It means you are AMAZING! Having an IQ of 153 and being on the autism spectrum is what you call twice-exceptional (2e), where one has a dual identification of giftedness and a learning difference. Being 2e is part of the neurodiverse spectrum where your mind and body are uniquely wired. This unique brain wiring is foundational where one’s receptivity, processing, responses, and behaviors tend to be unconventional. For example, a gifted individual may have a visual memory in the 99th percentile, where they read stacks of books in an hour and have a dual identification for autism, where may have challenges with verbally expressing what they read. This creates a mismatch, where one possesses extraordinary gifts and challenges, and their true ability, functioning, and performing can be masked by these differences.
Many 2e children and adults are asynchronous, meaning they develop out of sync compared to standard developmental markers. Additionally, they are often out of sync with their peers, where their maturity can be beyond their years in some areas and lagging in other areas. Importantly, asynchronous development and behaviors are strongly tied to asynchronous brain development, where the brain develops out of sync. In the brain some areas develop more quickly than others while different brain areas develop more slowly. Development across the brain is not uniform.
What does this mean for you? That your processing and development is uniquely yours, and you need to trust and learn to navigate in your unique way. The way you are wired is more than okay, it is a gift, where your unconventional thinking allows for out of the box thinking. The way I see neurodiversity is that in our society we need all types of people, we need our in-the-box thinkers, we need the out-of-the-box thinkers, and we need some thinkers to break the box for interdimensional and next level thinking. So, go ahead and break that box! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Just come across this quite by chance but his really resonates with me.
Like the questioner, I have been identified as having an IQ of 153 and being on the autism spectrum. Both my verbal and visual memory are in the 99th percentile but I have difficulties with verbally experiencing what I have read. My processing speed and working memory are also considerably lower than my verbal and visual memory which can cause me a lot of frustration as I comprehend what I learn but often struggle to process information at the same rate of comprehension.
I agree in that neurodiversity allows for out-of-the-box thinking which is needed in society. After years masking both my giftedness and my autism in an attempt to fit in, I am now working on reconnecting with my uniqueness in terms of out-of-the-box thinking and I am attempting to live authentically as a twice exceptional adult.