that, but then not realizing the question they just asked makes me ask 45 in return. Considering I USED TO WRITE LONGER P. S. notes to myself than actual… Letters to myself. Embrace who you are. Find God. He is who the Book says HE IS. you can email me anytime you like.
Sincerely Jesse.
Hi, my name is Maria and I am a gifted person. I am mother of three children also diagnosed as gifted. I wonder if the sa called LLI is related to the hypersensibilities for having a higher IQ. I have LLI, I spend the day smelling, feeling and seing things that other people do not see. I have a very simple example from today as I when to the bank together with my husband in order to get some info about getting a loan. The bank lady talking to us was holding the ball pen in a very peculiar way. During our interview I could not stop looking at the way she hold the pen and making myself million of questions as why she has not learnt to hold the pencil in the right way. At the same time a clock was ticking in the room and I also counted how many peole was there and look at the colour of the shirt of an employee sitting far from us. That just happened in 1 second, i just pictured the situation and put on “the recording sensor”…that´s how I call it. At the end of the meeting I mentioned it to my husband about the way she hold the pen and during 45 minutes that we sat there, he did not notice anything, as usual. I live on the cuntry side and when the wind blows the sound of the leaves of the trees when they move for me it sounds as strong as the sound coming from big waves and when I am tired late in the day, I can handle the light I am very sensitive for the loudness of the Tv or the lights of the ceiling. The smells are also very important. Another thing is to go in the bus or in the subway. People just stands there but you check all the sings, count people, check the clothes, the sound of the train, can smell the hair of the person close to you, the wet of their shoes and see and avoid dangerous and account for many options about how to scape from that train or bus in case of an accident or a bomb, and then you even feel the beating of your heart…and stomach aches because of the million of feelings…in just one normal daily trip in the subway….Sometimes when I go to sleep I am exhausted, it is like if you were recording information the whole day, that you did not need and your head is full of information and sleeping is like when you click reset, but you know that next day it will happen again. The LLI makes you to accumulate so many feelings, numbers, faces, peoples, body language…that some days you need to cry it off in order to feel relieve. The crying every other time in order to clean the tense for the numerous emotions it is a must in order to handle this peculiar gift. Sometimes I have showered but after a couple of hours I smell my own hear and I know it is just me who smells it as it is a new washed hair. I am a woman and I can´t have long nails. I can´t understand how some women they can have long nails and type a computer..I can vomit just thinking about it…is this really a gift? I am not sure as it makes you being different, so different that many times you just keep your thougths to yourself in order not to scare anybody with your weird sensitiveness.
Hey Maria. Could you elaborate on what you meant by ‘I can vomit just thinking about it’?. I am interested if this nausea is anxiety related at all?
I am pretty certain (lets say about 99.999%) that I have LLI, I can only describe it as a fair ride, out of control that you cannot get off, speed variable. Your brain holds you prisoner, sometimes you can control it sometimes not. It makes you irritable, intolerant of others (albeit you may be a good person at heart) and it sucks the ability to concentrate from you. It also makes you ramble a lot (as your thoughts and theories spiral). Just looking at the comments here made me smile (there all a gizzillion lines long), it’s like trying to dump your brain all at once. I love it and hate it, it ruin your life at the same time as propelling you further in your chosen trade. I am going to stop writing now, or I will look back and laugh at my post being just as long as the others……. I have joined the forum to dump more of my brain out. 😉
Chris…. I started to read your message and wow…. I got through the first 50 lines and thought you sound just like me, don’t take this message the wrong way, I am not laughing at the length of your post, but more at the fact I cannot even read past 50 lines as my own stupid ability to concentrate and read it stop me. I litterally have a problem with how my wife puts it, pointless chit chat. I am not saying your message is pointless, not at all, just my own inability to take in big portions of information without getting anxious. I have to have edited information (my wife gets half way through telling me things and stops…. then realises I have gone into zombie mode and cuts to the point). In return though this doesn’t work for me, I ramble like a gooden. Anyhow, I totally get what you are talking about, after reading just the first bit I already think I know what the rest is going to say ( 😉 ) I promise I will try to read it through fully, in fact I will force myself. Please join the forum, I would like to talk to you more, I just joined today. My post is about my brain having no brakes….
ta
Paul
MJ, you still out there?
I’m investigating low latent inhibition as a potential explanation for why my brain works the way it does. I recently watched “Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows” and realized he must have had LLI because of the way he was constantly assessing his surroundings and trying to make sense of them. After investigating a bit further i began to realize that some of the symptoms describe me very well. Even in normal everyday situations i am constantly evaluating the most efficient solution and i reorganize my brain on a daily basis. I have a high IQ (tested at 139 when i was younger, i’m sure its higher now) and i constantly find myself wanting to turn my brain off. Some of this is due to the effects of prolonged PTSD from seriously traumatizing events in my childhood, but it does not explain my persistent need to connect information.
I have been referred to as a renaissance man and am constantly exploring new talents. I get good at things very easily, and this is less due to a natural ability for them and more due to understanding the process in which skills are developed. I adhere wholeheartedly to the neurolinguistic programming motto “to become successful you must model yourself after success”, but i’ve also found i can connect previously useful information with new stimuli quite easily. For instance, i can apply my understanding of lights and shadows in 3D modeling to a 2D sketch, apply my visual understanding of signal processing to my audible understanding (gamma is to contrast as gain is to compression) and even connect understandings of 3d point cloud generation from 2D images to complex understandings of quantum physics and the subjective reality of the universe. I am not sure if this quite fits the profile of “low latent inhibition”, or is just the sign of a well organized brain.
I’ve also realized much of my anxieties have come from anticipating the reactions from other people. For instance, i am not very good at taking advice i have already heard before, because i’m constantly considering a plethora of common viewpoints on the situation and most people give “common advice”. I’m usually already considering their viewpoint before they say it, and i anticipate their reaction when i tell them i’ve already heard it before (which is usually negative, they feel like they’re not being heard) and then somehow exactly what i expect to happen happens. I understand that this may to some extent be a self fulfilling prophecy, but i also realize that for most situations there’s really only a few opinions to have and they tend to be polarized. I can anticipate the reactions of democrats and republicans in political situations not because i understand the entirety of their being but because i understand the fundamental opinions they base their ideologies on and the logical conclusions it will lead them to jump to.
Can someone tell me if i fit the profile of someone with LLI? I’m really trying hard not to self diagnose here. I want to know if its an option i should continue to consider.
Hello, Ben and everyone,
This is absolutely fascinating. I am a graduate student in psychology and stumbled upon this blog after Googling latent inhibition for a paper I am writing. Now, after reading all the posts, I wonder if I, too, might not have a smattering of LLI.
Your post, Ben, hits home most poignantly. When you wrote, “i can connect previously useful information with new stimuli quite easily,” I realized that is how I learn, almost exclusively. I am absolutely hopeless when it comes to pure memory. Case in point, I failed anatomy twice. I gave up trying to act in plays because I cannot remember my lines.
On the other hand, while serving in the military, I found a solution for memorizing aircraft (required for my specialty) since they were pretty much a blur to me. I started building model airplanes and then painting them. It only took, perhaps 8 models until I could “connect” what I had learned from those 8 to all the rest in anybody’s air force. I used to call it learning out of context but I like your explanation better.
I have been an animal trainer, both horses and dogs. Most of my life I have studies how these animals think and why they behave as they do. Now I am becoming a psychologist and seeing (at the risk of political incorrectness) how much humans and animals are exactly the same, especially when it comes to pack behavior (e.g. the Rodney King debacle). Moreover, my specialty is applied functional behavior analysis. Dang! I already know it all, thinks I. Oh, and I’m also considered a know-it-all. I’ll be babbling facts to someone, catch myself doing it, and joke, “And if you don’t believe me, just ask me.”
As a child I was very awkward socially, was bullied, and had few friends. I, too, used to question my teachers all the time. I was known as “spring butt,” because I always knew the answers and was raising my hand.
Ben, you talk about being a renaissance man. That’s me–except I’m not a man. I often tell people I’m a jack of all trades but master of none, but, actually, I am a master of many. In the military I was an expert in radar emplacement. People sought out my advice all the time. After retirement I became a police officer for awhile and advanced to the position of police chief, although it was of a small village, and a canine handler. As a child I was a prodigy with regard to artistic drawing and painting. I was also an accomplished equestrian internationally. Now I breed and train Malinois dogs in all sorts of skills, to include sledding. Oh, yeah, I’ve written and self-published one novel, one book is finished about dog behavior, and I have 3 more novels on the back burner. The list goes on and on.
And, similar to you, I just as quickly lose interest in the things I am good at. I have a hard time sticking with a job for much more than a few years. I have been at the one I am doing now for 10 and it’s driving me nuts. That’s why the psychology degree. And I am 61.
But latent inhibition is different with me. This morning while I was reading the blogs on this site, the parrot was muttering. I could not screen it out and so attended to him before I could continue. While walking in the woods I notice all sorts of things. I am very good at noticing 4-leaf clovers and fossils, things like that. I am easily distracted and can hardly read nor retain material that is not interesting to me. But I can inhibit ticking clocks, fluorescent lights, gurgling coffee pots, background noise in restaurants. So I don’t know what’s with me. Limited low latent inhibition? Triple LI? lol
But, it does get better. At my age, I have learned to exploit the gift. I am a top-notch student, outclassing almost all my classmates, whereas in undergraduate school, when in was in my 20’s, I almost did not graduate. I earned a 2.5 GPA. Plus, despite some health and chronic pain issues, I am really enjoying life these days. At my age I can get away with being socially awkward. I’m now an interesting eccentric and people gravitate toward me.
And, Ben, I am still a student and just learning about these sorts of things. My guess is that a lot of these syndromes are related. I would bet that LLI has similar genetic markers as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and the autistic spectrum which are all genetically interconnected. I’d be interested in seeing what research tells us.
It gets better.
Chris M
I must say, the past 3 weeks have been both enlightening, and slightly scary. I’m 14, and I’ve struggled a insane amount over the past 3 years trying to figure out what my “problem” is.. I’ve always been very sensitive to other people’s emotions, and will go out of my way to help a random person just because my mind tells me how and I see no reason not to. In the 6th grade, I really started to focus and hone my skills of prediction, and for a time was under the impression that I could read minds. I struggled with this idea for a long time and in 8th grade, when I read about LLI (I forgot where I first read it I just remember seeing it somewhere), I realized instead of reading minds, I was really just predicting thoughts and speech. As i read on I came to realize why I automatically predict what a teacher might say next, or how my strict parents will respond when faced with a particular comment or action of mine (I have a tendency to test people to gain more information about their character). I’ve taken several different IQ tests, averaging 152 overall. This process has been so difficult mainly because I have many “friends” who I thought to be complete D-bags simply because they always labeled me as an arrogant know-it-all braggart who couldn’t stop talking about myself. The reason for my urge to discuss my thoughts? Maybe just a intense desire to connect with other people. My friends don’t understand things, or comprehend things the way I do, which makes it virtually impossible for them to accept my ideas simply because they are logically much more advanced than they can comprehend. That right there is likely the single most frustrating thing with LLI.. It’s almost impossible to agree with people who speak a different language..
Another trait I haven’t seen mentioned yet is a unique fighting ability. I don’t know about anybody else, but I took a mix of Martial arts for a year and a half, which gave me basic defense, and offensive skills in any sort of engagement. What is most interesting about this though (admittedly I’ve been in a few “rumbles”), is that when I’m sparring or wrestling, my mind will deduct based on the opponents moves, what they will do next, giving me the ability to attack, and win. Not many people at my school have ever called me out (likely because I’m tall and strong), but when this one kid attacked after school after I asked him to refrain from swearing, I simply put him on the ground. I don’t remember exactly the moves I did, but somehow, in that brief moment, my mind put together all the moves I’d learned, made a new combination, and attacked the opponent without giving him a chance to even throw a second punch (the first one I blocked). These events scared me mostly because after having laid somebody out, barely touching or harming them, what would my subconscious do in a life or death situation? This question is still unanswered, but for the time being, I have taught myself extreme self-control in the event of any heated exchange. Of course advanced logic and superior arguing skills will often prevail, I’ve learned there are some things you just can’t predict, and you simply have to let your LLI riddled mind do the talking. I know this comment is slightly odd, but having found a new community of people who think like me, I found it only logical to express my feelings, and share my experiences on the matter.. Thoughts?
Reading your passage made me smile Andrew. I can see some similarities between us for sure, I’m 26 now but i remember being your age and all that came with it. I’ve got low latent inhibition, with pretty much the same average IQ reading as yours, i’m also an empath and i score extremely highly in relation to emotional intelligence and I’d say it’s possible you have a very similar mix yourself.
I started martial arts when i was 7 and carried on for years, (Aikido first, then Shotokan Karate and have since played around with Wing Chun Kung Fu), and i know exactly what you mean with regards opponents telegraphing what they’re about to do. However, this so called ‘telegraphing’ actually resonates in pretty much all areas of my life as far as the involvement of other people goes. Your brain is actually picking up on stimuli (both consciously and subconsciously) presented to you by other human beings in your immediate environment maybe 50x quicker and with 100x greater detail in terms of the number of stimuli processed, when compared to people without LLI, or without the higher IQ to support the LLI they might have (probably resulting in nearly the same AMOUNT of stimuli picked up on, but at nowhere near the same processing speed in their case). The stimuli processed kind of then supply your intuition and perception with the relevant information to make EXTREMELY quick and accurate judgment calls at a far greater pace than others. That’s why to normal people, a lot of behavior by people like us can almost seem ‘compulsive’ to a level nearing OCD, when if you were surrounded by people the same as yourself they’d understand your acts aren’t compulsive, they are just calculated in a totally different way to normal people.
The way in which our brains receive and process stimuli is very unique, and you’ll probably find that pretty much ANYTHING you try, you’ll only have to try for a very short while before being at the same level as someone very experienced in the same area.
I recommend you read into some papers published by Professor Anders Ericsson with regards to expertise and his theories behind how many man hours the average human being requires to study a new subject and master it, I’ve corresponded with him previously and it seems as though those with LLI (or at least with a similar set of traits as my own and probably yours) take FAR less than the 10’000 man hours it would usually take people.
One thing i would say to you is to make sure that you never, ever stop testing people around you and their reactions to stimuli that you present them with. Definitely the main reason why i can do some of the things i can do today in relation to interaction with other people is because i have spent my whole life testing people. After a while it almost feels as though people and how they will react are more like mathematical equations, with you finding it far easier to predict exactly what people will do as time goes by. If you carry on you’ll notice over the years that you are able to correctly predict more and more peoples reactions or thoughts to a far wider range of goings on, pretty much to the point where it does feel like you can read minds.
The main downside of that however, is having to live life hiding all of that from people who aren’t like us. People fear what they don’t understand and fear itself then results in mocking or belittling and possibly even losing some friends so be careful! Frankly, it would end up scaring people how accurately we can read them and their thoughts – i will soon be writing an article for this website myself with regards reading peoples conscious AND unconscious minds.
If you would ever like to talk to people with similar abilities to yourself who maybe have a few more years of age under their belt, then please join the forum here or the facebook group and me and the others will be happy to chat with you!
Thanks to everyone who’s posted here so far and despite how extremely busy my life is and the lives of the others contributing to this site we will strive to keep new content coming!
Dale
I will definitely join the Facebook group, along with the forum here.. I’m so busy all the time (especially with end of the year finals next week), and I’ve found that just expressing my thoughts to people in the public has helped me to cope with the stress. I’m quickly figuring out my limits, and trying to find ways to maximize this wonderful curse of a talent. I’m currently setting up an experiment that will take place over the summer months to see if I can begin to reach my true potential with regards to this newly found explanation for my troubles. I’m admittedly kind of excited partially because I already know that the mental and physical exercises will greatly increase my ability to learn and my speed in mathematical calculation, which should help just about everything my Freshman year of highschool. I will logging my results daily over the summer, and would offer up my results and plans to anyone in the LLI community who is interested. Since I’m still only 14, I realize there is loads of potential in my future if I utilize my abilities. Being an athlete, I also plan on experimenting with the mental side of my competition. After winning first place at the district wrestling tournament my first year of wrestling, I’m very excited to really start getting into not just different martial arts, but also things like meditation, and yoga to help balance my thoughts and actions. I’m completely open to suggestion from anybody who has harnessed this condition, and knows how to truly utilize the abilities that come with it. I know my thoughts are often scattered, but when your mind is going so fast it’s kind of hard to keep up on the keyboard if you know what I mean!
Andrew
I hear you, I haven’t taken any fighting classes and I am able to to remarkable things. But I can’t do consciously. Nor have I had to. From being put I full body locks and reversing it on the other person, to reading a person and accurately predicting what they will do. The reading is subconscious, but the results always end up I’m my conscious mind. Then I subconscious predict and find a way out of that situation. I rarely kick someone’s butt. I simply make it harder for them then they prefer. Plus I’m not that strong so cupel that I with my problems and I end up In a lot of would be fights.
Want to subconsciously see all the grammar errors before I post replies.
My name is Steven and I am 15 years old and I am low latent inhabited. I found out what the term was when reading this article, but I found out when I thought why don’t my friends and family see the world like I do. But I think I am blessed and unique. I believe this was a gift. Thanks Dale Webb
Is it possible to have partial LLI ?
I’m not saying i’m more intelligent than anyone, i don’t really believe in IQ tests as a truthful method of intelligence. I have always noticed a greater deal about the people around me than anyone else. I don’t however consider the diameter and geometry of door handles.I make connections to things in my mind that other people don’t so they don’t always get my jokes. Sometimes i leave out important details in stories because in my mind the connection is obvious. I feel as though i think very differently to the people i work with and that i can see a “bigger picture” when talking about work than most others. I also have this hunger to find out how things work. For example, if you are a sales person in an office you sell the product or process orders. I’m a stock controller so my job has 2 main roles. Count the stock and order the stock. But within a few months of working here i knew that the order goes to a merchant or layer which is then processed and comes to us, It is then planned in to be made by the planner, the stock is then made, i process the stock after being made, it is then booked out to the customer by despatch, loaded by a loader to a lorry which then makes its way out to the customer. Now almost all of the sales staff are content with just processing the orders. I on the other hand can’t help myself but find out every step in every process.
I have no idea if this is classified as LLI or not, all i know is they i care more about all the details in things than others.
Does this sound similar to other people here or am i looking in the wrong place?
Also the reason i ask about it being partial is because there are times when a handle is just a handle to me and there are times when i notice more details about the room, but it’s never 100% of the time.
It sure is possible, most people have LLI to a certain extent. The door handle was just an example of having to break everything down to the root source or reason – it works with everything, conversations you’ll have with people are like a game of chess as an example, you know what they’re going to say to something you say and you’ll already have an answer in your head for what they then say and so on. Most people who have LLI like mine i guess just ‘pretend’ to be normal around people because it’s easier pretending than it is possible explaining it. Seeing the full picture rather than seeing the world piecemeal can apply to anything though, you might notice smells others dont, you might see things others miss – the key really is that i suppose our brains automatically at a ridiculous pace as “why” to everything and keep asking why until we know why something is or how it came to be.
I heard a great example of this today during a training course where i work actually when the guy was talking about selling techniques – the 5 whys. As in, for most people it’d be “why do you clean your teeth”, “because i want them to be clean”, “Why”, “because im hygenic and i want them to look nice”, “why”, “because if they look nice other people will notice and i want that”, “why”, “because i want to look attractive to other people”, “why”, “so that i can find a partner”. THERE is the root cause, they want to find a partner. People with LLI (at least like my own LLI) are always automatically asking and answering those why questions based on our intuition and perception, and because our intuition and perception are based on far more stimuli (and details therefore noticed) they are nearly always right.
So i guess that’s just as good a way as the door handle example – the WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY example and how that works – we do that naturally and very quickly. I imagine like myself, most people who CAN do that choose to keep it hidden to most of the world through fear of people not understanding it and therefore either ridiculing you, fearing you or constantly then getting you to perform for them with examples.
At least that’s my take!
Hi, I’m ari and I am 15 years of age. What you all are describing is exactly what I am experiencing. It’s kind of hard for me to except that I may have LLI because I figured there was going to be something mentally wrong with me. My biological mother (I’m adopted) was mentally unstable and my younger sister is MR. My adopted brother has ADHD, so even if i was going to tell my moms about this, I think I will just be shot down. Plus, I don’t want to put extra weight onto her, she is dealing with problems with my two brothers and my younger sister who has severe anger management problems.
I could consider myself smart but that sounds to vain. I have not taken an iq test because I am afraid my mother will find out. She is not good at listening to other people’s side of the story.
I also have some concerns to express. As I have became of age, I have became more and more insensitive to my feeling and more sensitive to people’s emotions around me: like if someone is crying, i feel like i will start crying because they are sad. Also I have become more irritated if its really loud and chaotic. Ie: when I’m babysitting my sibling that tend to become loud and obnoxious, it makes feels like I can’t think straight; for example if I’m trying to read a text message and they are laughing and running around upstairs, I can’t focus on the message because I’m focusing on them. Because of this I become really irritable.
Does this happen to any of you?
Also will this become problematic for my career path: Im thinking of becomeing a surgeon or joining the military or the FBI?
I think what Ari is describing is me to a T. when he said that abou this text, i am like, yeah! I do that, too. This condition has led me to dislike music, its loud and annoying to me anymore. If there is music I have to get away from it.I can’t stand the CHH CHH sounds that come from headphones either. I also thought something is wrong with me. I’ve been told I have narcissism, being self-absorbed. I just started a new job recently where I teach computer skills to troubled teens. I have a hard time dealing with being strict. I ask myself why? why is it a big deal for them to look at their phones occasionally? Its the rule. I need to follow the rules of the school. How can I if I can’t see them doing something wrong? I found that I can’t discipline them because I don’t notice the things that they do. I get a call because someone is watching the students on the cameras and calls me to make me correct the student. huh? One student took off his uniform shirt in my class. He wasnt naked, he had on another shirt. I just didn’t notice he took his shirt off. I am at a loss. I am going to look for another networking/computer position because even though I love teaching and reaching the students, I am no good if I cannot follow the rules of the school. I just keep asking myself, why?
Ari, I also get really emotional over things easily. I cry at commercials. I cry when someone young dies just because their poor parents have to bury a child. It makes me feel like an emotional wreck. I understand how you feel. I look at it as we have an intuitive mind, but only on what interests us. I do not care about the students getting discipline as much as I care about them learning something. So their discipline has taken back seat to my attention. They aren’t in agreement with that being my priority. So, you see there isn’t anything wrong with you, just your brain functions in a different manner. Geez, you wouldn’t want us ALL to be the same, would you?
Wow! I made this comment back in 2013 when I was just fifteen, now it’s 2015 and I’m seventeen, almost eighteen in three months. Re-reading everything I had just described makes me feel so nostalgic. I can say for sure that things have calmed down since that year. Although my grades have balanced and my family situation has gotten better, I’d say that my sensitivity to the world around me has gotten worse.
I’m talking both perceptual and emotional wise. When talking about social issues like LGBTQA+, women’s rights, child abuse, etc, I tend to get so heated. I have learned that becoming so passionate about such issues makes me sort of a target from my peers, because apparently you can only care about your world and the people in it, if you’re a woman. I guess it’s too hard for other guys my age to understand that’s okay not to be a complete tool. I always get called gay, because I care so much about everything, I can’t understand why it’s so hard to just do the right thing.
Perceptually, I’m not as hyper-aware/hyper-active as I was two years ago, I think I’ll let puberty take the blame for this one, ha ha– I still do become easily distracted, but to a certain extent. I don’t have ADD or ADHD, so I know for sure it’s not a disorder, and I sort of ‘trained’ myself to become more focused. I have found that conceptual games like chess and the Chinese game called ‘Wieqi’ has helped. When I’m out in public, the world has sort of became less distracting, I don’t find myself as attentive as I was back then, but things are still disruptive mentally. Chess and music has helped me personally with this problem.
With this all being said, I’m not here to brag about what a genius I am, because I totally not, my grades have slipped some, but I think that’s due to my morals being changed. I don’t consider school that important to me, I can’t get my self to actually care about AP and GPA as much as the people around me. I used to take Pre-AP and I took AP Physics, AP Psychology and APUSH, but I have started to believe that this is all useless to my life. Don’t get me wrong, I still love school; I love learning, but I just can’t find the significance in grades anymore. My grades are average, A’s and high B’s, but they’re just numbers to me now.
I don’t know if anyone has experienced this, but I just think it’s sort of funny, considering that I was the complete opposite back in 2013. I went through a really tough time emotionally last year, I kind of fell to self-harm and depression, (I am 207 days clean! (I keep a day calculator)), so maybe that’s what triggered it. I am curious if anyone else has gone through this sort of fall out, or if I’m all alone here, but re-reading all these comments from two to three years ago just makes me wish to know how everyone is doing.
For me, the future is still a little unclear, I have decided against Med school, the amount of training and the cost is horrendous, so I’m like 98% sure that I’ll go to college for my criminal justice degree with a minor in linguistics and then enlist in the U.S Army before going off to get hired as a police officer. Although my mother(s) keep pestering me about art school, my life is pretty much heading for the police force.
I hope everyone else who had commented on this article years ago comes back and revisits their comment, just compare where they were and where they are now. I wish everyone the best of luck; and who knows, maybe you’ll see me again two years from now.
—Best of luck, Ari
Hi everyone
I am only 17, however I have researched and read countless papers, not finding much in the way of attributes or, ways to effectively determine that I have LLI. As many, I first discovered LLI from Prison Break, however I felt much more connected to Micheal then many of my friends or family did, I felt that I had a weird connection/similarities with him. I then stumbled upon multiple blogs and this here website, and I feel that I follow many similar symptoms to previous posters.
I am constantly surveying every new environment I am placed in, if I study (which I rarely tend to do) music, or the tele needs to be on in the background. When I read, I often get distracted unless I am listening to music at the same time. I always have a thirst for knowledge and am constantly striving to learn more. When my friends or parents have a menial problem I always constantly have a solution quicker then they can ask (even if they do not ask) which sometimes frustrates me if I believe that my solution is better. I am constantly adapting and looking for new ways to solve problems. From a young age I have always been interested in taking apart technology, (remotes, guitars, etc) If i focus on one task, I always find countless other tasks that distract me from the one I originally set out on.
I thought in the years prior to this instance, that I may have had OCD or ADD. I was never diagnosed with these disorders, or even attempted to be diagnosed because I have always done well, and above average in school. My IQ is around 135, but it wavers from time to time depending on the test.
In my group of friends, I am constantly the odd man out, or I tend to say wrong or “stupid” things at the apparently obvious wrong time. When people are upset I almost can immediately tell, I often “read people like a book”, my girlfriend absolutely hates this sometimes. I always feel that my emotions get the best of me as I have a hard time managing my emotions, sadness, anger, happiness, laughter, etc.
Is it possible I have a lower than average latent inhibition? Any help could be appreciated, as of late I’m sort of struggling with the concept.
OMG we’re almost exactly the same! I posted a comment from November 8th, if you want to check it out. I don’t think it’s LLI, sadly, but maybe it’s as you say: a lower than average latent inhibition. Really cool to know that someone is like me! 🙂 All your symptoms are like mine !!! Impressive.
Hi. I am 15 and can’t really tell if i have LLI. It is harder to focus for me and when i try to focus in on one thing I can still focus on other things around me. It is hard in school but i have a 4.0 GPA. I play violin and guitar and a little bit of piano, but mainly violin since age 7. I also play football and start at defensive line. I am very good at building and figuring things out and also i have extreme interest in the medical field. I can easily find out what a person is suffering from from expressions and symptoms. Please i really need help with this and a swift reply would be nice.
a short question for other LLI persons, do any others experience a rapid increase in the information you take in, and an increased desire to be occupied with something when you have consumed caffeine?
Yup my brother thinks I’m pretending to have lli but i think I actually have lli
Hey, my name is Etta and I am a Junior this year, I am about to turn 17 in almost a month.
I think I have LLI but i am not sure because I think I am experiencing things differently than whats described here.
It is true I have heard of Low Latent Inhibition from Prison Break, but I am not trying to say I have LLI because Micheal was so cool.
Since seventh grade, just when I turned 12, I felt like my whole life and view was beginning to shift. Ever since I was little I had been excellent at reading and spelling. If I tried very hard, i only had to look at something, like a word, and know how it was spelt; kind of like a chalkboard in the back of my mind. I loved writing books about personal issues and fiction. I almost had a book published, but it didn’t work out to well.
So in the seventh grade, I was shocked when my grades for both english, reading, math and science began to slowly sink. It wasnt to drastic but I felt bad. I would even score as low as 40s on tests. I studied and studied the night before but it only had a small effect.
But then in the eighth grade, things became focused again, I started to score an average of an a in math, a in health, b+ in science but again, i wasnt doing so hot in english. For some reason math and science are my strongest subjects rather than English, I still like writing but it becomes boring.
Now a days I read scientific books and stare at number patterns.
School is kind of important to me, I love learning new things and finding new ways to do things. For instance, when I do a math problem, my teacher explains it one way, then again with a short cut, my peers get it right then but I have to use the harder way. I dont know to explain it but When I look at a problem, my brain works it out like a puzzle.
I do get distracted easily, but if I try really hard, I can make myself focus. I love music and complex tv shows because they always give me things to concentrate on when my head feels like its going to explode.
I get head aches easily and I usually carry a bottle of ibuprofen around.
I am not trying to make it sound like I am some math wiz, because i am far from it. Everyone will tell you I am no special than the average Joe.
I dont know if LLI makes you have emotion problems or not but I have noticed that I get sad and angry easily now a days.
I feel like I should probably tell my parents, but I dont think they’ll take it very well. They’ll probably just say I am trying to make people feel sorry for me or that I am trying to manipulate the situation. But I guess that is okay, because I dont want to tell them and to only find out I actually do not have it.
What do you guys think?
Ps. I am totally alone on this, my parents probably wouldnt support me, and i see how they look and speak to my sister who has adhd and my older brother who has anger issues.
Also people continuously make comments on how I am a know it all, but honestly, its quite obvious I do not know everything or I would make an effort to learn knew things. Do you guys ever get called that or is it just me?
Yes I got called a know it all today and im 14. My parents dont support me at all in this either they think im making the whole thing up , but if you need someone to discuss things with im here!
Have they found a way to diagnose LLI?
*THIS IS URGENT*
MJ is Back and I have found a way to control EVERY aspect, side affect, and perk that comes with Low Latent Inhibition. Email me folks MJ3lite@gmail.com
Why? I prefer to discover these things myself. In their natural way. indeed.
i have LLI and IQ of 136 always think no body really has much common sense but apparently that’s just me anyway i get overloaded with information non stop an make it hard even to concentrate on one thing but i find smoking about 20 grams of herb every week keeps me in a nice green zone for living everyday life with LLI also officially diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD and dyslexia lots of word together books etc. just looks like the matrix to me…. so i have never even read a hole book myself evr in my life also find it difficult to find something that could realy keep my intrest for too long…
peace
I play Civ5. It’s wonderful, it is always interesting. Keeps my brain occupied. As for the dyslexia, I’ve learnt to proof everything I write, it isn’t always right, I know, but it’s how you adapt. i miss whole words out when I write and it doesn’t make sence, so i need to go back and fill in the gaps. Well sometimes I miss whole sentences, never worked out why I do this. Once you know who everything works around you, life is alot easier, you don’t need to worry too much about overloading, just take it one item heh, yeh, one item at a time. After that, you’ll find it easier, I hope. 🙂 My biggest issue these days, is remembering everything, I forget alot of stuff and obviously this doesn’t help. It’s always there at the periphery of my thoughts you just need to learn to ignore some things. It takes a long time. But persevere.
My name is Matt. I have only recently learned of LLI and having read everything I can find on the subject, I’m pretty sure that this is me and is why I can’t relate to others. I have a 137 IQ and know that not everyone can be as quick to come to conclusion as me. I try to be patient, understanding and friendly. I can look at something and just understand how it works. In high school I picked up a pole-vault pole and cleared 8 feet on my first try, went on to win my sectionals and divisionals, and went to state completion in two years. I just see how things are supposed to work and do it. My problem, the problem that makes me avoid social interaction in general but more acutely people with whom I will only spend a short while with, is that I read every facial expression and all the mannerisms people exhibit. Being as incapable of finding the words to express myself as I am, it always ends with me feeling stupid and self-conscious and paranoid, no matter how hard they try to appear to “get it”. My anxiety level is at a 10 all of the time. I started out at 20 being treated for major depression which escalated to what they think is bi-polar because of my inability to sleep. My brain just won’t stop and I don’t know how to make it stop. Medications are only slightly affective. They only peace I get is from smoking pot or drinking, it slows down my brain and shuts everything out. All of my life I’ve felt like a freak and have had many thoughts of ending it all.
I love being able to look at something and see how it all works, being mechanically inclined and physically adaptive. My question is this, how does one deal with all the lies and deceit and judgment written on everybody’s face all the time? Are there counselors available who are familiar with this?
I have all the answers you are looking for Matt
amen
To be sincerely, the first time i heard about the ”low latent inhibition” and having watched it demonstrated was in the prison break movie. but to be honest, i figured alot of things micheal (scorfield) e.g, and i have in common: about the noticing,— i happen to be a guy who always want to know everything from the source, i began being creative since when i was a kid, and once people talk ( or in school, all i need is they speak it out and) i aleady understand what that thing mean or where it ends. etc. i’m not saying am exactly like him or as perfect as he was, but all i can say is i’m little bit like. I did’nt make this up, this is what my friends, teachers etc have known about it and have been saying them to me since before i even know about low latent inhibition. so, please, just a little ‘yes’ or ‘no’ is okey. am i involve with those who have it?
heh, same, prison break.. interesting we live and don’t know, then we find out and do. More worms and cans but that’s life eh. I wonder how much our lives are the same or different.
i need help with this in my comment above please
Hey Liam email me I might have the answers you’re looking for. MJ3lite@gmail.com
ignorance is bliss. this condition is misery. i feel like if i could sleep it would all be okay.
Hi, I don’t know how to start this text but I am only 14 and my English isn’t really good. Anyway, I found out about LLI a few weeks ago, and by a really special way that will make you doubt about my diagnosis, I’m sure: watching prison break. It was really special for me, because in movies, I never relate to guys, only girls, and not that way. I related to Michael in a really unique way, I never experienced that before. I searched about him on the web, and found out about this LLI. And then I found out about this website, and when I saw we could feel like we have this “gift” by meeting other people having LLI, I knew why I related to Michael Scofield that way. Everything was getting together (I don’t know how to express it ahahah). I mean, I’m not like you, seeing all these details, like that, in a second, but I can relate to some things.
First, I related to Michael, which has LLI. And that is something mentioned, when you relate to someone. Because, I feel like no one understands me here, like everyone thinks I’m crazy and stupid, I always think about weird things.
I also know that my “learner type” (that’s what they call it), is about making links between things and stuff. And I think this relates to LLI too.
I never had trouble at school, I have a good memory learning by heart, making links, knowing texts and theory. I don’t need to study that much. I think I have a high IQ too, I didn’t test it or what, and I don’t know how or where to do it, but I don’t think I’m that bad. My friends say I’m really intelligent (but stupid too, I know it can seem weird, but like intelligent but a little too much, you know?).
Also, I think I have this creative thing, but in writing. I can compose all sorts of things, stories, etc, and my teachers are all impressed!!! They are always surprised by my talent, and I think it confirms a little the LLI.
I know that I once, when I was younger and it continued to when I discovered LLI, I thought I had TDA (Attention trouble deficit in English I think, not sure) because I was always distracted, always making links, always thinking to everything else happening to me, around me, in the same place, at te same moment. But I thought it was impossible because I had really good grades.
I also notice that I can’t read, and I tend to concentrate to other things like sounds, smells, while keeping my eyes on the book but not reading it. Is this LLI?
To make it a little more clear about the “links”, it’s that when we’re talking about something, it makes me think to another thing related to another thing related to this other thing, all this in almost one second! Is this normal or only to people having LLI?
I also can see little changes, like a slight new hair color, a new pair of glasses of the same model, only the new brand (as written above).
I’m not a pro in science or anything though….
I don’t see everything all as it was new, all in separate pieces, all precisely, and I’m disappointed in that, because I know it means I don’t have LLI. I don’t cling to every detail in a bus or a public place, but I notice the difference I’m not used to. But still, I don’t think it’s LLI. And I don’t think I’m at my place, here, on this blog.
I just want to know, is there anybody out there like me? Is this a form of LLI?
Thank you so much, every reply means the world to me!
Wow.. I was watching reruns of prison break.. when i heard the term. I repeated the sequence in the movie several times, listening, hanging on each word. Thinking, this is me.
I was elated.. but then, i thought, it’s just a tv program, it’s likely made up, but it could be based on truth. I needed to research it. So here I am.
Everything you write, is me. But, at the same time, not quite. As john wrote, he fears his low IQ means he’ll go insane, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he will, only that he might or could. Or maybe he thinks he already is.
When I help my friend with fixing a car engine, I am not a mechanic, actually, I’m quite bar with tools, but I can visualise the entire engine, I can see, it’s entire workings, not just of the engine, but everything connected to it, when I first saw a petrol engine, the first thing i did was find out all of its complexities. So now, when I look at any petrol engine, I can see how or work out how it works and if there’s parts I don’t know, i will learn. I’ve always thought, this is how everyone thinks. why wouldn’t it be? Why look at something and see only the outside? Why not want to know how everything works?
That’s always confused me, why people are so willing to ignore everything. I’ve always thought they led dull lives, but now I realise, I’m just leading an interesting one.
I don’t see this as an illness, although I would be interested in knowing if this lli is me, or if I am just something else. And I think it could be a wonderful thing, to have lli, since everyday, everywhere is an adventure. Is that arrogant? Hmm.. I’ll follow the face book page and talk to my doctor about it, but thank you, you’ve helped explain why other people don’t seem capable of getting on with me, even though in general I love people. My wife, just thinks I’m strange and laughs at what I say alot. This infuriates me sometimes, I’ve grown used to it now though.
Thank you. 🙂
PS I don’t know what my IQ is, it’s never interested me, it’s like it’s an opinion of who I am, therefore irrelevant. hmm.
Wow, where do I start with this one. It’s great to find this group/discussion here! I am 39. I’ll admit, seeing the episode of Prison Break about this, I about came out of my chair. I went and researched. The way it was described was very revealing to me. I believe that I have LLI. Reading some of the posts from an engineer here etc makes total sense to me. When I see items, like a car in front of me in traffic, My head will disassemble and recreate the back end of it in infinite detail, like a transformation from the movie Terminator 2, in the way that it morphs. I’ll do this talking with someone as well, in the space between me and them, while being actively engaged in the conversation. In my dreams I do this, or “daydreaming”. I see all the details, rust, shadows, reflections, everything. I don’t guide or try to guide a lot of this thought, it seems to happen very free-form. Sometimes, certain music will trigger a flood of it in rapidfire. It’s allowed me to pull together plan A-Z quickly in work and life situations. Unfortunately, I’m great at Triage, i.e. survival situations, but, if it is mundane or outside of that, it’s easier to procrastinate or not focus on that task/idea. It’s frustrating to not be able to get the details out of my head as fast and clearly as I come up with them. I am a good artist, I can 3D-Model well,engineer, sculpt whatever and build most of it out of my head..it just comes to fast sometimes.
When I look at a wall for example, I see the wall, but I know what the drywall looks like inside, the wood behind it, the insulation, the emt everything, in great detail, I see it. I can transform those images in my mind and blend with others to recreate quickly.
It is a blessing and a curse. It keeps me up at night oftentimes. Until my brain is done whittling down a design or problem to it’s most simple effective form, after considering all the possibilities, it’s hard to sleep. Fortunately, I’m patient for most things, except ignorance. I have been perceived as arrogant or know it all before, without trying to be, so I had to change tact a lot. I still have a sense of humor. I haven’t had my IQ measured/tested in a long time, not that I give much credence to those evaluations. I hope and think it’s high enough to keep things out of a madness zone. I’m still able to put things in appropriate buckets if you will.
Does anyone else with LLI have incredibly vivid, long, and complicated dreams? I almost always lucid dream, I remember details of my dreams down to the very fine-grained specifics what people are wearing, what music is playing, and what is said. I have composed poems in my dreams and woken to remember every line, and have also solved logical puzzles in my dreams. Also, I have a memory that is borderline savant – I can’t like memorize phonebooks or anything. It’s not photographic memory that is astounding with me. It’s linguistic/episodic memory. That is, I can remember exactly what was said, what people were wearing, what food was served, how many buttons were on someone’s shirt, the lyrics to songs I hear only once, etc, for even the most mundane life events.
I don’t know if I have LLI. I’m still trying to get to the bottom of several psychological aspects of myself – some positive and some negative. Yes, I’m intelligent, but no, I don’t think I’m smarter than others – just that I perceive more than others and therefore my emotional IQ is probably off the charts, if there is such a thing. My actual IQ, while in the gifted range, has never meant much to me – I’ve always had to work so hard to concentrate and filter out other distractions. Surprisingly, I made it through grad school and have a PhD in philosophy (so, the asking ‘why’ all the time is an occupational hazard, as is feeling always inadequate because I spend so much time around smart people).
If I have LLI, I would say I am not one of those who always handles it very well. I never feel rested because of the constant REM dreaming, have sever anxiety/rage issues, and suffer from perfectionism that causes me physical harm in the form of obsessive exercising, eating disorders, etc. At the same time, I live a successful and happy life and as I said, pick up on emotions in ways that no one I know does. This makes me both a super empathizer/great friend, while also someone who feels more pain than I can handle sometimes.
So, I just want to know if others have dreams and memories like this.
Although an old comment, I agree with what you are saying. I am currently researching what I can about low latent inhibition and trying to work out as many details as I can about it all. I understand the need for many to discuss IQ levels however I personally don’t believe they display true “intelligence”. There are many different comments on this website, with many different types of people writing, so there are many different views.
As to your comments about dreams, I personally have had vivid dreams for as long as I can remember, but the past few years have been extreme. They can very easily make me feel more tired then when I first fall asleep.
I hope since you wrote this comment things are going well for you.
Can anyone help me?! I’ve just recently discovered LLI by watching Prison Break sadly but i’m also diagnosed with bi-polar but the meds only make my LLI waaaay worse..but I cant cope being untreated…PLEASE HELP!!
You know I’m usually the person who can see through people, and usually strike a cord, or say something meaningful by putting the preices together, from what they told me. A lot of that stuff, people thinking your a know it all, people thinking your stupid, and the feeling that you are smarter, and faster than everybody. I’m a perfectionist, I’m always trying new hobbies, and I get as good at them as humanly possible, but I usually drop them cuz it just doesn’t do it for me. My last hobbie was life like charcole portraits. I’m not sure, but based on most of the things said obove I believe I could have this LLI. I understand that regular people would want this for the attention that it brings. But what ever it is that keeps me up at night, thinking until I wanna throw up my head gets soo… I can’t describe that feeling, but I’ve had enough, I need to shut my thinking voice up, how do I find out if I do or don’t have this, and if I do, is there anything I can do to shut me up.
In my case, pills helped me gain some control over it. I’m typically never completely unaware of everything that’s around me, but I’m able to not get overwhelmed now. Still have trouble with my ears though.
I’d like to apply this in new ways. One thing I did was learn grammar by writing sentences that were three pages long. It was easy to do because I was already envisioning all the different ways I could use the punctuation and the word types. I never get marked down for grammar.
Too bad I’ve usually looked at this as a weakness.
I am 16, have an IQ of 120 and i think i may have low latent inhibition. When i walk into a room that i have been in before i know if something has changed or missing, I don’t have autism, but i also don’t have a great attention span, I’m very easily distracted. When i am on a computer/watching TV i find it difficult to watch without headphones as i can hear the high pitch buzzing for the TV/Monitor. Also if i am talking to someone i can usually tell if they are lying or telling the truth, not all the time though. I also extremely hate being somewhere where there is a lot of background noise, in places such as a restaurant. I always want to find the root of something and i notice the little things in life, such as say someone has changed their watch or glasses, i want to find out why they have done this etc. I am not sure if this is relevant but when i am talking to someone 1 on 1 i get anxiety, i start to pick the skin around my nails and not realise i have made them bleed. Could someone please tell me if i have LLI or if this is just normal? Thanks
Hey everyone,
I’m not sure why everyone keeps tossing out their IQ scores – but what the hell – mine’s ±125. Also, I’m an INTP. After reading through this website, I honestly feel much less alone in the world. Perhaps I won the LLI lottery in that I didn’t end up with any (as far as I know) of the commonly associated conditions mentioned above (ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, schizophrenia, etc). I can see that many of you suffer from these conditions to varying extents.
Anyhow, I’m a 31 y/o guy who has had, like many of you, a very tough time getting through school due to LLI. I just finished college at 30 after having only taken one year off – so I’m sure you can imagine. It takes about 120 units to graduate and I graduated with something like ±270. What can I say, I suffer from multiple passitis (passions for those of you without IIL). From the moment I stepped into my first classroom, I found myself asking all the WRONG questions. That person who said, “there’s no such thing as a stupid question,” apparently they lied.
Through high school and college my questions began to delve deeper into material and were broader-reaching than any of my professors has ever been willing to follow. Whether psychology, anthropology, sociology, physiology, nutrition science or creative design, they let out something along the line of, “that question’s of a little broader scope than I’m familiar with,” or, “that’s a good question! You should go find the answer to it.”
My biggest struggle has been, without doubt, my integration of that approach when it came to completing my schoolwork. I tend to see relationships between things, connections, where others don’t. A perfect example would be my experience ‘interpreting’ a creative and moving piece of short literature in a college-level English course. Upon reading it, my first instinct was that the author was writing from a place so deep it required more than mere imagination to create it. He had put his soul onto paper. To me, this necessitated a concrete experiential and ground-breaking influence in his own person life. Based on the content of the story itself, I believed it was the loss of his wife. I researched the author in depth and discovered I was correct – he had lost his wife two months prior to submitting his work for publishing, back in 1968. My teacher read my paper and graded it with a D+ because she disliked my literal disambiguation of the material even though it was well constructed, thoughtful and provided my own personal thoughts into the natures of life and death.
THIS is the story of my scholastic career. Read assignment, research subject (I’d say to ad nausium but I can eat it up all day), create a compelling paper founded on what I believe to be ‘common sense’ notions or reasonable probability, and receive a shit grade for it. Viola.
I felt scholastically cursed. That was until I discovered one major in particular – Science & Technology Studies (STS). It is the fastest growing college major in the world today and for good reason. My favorite analogy with regard to STS is that if disciplines (chemistry, sociology, biology, physics, etc) are tiles, STS is the study of the ‘grout’ that divides them. In my experience, it was the study of how science gets done, is interpreted, why and how. This involves intense research and the application of social, financial, political, linguistic and technological influences on a particular subject of study. What separates a chemist from a physicist? Paradigm. What happens when the paradigm is broken? Richard Feynman.
I mention STS because it doesn’t simply permit one to look deeply into the relationships binding our world, it demands it. More than that, the broader-reaching and more abstract your contributions, the greater the reward.
This sort of research allows me to answer my myriad questions – it brings me peace. I honestly laughed out loud at how familiar Emie Omilig’s post felt upon reading it!
My expertise: exercise, nutrition, renewable energy, parametric modeling, enterprise IT administration, digital design, etc, etc, etc.
Good luck, everyone.
I forgot to mention, I tend to always know where everything in my house is, even if it’s my wife’s. Along with my compulsion to analyze everything in my path I also record it visually – to the point where I can play, rewind and pause past experiences to ‘see’ what’s in the periphery of my mind’s images.
Weird.
Same it sometimes helps me find things that I didn’t notice at first but they are very small details that someone without lli wouldn’t notice. And also do people still speak on the forum
Oh, my goodness! Its like looking in a clear mirror for the first time in my life. I’ve always been on the outside looking in and considered different, often ridiculed for it. I’ve said many times that I’m not trying to be different…I just am. My I.Q. is in the top 1% and I’m a fine artist. I’m 65 now and I have some wonderful friends who appreciate me because they say I’ve helped them to look at things in a different way. I have a son who is 37 and he is very intensely affected by LLI…the people around him seem so stupid and he is very irritable…he’s never understood why everyone doesn’t see what he sees. Now he will understand and hopefully he and I can both progress more calmly.
Excellent article. I will be going through some of these issues as well..
Hi I just want to say I love all of you. I am 55years old and I am not sure of my I.Q. I sit hear with tears in my eyes so Happy that the young ones are doing the research and figuring out what to do. Embrace this curse as a blessing. Like you, I have always been different. I have learn not to expose my self to to much stimulus, And to pick and choose what I can focus on, so now every day is exciting, because I select my busy-ness, And I’m always busy learning something. Stay busy on our project, I will say my heart has to be in it or it wont get done.I really wish this information was available when i was younger, it would have helped me and my parents so much. You are so blessed, We really are !
so I have to say keep educating, Learning more and more researching you as well as your dreams.
thankyou for this article and comments so helpful for me, the forsight and insight lli is priceless.
respectfully the veilbetween
Thank you.
It’s far more likely that low LI -low IQ individuals acquire mental disorders, because society, generally, fails appreciate their creative productions, but only judges competence, intellect, and provides advancement based on analytical type thought (or IQ). This of course, tends to lead to more and more stress on productive low LI – low IQ individuals; stress which eventually leads to mental disorder. This is in contrast to HIGH IQ individuals, whom independent of low or high LI, are more advantaged through systematical standards. In short Low LI – low IQ combination leads to mental disorder because they never get the credit they deserve.
ztechi that’s a really great point and is exactly the reason why I want to raise world awareness of LLI (and all types of people with low latent inhibition) so that people with it, regardless of IQ can actially be nurtured and have their skills and abilities hones from an early age rather than spending every day feeling the frustration and anxiety they get from not having a clue why they’re so different to everyone around them, and struggling to find an effective way of learning in schools due to the set learning criteria that schools have to follow.
I saw this one autistic guy once who could speak and write dictionaries in 13 languages…..but was suffering from behavioural problems in school because he was being made to learn technology, maths, science etc – subjects and skills that he would never really actually NEED. He most definitely had low latent inhibition but due to his autism struggled with many things, and I’m a firm believer in him not being made to develop skills that he wont really need as well as not wanting, but rather to focus on his strengths and use school to develop him socially and give him the right set of tools in terms of socializing with people. He could one day become the world leading translator and could help many business communicate etc, but not if he is unable to effectively communicate with people because rather than being taught that, he is being taught mathematical equations etc.
So many children out there are really made to suffer in school and tarnished with the “behavioural problem” brush when really that’s just their anxiety and frustration surfacing as a result of how they’re treated and the things they’re made to do that REALLY don’t suit people with low latent inhibition. I was one of those children once, and I want to ensure that less and less children aren’t recognized for the incredible potential they have in so many areas!
Thank you for sharing and i would like to say i always new there was something different about me and always new i was different and strange to people. My mother thought i was autistic when i was a boy but when i grew up i became smarter and always learned quick became even more so as i grew older… I am 47 years old now and i have most everything figured out in life and experienced it all. More has been bad then good but now i’m finally on top of things and its nice… To have the knowledge that i have now im greatfull for… I have been told thousands of times that im a genius and 4 times in my life been called brilliant… I am amazingly 🙂 It is nice to finally have an explanation to what i have been feeling.. I use what i know and learned in this life to help others so this to will be a help… I hope all is well with you all
Thank you very much for your kind message Rob and it’s great to hear that you use what you know and have learned to help others – something i very much believe in myself and the reason that this website exists! Keep up the great work, the world will be a far more comfortable place for people with LLI if more and more people with it spend time helping others somehow!
I still prefer my mom and dad’s simpler diagnosis when they said “Son, don’t worry about what others think, you are a genius!”
Hello ppls,
My bits not entirely on topic but given it’s – plea for help – nature, I hope you’ll forgive the intrusion.
I’ve a diagnosis of bipolar 2. Due to my apparent symtoms around the time of the diagnosis 12 years ago and me not having enough knowledge about the condition, I couldn’t question it’s accuracy. But these days, i’ve reasons for doubting it.
I’ve read on few other LLI websites & blogs that some people whom were initially diagnosed with bipolar later found out that they actually had LLI.
4 years ago, I spiralled into a meltdown after a rude awakening which opened up my pendoras box. Out of the box jumped out the ugliest, scariest son of a bitch of a confrontation by the name of doubt – not just compelling me to thoroughly question a few aspects of my character or of my external world but ALL that I’d perceived to be true.
I was in a hyper anxious-depressive way which suggests I ought not to have done any soul searching but felt absolutely compelled to get at the root of whatever triggered me needing to do so. I read any/every psychological, philosophical, theological, religious and spiritual material which had any remote relevance to what i was experiencing. As you can imagine all of this wasn’t (& still isn’t) a very fun ride. I realise it’s off topic but if you have any personal experience that you are comfortable sharing (same goes to whomever’s reading this) that may help I would greatly appreciate whatever info you can give.
Cheers!
sed
when i see a machine … at same instant image forms in my mind …either i dismantle it in my mind … or see it how’s its parts move.. or think how it was made.
light bulb broken into its components … argon .. tungsten glowing … glass shell made by blowing air by someone …
see some metal/plastic thing/structure … comes in mind how it would have been casted.
see a normal electric switch/board … sometimes everything comes in mind .. wiring , wire holding bolts , tick toking mechanism etc…….
while opening taps , cycling ….everywhere
lots and lots of things…will took long to tell so skipping
even now when i am typing … it came to my mind about that thin three layered plastic sheet with holes in the middle one …and as i type i press the key to make a connection between the two others ..thereby completing a specific circuit for a specific alpha/numeric/special character …and also about the rubber or springs that pops my keys back up.
that’s not things that matter ….
i point out/ask things that doesn’t matter to others …(they think stupid)
ya sometimes i seriously talk stupid and i realize that ….and later says myself not to talk stupid … and i actually try to pretend to be normal . (in talking and behavior )
i always feel lonely … i don’t consider people around me my friends … say them but don’t consider them expect a few .. just doubting their honesty …etc etc …( got a lil control over this one)
i think extremely too much …
even when i go to sleep … my mind keeps on thinking(happens daily) … like about some problem happend with me … its cause … who can be involved .. linking people … making conclusions and deciding my steps …..
so if i went to bed at 10o’clock .. i may sleep at mid night .. or later.. ( at an average i sleep at 1’oclock to 1:30)
if i got into some problem .. i dig out people without letting them know… judge them/get a clue by their content of matter what i got out of them … and come to conclusions … which are MOSTLY right.
i catch a behavioral change in a sec….. and i get many intuitions ..which are also right …..
Problem is this all has created a trouble for me :'( …. i feel left out … also sometime create problems for myself …….. and i don’t like stopping myself from telling others what i noticed … even i left my coaching institute and started studying at home (online lectures ) just because i was not able to concentrate while students aroung me moving .. gossiping …. i just kept them noticing … i even concentrated on board .. also understood whats being taught … but not better than studying with only one person around … my teacher on screen..
( i could tell a lot more with actual examples .. happend ) …. but i think i would be going to deep ….
i am just thankful to this page owner … boz of whome i got my answers …and came to know about me …. and know there are more like me …. that satisfied a lil..
i actually enjoy being like this ….
but “my sleep” “thinking lot” …… “trying to behave ..what i am not ” “stopping myself” …. only thats matter of lil controll … i will handle it .. but…
( presently my mind searching for a way out of these problems)
don’t know what to do abt it …. but its good..
Moon in cancer anyone???
Personally a birth chart should help you understand yourself better and if you have it it’ll likely be hinted.. mines in my cancer moon.. which makes sense that someone with LLI would have a moon in cancer.. being a genius depends on all the other aspects and environment.
Sir/Madam,
If you are reading this, Please try your best to answer my question: What should I do? Because Now I am sure that I have low latent inhibition and high IQ and within the last 7 years, my Psychiatrist doctor believe that I suffer from Bipolar I disorder but even if the medication help me somehow, I doubt about his competence. With reference to your answers, I can decide to go to developed countries to seek advice. If you know the best doctor who can help me, please send me his address via my personal E-MAIL: muvunyi123@gmail.com
It’s fascinating that so many purportedly detail-oriented geniuses post comments with disturbingly poor grammar and countless misspellings.
There are two distinct types of personalities here, both claiming to “be” or “have” LLI. The first group includes people whose grammatically-challenged, incongruous comments belie their claims of Mensa-level IQs (For those of you who apparently don’t understand IQ tests, the scores don’t significantly change as one ages). This group is also characterized by individuals who lack the ability to maintain a train of thought and who frequently stray from the subject at hand (which is why people get annoyed with your stories). Many in this group also believe they are smarter than everyone else, and they assume others don’t like them because said others are too simple to understand and follow their thought processes. In fact, others don’t like you because you erroneously believe you are smarter and better than they are. This group does not have the characteristics of LLI.
The second group of commenters, though not universally able to distinguish “there” from “their” and “they’re,” generally consists of individuals capable of clearly and intelligently expressing their thoughts in a logical manner. Many of them credibly claim to possess high IQs, but almost none professes to be smarter than everyone he knows. More importantly, this group describes a primarily internal analysis of the “whys” of everything, manifesting in a certain intuition or silent understanding of the root causes of things. These individuals do not seem to have a problem staying on point. To the contrary, they get to the point so fast that others can’t keep up. Those in this group, in my opinion, show signs of LLI as I understand that concept.
Although the troller who can’t seem to stop repeating himself is a bit sophomoric (and likewise grammatically challenged), I can’t help but sympathize with his exasperation over the commenters in the first group.
One final note: for those who contend that they fall into this category (high IQ and LLI) yet deny any anxiety- you’re either not being honest or you have sociopathic tendencies. It’s axiomatic that an empath with intelligence and LLI tendencies lives in an almost constant state of anxiety to some degree.
For those in the second group – good luck. It’ll never be easy but fortunately you’re smart enough to make the best of it!
Cheers.
I actually tend to agree with the majority of your post, however I don’t think i agree that there should be a correlation between those with a high IQ and their vocabulary and use of the English language, especially given the fact that this site has been visited by people from over 170 countries, many of which don’t have English as their first language.
I personally don’t deny ever having ANY anxiety, but I don’t think I’d have any more anxiety than the average person without LLI, because there’s usually a natural opposite of any of the factors that can cause the potential anxiety, for example any thought that causes anxiety can be balanced out by a thought that offers a solution to the factor that seems to be causing that anxiety.
For me personally, and a few others who I know with LLI and a very empathic nature, we tend to have an ability (as do many empaths) to almost switch off or dull down the emotions experienced as a defense mechanism which you learn as you get older. I know empaths who at times can seem quite sociopathic, and that’s usually because their defense mechanism kicks in and they turn to logic to defuse the intense emotions felt at the time by rationalising the things in a certain way that cause those intense emotions.
Please note Lisa that creative genius is only one type of many types of genius, given there are multiple forms of intelligence out there and areas of specialization. Poor grammar and misspellings aren’t reliant on a creative genius, in a similar way to the fact that Shakespeare might not have been great at math, Einstein might not have been great at sports and David Beckham might not have been great at spelling.
I believe I have a slightly lower than usual LLI. Ever since I was a child, ive always had the need to ask ‘why why why’ about others thoughts and human behaviour. As Ive grown older it’s become worse, to the point where every second im thinking and trying to understand the psychology of others, in every conversation, in every instance. Most things people do and say I analyse like its new stimulus, and can’t help but to devote myself into analysing it and giving it deep wonder and thought. Through school I noticed that I always noticed things about others than everyone else didn’t, due to the constant analysis of stimulus. Because of this I feel I understand others better than most people, and I have a better moral guideline, however, it scared me that others don’t think this way, and it’s not normal to be thinking like this constantly. I often just get lost in thought, and at the same time of speaking to people im figuring out and questioning what they are thinking and why, and how what I say and have said is affecting them. I can handle this, but I feel I need to tell someone about it, and if I could diagnose it. Do you believe it’s a form of LLi? Or I have a slightly lower than usual LLI?
Will Central Nervous System or Cerebellum be affected by LLI? Does it cause something like losing the ability to suppress? (such as thinking,impulse and etc) By the way, the Insomnia caused by LLI is Psychiatric/Mental disorder or Nervous system diseases? (In my opinion, Psychiatric/Mental disorder = Software, Nervous system diseases = Hardware)
You literally just described my life. Thank You. So much. Everything makes sense now. Absolutely everything. I need to speak to people with this. I need to know more. I believe that this can be utilized. I met a person who told me to look this up that has trained himself to do amazing things. He is able to study others body language and thus tell them what they are thinking. In theory you would be able to read minds because 90% of all communication is done through body language. Taking into account that the human brain could only process so much information at once you might be able to achieve a level of being able to tell people what they are generally thinking about etc. The kid i met was able to tell people what card they had picked out of a deck of 52 cards based solely on their body language. I need to learn more. This is amazing. I love whoever wrote this. Thank you.
I’m smiling, laughing, humming, flicking my toes and giggling and crying I think all at the same time right now…possible sensory overload having just found what I think to be the final answer to all of my questions that I thought I had recently been given the answers to.
I will have to read more tomorrow. I can’t stay up all night again with excitement and troll the internet for more information about this right now.
I thought I actually had all the answers as of this last year. I was at peace. This is what I believe to be the icing on the cake for me.
I can’t wait to meet the others…..sheesh, sleep will be hard for me tonight now. LLI – if this is really me…. I have a fun new exhilarating chapter of my life to begin. My goodness…I might be out of words….which is impossible. I don’t stop talking or thinking.
Um… hello : ) I guess I’m not alone : ) Yahoo!!!
FYI – just came upon this term while watching Prison Break S1 E9 for the first time. As soon as the psychiatrist said the term, I paused the TV and looked it up. Found this in 2 minutes… and here I am : )
I shall be back. FB group here I come. I would like to read everyone’s stories.
Me: gifted child, virtuoso musician, highly functional, intelligent, self sufficient, business owner,, able to teach my students in ways others can not – I explain things in analogies so they can understand how they need to learn. I could be in the psychology field as of recently. I know things…. lol… and I am laughing now literally LOL at hearing some old voice say “you’re weird”
hehe. I always answered – I know : )
Getting butterflies now. Can’t wait to explore this once small glow that emanated from a lighthouse, but was hazy through the fog. The fog somehow has slowly begun to dissipate. The light shines so much brighter now as I can clearly see the lighthouse as its origin.
yay : )
Alyssa
I found this term on prison break too, and was like yep that’s what I got. Looked up on google and here it was. XD – I bet without prison break I would of never found out about this hidden term and what clears up why being labelled with autism felt off some how.
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You missed so many apostrophes in your article (literally every one) that I cried. From what you say on lli, which I think you claim to have, it seems like a laughable contradiction.
Not everyone understands it Mick! No worries if you don’t!
I noticed a lot of people mentioning they are empaths. In my personal consideration of how I fit into this whole subject, I noticed how much of an empath I am on the one hand, but also how very critical of others and myself on the other hand. This makes me often feel very conflicted, confused and guilty. Hopefully writing this down will offer some catharsis.
At risk of being offensive: I think some, but not all people here are fooling themselves, or worse are unfortunately suffering from something more serious, though I would say from personal experience that self-foolery is a very nasty and insidious habit on its own merit.
Someone mentioned a dream about a flat head, others mentioned Michael from Prison Break, someone else had a smart question in class for their teacher and someone asked their friend about how many stairs there are on the stairwell, only to later bring up Sherlock Holmes and stairwells. Others sound like young teenagers. There is nothing wrong with being a young teenager, but prudence is important. Others seem to be inflated with nurtured sense of superiority, or a fear of losing it, to the detriment of their own honesty. For example a number of writers here seem to be trying to convince themselves that they are more than know it alls with social anxiety disorder. I will not diagnose them since I neither have sufficient information nor am I enough qualified, but I couldn’t help notice it, along with other curious peculiarities of the same or other posts, and more I didn’t mention or remember or notice. (This observation and the way it is expressed itself is an example of my “run-on” mind.)
I tend to give some more credit to people who have enough insight to say they are introspective and are not sure or doubt what exactly they are experiencing. Likewise to the person who said he/she doesn’t experience LLI %100 of the time. And those who don’t shy from expressing their imperfections. I say this because I consider myself a very introspective person, and it was with great effort that I rid myself of false self-classifications. This is why it is easy for me to see how easy it is to fool one’s self that he is gifted with this or that, when he is really no better than his peers he so arrogantly views with unnoticed disdain. On the other hand I’m not brushing off everyone who expressed themselves without mentioning any flaws or foibles. Just some of them. Call me out on it if I’m wrong.
What I was left with after personal reflection didn’t assimilate from myself the ability to speculate about whether I have LLI or not, but it helped me realize that some of the praises I sang for myself emanated from lack of self honesty, laziness and other mischaracterizations and misprioritizations. An example of a misprioritization is clinging dearly to the notion of wanting people to think of me as intelligent (maybe a perceptive person somewhere down the line should have praised my efforts, not my abilities, to curb my unproductive attitudes, but that is neither here nor now), which subsequently caused laziness when things became difficult, as I would say this is not fair, this is not for me, this is too stupid, this shouldn’t be expected from me. Not in a pointed, obnoxious way, but in an insidious, subtle, self-justifying way. After the fact, I still find the fact that I get extremely bored by difficult and easy subjects alike something I can’t get over easily and that I still have that ‘laziness’. (I feel uncomfortable writing this word because I don’t want to subject myself to the likes of stereotypical labels but can’t find better words.) This is an issue I deal with all the time, in reading, writing, thinking and learning. You may be able to tell by my writing that I have a lot of thoughts but there are so many of them. I could try to reorganize this post with better vocabulary and syntax, but I’m afraid that doing so would only cause me to have more and more things to write, to no end. This is characteristic of the way I think. Also of how I experience senses.
The fact that I needed to write down the above criticism is an exploration of the very criticism itself. Did I write it to alleviate sensory overload or as a catharsis, or was it the fruits of an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the readers and (forgive me) writers here have what to pursue in that direction.
All that (characteristically) said (as somebody mentioned above, with all the disclaimer and qualification bells-and-whistles), I certainly am not trying to invalidate what most have experienced. I know from personal experience about the havocs wreaked by self doubt (or do I?). But for some reason I felt compelled to write that. Maybe because I didn’t see anyone else bring it up, and to me it seems obvious. Maybe everyone else is less impulsive or judgmental, I don’t know. I also feel compelled to disclaim that the very reason I visited this page is because of the exploratory merit in LLI to me so don’t mistake my underrepresentation in writing of it as a dismissal or attempt at minimization.
I was diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder with a smidgen of OCD. However I always wondered if notwithstanding whatever merits the diagnosis may or may not have, it is still to a large degree mischaracterized because of the unconsidered heavy factoring of something that I feel is better justified than timidity and neuroticism. That is putting my suspicion mildly. Because even if I suffer whatever symptoms the above disorders manifest, if the underlying issue is something like LLI, then it should be classified as such. Furthermore, in addition to the technical issue of classification, it could potentially make a difference in a patient’s attitude, knowing what the truth of the matter is, and knowing what it isn’t, because for example it never rung true to them, and they were always assuaged with discomfort, confusion and guilt with the notion. And for other reasons, perhaps others would like to expand upon. At the same time, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy did help somewhat. I wonder if CBT can help with LLI in general. I noticed that people mentioned they were able to alter or adapted somewhat their mindset to better manage the sensory overload. I would think that tactics such as acceptance and reception that helps for OCD may be able to aid with LLI discomforts and manageability. On the other other hand, it still isn’t enough. How do you deal with existential boredom or difficulty staying interested in something you consider boring using CBT!?
At the age of 31, I haven’t been able to study any subject thoroughly for the same reasons mentioned by others above, and get a job neither. I feel extremely frustrated, because I feel I have so much to offer but can’t because of my ‘learning disability’, specifically in the area of deep critical analysis, whatever that means. Go figure what use a hirer would have in such a general classification if he would ever encounter it, which seems highly unlikely.
This is aside from my sensitivities to light, smell, emotions, etc. that are not work-environment conducive.
You have no idea how difficult it has been for me to write these thoughts down, and for how long these thoughts have been taking up space in my mind. Even the things here that I could have only seen now, for example the criticism of some of the posts here, has had its parallel representations rooted in my mind for a very long time. I hope that in the very least my words will serve as a kind of release. Hopefully I given some clarity to others, or something to relate to.
On a personal note, many of the comments here were impressive and insightful.
Send me a reply if you wish to discuss things further.
Hey Catherine!
Normally I’m just a lurker, but this time I felt compelled to write to you.
Somehow read your comment first.. and then others (I have an odd way/order of browsing)
you’re probably right about some posters on this boards misdiagnosing selves with LLI,
but unfortunately they may not be as lucky, as say… YOU.
Oooook,before this continue, you should know, I’m a doctor without diploma, so take this 1/2 seriously at most.
But I think I could “diagnose” you. hahah yeah-ha..
before that, here are some questions to make sure I haven’t wondered into abyss of reality again.
During “laziness” you source new info/data, often info that appears to be redundant and in effect amplifying “laziness” feel?
Do you not throw things out, hold onto/store things from past, like physical items?
Do you have unfinished artifacts/failed projects you did not yet finish laying around?
Im guessing that you have not discovered marijuana.
Do you remember you dreams? (i assume yes, based on prediction above about marijuana)
Do you feel like an activist, like you need to fix/change the world? have a corporate hate list?
Is everything organized, you fancy storage containers?
How many to-do/time tracking lists have to started and stoped?
Do you know what you want from life? Is progress your religion yet?
I have more questions too, but this is already crazy…
Thank you for (if) reading.
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What a fantastic article, and I love the wild discussion in the comments here.
I have ADHD, and work with those with ADHD, and this hits home. There is much crossover with LI and the ADHD characteristics concerning executive functioning. For me, LI enhances the meaning I take from everyday life.
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I am 16, and was recently diagnosed with ADHD, and i feel like this really relates to me. I question every thing, my mind is constantly full of questions for the simplest things. I notice the smallest things, but I am also very fidgety (ADHD)/ I have an IQ of 148 (proven by a multitude of tests). I have had suspicions about having LLI for years, and I recently started watching Prison Break, in which one of the characters has it- and my mind works the same way as his. I know its just a character, and he’s just acting, but that is how I work! Could my ADHD be a false diagnosis, or could I have both, in which symptoms are overlapping.
Paint me with words and you have this page. But I do wonder HOW to use it to my advantage. I mean, I’m horrible to schedule stuff, as soon as I write a plan of when should I do stuff I never do it. If I don’t schedule it I have it done by yesterday.
Scheduling has ALWAYS being an issue. It’s like if something inside me says “don’t do it, that’s not for you, you can do better and faster without an agenda”
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Actually prison break brought me here, supposedly the main character scofield has it. And the description suited well with the symptoms i am having my whole life.. incredible stimuli, i notice every details in everything, my surroindings, even the smallest things, sounds colors, differences , changes.. words, bodylanguage.. its so much that i cant focus on nothing anymore.. smoking weed makes me totally crazy, then its like im thinking 1000 thoughts per second.. i learned to play piano by teaching my self, and compose and improvise very easily, many said that im a natural talent because i learned it when i wa 18 and in 2 years i could lready improvise and play as good as one who played for 8 years. I et bored by most peoples irrelevant conversations, i like to talk about deep things like the universe, life, depths of society, stuff that matters, but its like a rabbit hole, and the worst thing happened for me is internet, becuase of google.. i can use 1-2 hours a day, just surfing trough stuff to read and there is endless of it.. sudenly i have like 20-30 fans with different interesting information about stuff that nee to satisfy the questions that keeps popping up.
I watched this specific Episode of Prison Break yesterday… I came here like this too, because i always knew i was thinking differently than others but i never knew what kind of “i am not like the others” that was.
Just like you, I learned playing an instrument by myself, when i was older, i taught myself coding, scripting, photoshopping, composing music on the computer and even more…
Just like you and many others, i have incredible stimuli – it’s like i always stay aware of my surroundings, notice even the smallest details and let all those information rush my brain.
As in Prison Break, the psychologist explains LLI with a “lamp”, you don’t see the object by itself but rather all small details (the bulb, the screws and so on…) I mostly notice the object, it’s details and even it’s purpose. When i focus on an moped engine it’s like my mind creates a really cool animation, which splits up the engine in all different parts and even the movements. I always imagine motion when i see something, no matter if it’s opening a drawer or as mentioned above the movement of an engine.
I can really relate to all of the experienced here, but the only thing is, that i can turn this on and off as i wish. It’s just like i decide do see everything normal and focus on listening music then i just hear the music, but when i focus on something else, i can suddenly hear the different “layers” of the music, the different soundtracks, and even notice the vibrations of my headphone’s membrane.
I am not suffering from overflows or anything similar, i can leave “It” on for months without struggling any headaches or other problems…
(Sry for my english btw)
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Since we’re talking about ‘LLI’….
Did anybody notice the eye ball???
What eye ball? 😉
To save you time on determining whether or not you will read this long-winded comment (see below for further detail) it’s basically the account of an experience I had tonight that provided me with self assurance relating to how I think about things and communicate with other people.
This post may be longer than the average length and it may be outside the standard deviation as well. But, please note the is the first time I’ve felt compelled enough to spend the mental energy contributing to an online forum with people I don’t know, and therefore haven’t been able to form an opinion on whether or not I think you think you provide useful/valid/truthful information.
Knowing that would never be feasible I usually use a more rudimentary measurement and skim through posts to see what percent of responses contain worthwhile or mentally stimulating information and use an algorhythm (yes, I have to create a new one for every website to account for certain variables but it only takes a 4-7 seconds) to determine whether or not I care to participate. This is the first post to do such.
Additionally, I can’t attest to whether or not LLI is a psychological, chemical, or even just a different word for something else that is currently diagnosed (the correlations between OCD, ADHD, depression, etc., leave me to raise these questions) but I figure that based on my detailed post/comment/reply you may recognize similarities or thought pattern..and if nothing else appreciate and find relief in knowing someone else has a similar train of thought (crazy train, moving 100 mph or however fast is relatively speaking for a train, down a track with a lot of volatility).
To me that statement may be misconstrued as relishing in the fact that someone else is struggling with something, but from my perspective that type of ‘relief’ is a different emotional response than that experienced when someone you dislike has an unfortunate accident. The specific emotion (similar to joy) that I experience when that does happen is generally followed by feeling guilty for taking pleasure in the pain (emotional, physical, monetary, etc.) experienced by another human being.
I’ve laid the cliff notes for my revelations below as bullet point styled numbers, but intentionally elaborated in those first few paragraphs to let you establish whether or not you think like I do and therefore have a similar aspect to your being that may or may not be soothed by our relatedness. The words were specifically chosen as well as the length of each particular paragraph. If you see patterns like I do (#’s, colors, permeation of those colors, etc.) you will appreciate the layout…..I hope.
1) If we assume our conscious thoughts are greater in number than those of other people, we have to assume that our subconscious thoughts are greater as well and that there are things that happen we do react to without thinking about – in other words we can’t think about everything so we have a subconscious and sometimes that subconscious dictates our actions, as opposed to a chain of high-level thinking that generally goes through more scenarios/pros-and-cons than others in the room.
2) Tonight I consciously recognized that my subconscious had been reacting to people telling me not to “overthink” – for the majority of my life – and therefore conditioned to feel like I’m doing something wrong or simply different than others. This reaction feels like a bullet to me (subconscious up until tonight), but the person that says it may think they are tossing a softball. I believe that’s because what my subconscious has been receiving is someone saying “what you’re doing is not productive and not necessary”.
3) If someone says that you are overthinking something in the middle or at the end of a conversation they are admitting to you that you have thought more about what they were supposedly thinking about even though you were both thinking about it for the same amount of time (assuming you were both thinking about the same subject from the time the conversation started until the time it ended). However, you may also think about the subject more after the conversation if you feel like questions were left unanswered. Not relevant as the person is making this statement during or at end of conversation.
4) Overthinking is defined in a derogatory manner, but the argument can be made that overthinking is synonymous with being really thoughtful. If thoughtful is exchanged for overthinking (and being thoughtful is generally associated with a gift giving or acts of generosity) than it’s almost as if you put the type of thoughtful effort into the conversation as is generally required for someone to commit a nice deed or do something quite generous.
….didn’t have time to finish. Gotta go.
Hi,
After being clinically diagnosed with depression last week, I thought the psychiatrist was throwing me under the bus, masking the inevitable conclusion of lacking the experience to aknowledge how my mind operates, and more important how I view and feel the wolrd around me.
Although, I do exhibit common depression symptons, I know it in my heart that this is just not it, and instead of taking on months of drug treatment, dealing with side effects and having a blind faith in the mental health medics, I decided to do a little bit of research. It is about time I find/draw conclusion of who and what I really am.
I read most of the comments here around LLI, in particular, and can empathise on a large scale. It is abundantly clear that each case of LLI manifests differently, dependable on multiple variables of the counscious and unconscious mind, as well as not limited to physical conditions.
But the realization of “there are more like me out there, I am not alone” is not enough. I am looking for an asnwer on how to control everything that is going through my heart and brain. I am very emotional person, whilst having deeply analytical and self-critical mind. Those two don’t go well together.
I am looking for a guidance on how to control better my focus, the flow of information, as well as the emotional decisions I take based on the above. I find myself listening to classical music all of the time whilst at work (I work as a network design engineer,IT) just to have my mind at ease, the repeatable rythm and patterns of the violin and pion I find amusing. When I get into the train everymorning I try to limit the flow of information by getting on the train the same time, same coach, same seat. When I enter a place where I haven’t been before, I spent the first 5 minutes trying to figure out what the hell is that place and what I am here for ,even if I have somebody talking to me at the same time his/her voice is getting tunneled until I have scanned everything.
I feel like I can accomplish more in my life if I am able to control what is it I think about and how I feel for things.
Thanks
I see your situation as similar to mine and I went through the meds rig moral and I applaud you for turning them down.
The emotion situation and analytical mind has head to me avoiding close situations knowing they can be difficult to deal with. Going from an off the cuff comment to the worst case scenario in my head and looking at possible outcomes from what could have been nothing.
Hi
Would my LLI (self diagnosed with extensive research and the close review of family who have been by my side nearly every day of my life) be a feasible reason for extra sturdy periods at school? It would only be replacing 1 period of RE and 1 period of PE a week but this would make a tremendous amount of difference to me as I get a lot oh headaches after a school day from an exponential amount of processing. I am a fifth year senior student and will be 16 in a month. I am now tackling my HIGHERS in biology, chemistry, English and fashion and textile technologie ( FTT). I have these classes every day and they require me to remember a lot of important information and I fear for my performance if I must participate in core classes that I am not comfortable, happy or interested with participating in. These classes provide me with on sense of purpose and are a waste of my time which would be better spent studying/doing homework. I also find that I am more self-desiplined and perform at my best during the first half of the day (when I have these classes). If I were allowed to use these periods for my preferred use I strongly feel that I would be able to build a very strong foundation for continuing my studies at home and throught the year. This is something I have never been able to achieve before no matter how hard I have tried in the past.
So
Is this a valid/ strong enough argument to get these periods for personal use?
P.S
My mums first try was rejected as it didn’t contain any link to a mental condition, family / home life trouble or extra support needs.
I hope for a reply.
On thanks until it’s due. I’m at my wits end with not getting replied to!
Yeah…no. I can’t imagine any sober school staff agreeing to a self diagnosed non-medically recognized cognition for changing your schedule at age 16. However, if you go the vampire route, with early morning sun causing burning skin conditions, blinding headaches, and anemia, you’ve got a shot at it.
Realising that LLI exists and explains a lot I could not previously explain is something I am still coming to terms with.
Being able to process route cause to solution from limited information and then know how to fill gaps and solve problems has lead me into a place where I sometimes feel im giving what to me is a very simple answer but is actually 20 steps on from where someone would normally view a problem or issue.
My professional life has benefited having provided an answer to an ‘impossible’ set of factors to a workable system delivering massive production improvements and time saving. The key issue comes when explaining how. The information runs to 65 meg worth of documents and I experience immense frustration when people cannot see what I think is a simple answer, solution or process.
Creativity has been something ive always had but id always assumed to recently it was through practice but being able to do model kits without instructions and scratch build scale models from photographs is something ive picked up and use to relax.
The downside is I suffer from frustration and anxiety when I cannot control making what I know is the answer happen or become a reality and the longer it goes the more information on a subject my brain develops and having taken in and processed the information constantly swirl has lead to insomnia issues due to not being able to switch off.
As the article says I find it immensely frustrating when someone cannot see things how I do and also find inefficacy in something I can see an answer to irritating and when discussing things I tend to out run or skip parts to get the answer to where I need it. ‘Brain moving faster than my pen’ is what I got told at every school parents evening and report card, Id be finalising the end of a report with a conclusion as my pen wrote the title basically.
Upsides personally have been in a number of areas.
– Rapid problem solving.
– Creativity
– Able to give solutions based on logic in personal situations when friends ask for advice.
Downsides are a little tough but its something I have just coped with and pondered ‘why does no one get this’. Insomnia and anxiety leading into depression at times when I know the answer but it comes off as the world isn’t listening or getting it. Bouts of loneliness and resentment towards people for not getting something that to me seems logical or simple is something I have learned to control and trying to explain things better although personally frustrating at the time has helped with this.
I find myself easily irritated by inefficient or confusion over a simple task, for example asking if a bus goes to the place written on the front of the bus or on the timetable in the stop then asking how much it is. To me that was something I noted walking up to the stop and only with discovering more about LLI did I realise this may be part of it.
Really good article and puts a good take on the everyday things I also cope with. Congratulations Dale on being so encompassing with your take on things it has been very helpful and also highlights ways I could cope better. Really appreciated.
Thanks
Same in my report cards. i have all right ideas but i dont knie how to tell anyone about it
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…Or just fairly smart people with Complex PTSD. Survival means noticing changes even at a subconscious level, anticipating sequential reactions, micro-expressions and applying these inherently to non-fight or flight situations. Just a thought. I like the idea of LLI, but it this does also encompass anxiety levels, ADHD-like behavior, OCD, and more. LLI just kind of seems like a Sherlock Holmes or Anime superpower, both of which it’s been used as for a trope. Then again, who can say if ghosts or UFO’s aren’t real.
Feeling very emotional after finding this site on a google search for “what kind of condition has a person when they can’t focus in classrooms, movies and books and always drifting and daydreaming.” I’ve been searching for years to understand why I am like I am. I’m 65 now so my schooling was during the 60’s before there was much understanding in a lot of mental health issues and certainly not ADHD. When I was in infant school I was very advanced in reading and vocabluary and considered very intelligent. At 5 years old our family moved and I was assessed at a new infant school and placed in a year higher because I was reading Enid Blyton and H G Wells. I spent all my primary school in a class higher than I should have been. In educational terms these were miserable years for me. I was a daydreamer and couldn’t focus by listening no matter how much I tried (still with me today). Even when I found a subject very interesting, instead of continuing to listen and learn I would drift off and apply that new snippet of knowledge to other situations, enjoyable mind play. Needless to say this continued into senior school until 4th year when my parents got a letter saying it would be better if I left school early at Easter half-term. I was 14
Because of such a bad time at school I was very underconfident, I knew I wasn’t stupid but felt academically stupid. Despite all this I did very well in my careers. Although I had no self-belief I always rose through the ranks. This was because of my problem solving abilities. Also my managent and people skills. I would take interest in people and remembered details about them. Always useful in gaining peoples trust and loyality
I feel like I’m rambling now but like a lot people on here it’s very cathartic to open up to people who might understand. Like others I’ve been an insomniac from a child. I spend alot of time thinking about the universe and existense, the human brain etc. I love to think that many of sciences unanswered questions could be solved by applying a different mode of thinking. Just throwing a creative idea out there, of the top of your head, despite how stupid it sounds. Example: Last 20 years approx. scientists can’t explain why the universe is expanding and it’s accelerating against all the laws of gravity and physics. They call this Dark Energy. Maybe it’s just a larger neighbouring universe with a greater gravitational pull than ours. Seems logical as a quick thought but I’m sure that would be quickly shot-down in flames by people better educated than me. But one day a simple thought could lead to a fundimental shift in understanding the unknown and most likely by a LLIL?
Anyway, I have found that anxiety and other symptons that may be LLIL can be a curse and a gift. The gifts being wonderful internal mind games, ability to find novel solutions that only you can, reading people well, listening being empathic and giving people solutions. Noticing small changes friends have had “new dress, earrings etc. Great when your dating. Afterall, who’s collected more repetitive data than you. Downside, a bit of OCD, no calmness, high speed thinking, multiple thinking, insomnia and depression. On the whole I would choose the gifts over being normal. I’ve had a great adventurous life and fulfilled all my childhood and young man dreams and I couldn’t have done it without being a dreamer and “different”
With Jung, I have a feeling that Ne has something to do with LLI. In Psychological Types, the Extroverted Intuition section, if you can survive the long-winded and brutal honesty of Jung, you may see a link there. It should be at Barnes and Noble under “The Complete Jung,” or at your local library.
With Myers/Briggs, I believe this equates to ENTP or INTP (Ne, Ti; Ti, Ne, respectively). ENTP is the type more likely to be diagnosed ADHD; INTP is the type more likely to be diagnosed autistic/Asperger’s.
I’m not sure if I have LLI.
A lot of things mentioned in the comments very familiar to me.
I always have been obsessed with ‘why’ question, obsessed with getting to the root of something.
In addition to the mentioned things in other comments, I want to ask the next questions (still can’t find explanations for it):
1. Could LLI explain slowness?
My whole life I felt slow and stupid. Sometimes very stupid.
I thought it can be due to my ADHD (not severe case), but it looks like my friend with ADHD doesn’t have the same problem.
Also, no way it could be related to my OCD (not severe case also).
I can have a lot of creative ideas, can learn some complex math subjects, but I just couldn’t do it quickly. For example, in school, my friend always did math olympiad tasks quicker than me. But he never managed to go further than the local level math olympiad. I’m also never participated in higher-level math olympiads (because I’m slow). But without time constrain I’m able to solve problems from the International Math Olympiad. And my friend despite being quicker was never able to solve any single problem from IMO.
2. Does LLI affect your physical appearance? Do people with LLI usually look much younger?
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I may have LLI, but I am on the high functioning, creative end even if I do. IQ tests have varied, but never under 145. EQ is very high too 89/100 in one online test I took. Neither are super high, but definitely above average. I am asocial by preference because interactions can result in too much “information” that is usually of no consequence or importance and clutters my mind. But it is not inability. I don’t suffer any social anxiety. It is merely a preference. But what really doesn’t seem to fit is the ADHD type symptoms. I am highly selective, but have no problems focusing and usually enter a “flow state” in creative moods, where I can tune out the rest of the world indefinitely, effortlessly. In the sense, I don’t get distracted if I choose to do something. I do consciously reject things to do if they don’t fit whatever objectives I have. But it is rare for me to simply lose sight of something potentially interesting. Doesn’t that rule out LLI?
I don’t think I have OCD either, unless the extreme urge for creativity or problem solving counts. But the rest seems to fit so well that it almost “explains” why I am the way I am. Very eccentric, creative, problem solver, compulsive whys, multi level views of everything…
I am a Chinese, this article strikes my chord.
I really need help because I am experiencing all what has been written here as far as LLI is concerned. I am experiencing this LLI condition and I think am poorly managing it.
I would like 2b informed concerning any scientific information about Low Latent Inhibition. I am a living example I may report.
Testing