What do you want from us? We've been trying to get answers and we've been making some headway, I think. You must've missed my post telling you to look at the past few pages of links and info that we have been finding.

Yes, there is a higher suicide and drug/alcohol abuse rate for those who were in the gifted program. Many of my friends are gifted and have had longstanding issues with depression, suicide attempts, drug abuse, masochism and more. Some of us ended up in jails even with probably zero hope of ever recovering any sort of sanity or closure, whichever it be. I've attempted suicide twice. Who do you think you're talking to? People that don't know suffering? We KNOW suffering and I guarantee that most of us know suffering very well and firsthand.

How do I cope? Constant questioning. Intermittent periods of doubt that stave off reality just long enough for adjustment. Always believing that there is a way out of this hole that I either I or they have put me in. I truly believe that what happened 30 years ago to me may have defined the following 30 years but I am sure as hell not going to let it define the rest of my life. I also look at the little graces that this line of query have given me. I understand myself far better than I ever have and know more about myself that has awakened in me that I had long forgotten. Things that I have denied while hiding behind a cloak of science for the masses, I finally can accept. These are those little graces. Those positive changes for me that give me hope. Who I am today was not the same person as who I was back in January when I found this thread. I'm the better for it.