Inferiority / Superority Complex

I have this overwhelming sensation that pops up now and then where I feel either inferior and lesser than my peers or ppl around me (esp when i screw up or don't do well at smthg), or superior in intelligence to them. I'm talking about the general masses and also ur social network.

I don't know what makes me feel...distant from people sometimes. I get impatient with them, or I get impatient and mad with myself...the feeling usually lasts for a few hours before it passes. I wouldnt be so bothered if it didnt happen so frequently. And it's such a contradictory thing bcoz i also feel like i'm being an egomaniac for thinking myself better.

What do you think? Have you felt like this before, and why do u think it's so?

Do u feel just...different for no particular reason?

I feel like such an outcast. When I do or say something I think is completely normal and everyone looks at me like they fear for my sanity.
And then I never really feel superior. I always either feel normal, or I'm below the line. I don't know if I even feel I measure up to my own standards.

I think everyone makes you feel like this. Everyone around me. Except for my equals, aka, my friends. They make me feel normal. They make me feel even a little ounce of love.

i dont mean to brag about myself because thats never been my personality at all, but alot of times, like when i go out on weekends with friends, and other people are there, like from my school, i feel not that i'm better than them, but that i'm smarter then them because my friends and i are very smart and can carry on very intelligent conversations , but everyone else there is acting younger than their own age.

for example, my friend steven, he is very very smart, and people where asking him questions, when he'd answer them, no one had any idea what he said, i would literally have to dumb it down for them, i understood what he said without a second thought. it was as if steven and i were speaking in a completely different language.

Ghostgirl191:

i dont mean to brag about myself because thats never been my personality at all, but alot of times, like when i go out on weekends with friends, and other people are there, like from my school, i feel not that i'm better than them, but that i'm smarter then them because my friends and i are very smart and can carry on very intelligent conversations , but everyone else there is acting younger than their own age.

for example, my friend steven, he is very very smart, and people where asking him questions, when he'd answer them, no one had any idea what he said, i would literally have to dumb it down for them, i understood what he said without a second thought. it was as if steven and i were speaking in a completely different language.

no i totally understand. its frustrating...u start to wonder what the hell makes u so diffrent, & then u think 'maybe im just smarter'. dun mean to brag but yeah its true.

It might not be sup. complex after all, tho. IMHO u really are smart & be proud if it, girl.

Collision Kiss:

Ghostgirl191:

i dont mean to brag about myself because thats never been my personality at all, but alot of times, like when i go out on weekends with friends, and other people are there, like from my school, i feel not that i'm better than them, but that i'm smarter then them because my friends and i are very smart and can carry on very intelligent conversations , but everyone else there is acting younger than their own age.

for example, my friend steven, he is very very smart, and people where asking him questions, when he'd answer them, no one had any idea what he said, i would literally have to dumb it down for them, i understood what he said without a second thought. it was as if steven and i were speaking in a completely different language.

no i totally understand. its frustrating...u start to wonder what the hell makes u so diffrent, & then u think 'maybe im just smarter'. dun mean to brag but yeah its true.

It might not be sup. complex after all, tho. IMHO u really are smart & be proud if it, girl.

lol thanx, i mean i am proud of it, but if i do say yeah i am smarter, then ppl jump all over thinking that i'm saying that i'm so much better then everyone else and thats not the case. and it really is frustrating, i dont know if maybe its the house i was raised in, or what that sorta seperates me from most.
i mean i beleive that most of the ppl who come to the discussion board are very smart (not saying everyone else is dumb)

I met a 24 year old Oxford graduate today... I felt older than her.

Sometimes I feel really inferior to people, or like I'm some crazy/damaged person they have to hang out with. Especially with friends of friends -- I always feel like I'm the weird one in the group, usually because I don't go to the same schools/churches that their friends go to.

At the same time, I often feel significantly better educated than some of the other people that I know, mostly because I read a lot and have usually read more classic literature and travelled more than most of the people I meet.

So yeah... I definitely feel different, but it changes. It's complicated.

Radio Saturday:

I met a 24 year old Oxford graduate today... I felt older than her.

Sometimes I feel really inferior to people, or like I'm some crazy/damaged person they have to hang out with. Especially with friends of friends -- I always feel like I'm the weird one in the group, usually because I don't go to the same schools/churches that their friends go to.

At the same time, I often feel significantly better educated than some of the other people that I know, mostly because I read a lot and have usually read more classic literature and travelled more than most of the people I meet.

So yeah... I definitely feel different, but it changes. It's complicated.

yeah i understand what you mean. i've felt like that a few times. depending on who i'm with, i usually feel smarter than ppl in the group and it makes me feel sperated

I agree with the 'I feel older' feeling. Unfortunately for me, I'm really short, so most people think I'm twelve. When I can answer something the adults around me don't know (which is quite often, sadly) everyone stares at me like I'm an alien. When I do better than them and comment on it - just like saying a score - they act like I've got a serious ego. But when they do better, I'm suddenly the idiot to be laughed at.

Due to my size, I've never been able to have older friends. I decided at a young age that the hypocrites weren't worth my time. Now that some of them decided to be nice, I find that I feel below them because I can't stop being anti-social and change. My only friend is music, and I'm sad to say that probably won't ever really change.

I do sometimes feel so out of place and so passed-out.
i hate feeling that way. i'm a person that can't live w/o friends or companies.
I'm sometimes shy at first and it makes me feel alone when i'm into some social getherings or whatever, but when i'm w/ my friends, i'm soo talkative, all-out, and happy..

teehee.

Mikey Way.:

i feel like an outcast all the time.
I have always, for as long as I remember hung out with people older than myself as a majority. When i say older, I mean about 4-6 years older than myself. When I was about.. 6? My best friend was 11.

Anyways [/tangent], now, when I hang about with people my own age, or even people slightly older, by like a year or something, I feel so much older than them.

People my own age, that I know, are generally still, OmG! S0 u lyk <3 hIM???
And I just feel, as bad as it sounds, more mature than them.
So I guess, in a way it equals out that I kinda feel a little inferior to them.

I know exactly where you're coming from... Most of my friends are only a year or so older than me, but I don't see them as often. A lot of times, I hang out with adults (about my parents' ages), and I'm often treated as an equal by them.

I have the exact same feeling with kids of about my age -- I feel both superior and inferior to them. Superior, because I read so damn much and do all that kind of stuff; inferior, because I don't have the same reference points (like school and whatever scenes these kids may be a part of) as them.

It's terribly complicated, isn't it?

Radio Saturday:

I feel both superior and inferior to them. Superior, because I read so damn much and do all that kind of stuff; inferior, because I don't have the same reference points (like school and whatever scenes these kids may be a part of) as them.

I also feel slightly inferior to, because I can't relate to them as much as the whole group.
The last time I felt, "oh god, he doesn't like me" [ not because i think everyone loves me, but because it just goes over my head now, ] was about, 6 years ago.

Sprinkles:

^Sorry, but can I ask why you feel superior to someone else just because you "read a lot"? People that don't read a lot can actually be quite intelligent, shock horror.

I mean because, if we were both to read, say The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (a novel that's way more pretentious than it has any right to be and still rock as hard as it does), I would get more of the references than the average kid. And sometimes I'll bring up something I'm reading that I'm really excited about, and I'm met with blank stares.

That's all I meant.

I'm going to shut up now and pray to God/The Lady/Cthulhu that I didn't just start a fight, because that was really not my intention.

That happens to me all the time, feeling inadequate. It's like, I get a 91 on my calculus test, and I'm like, so happy! And then one of my friends comes up and they've got a hundred on their test. I'm like, well thanks for shoving me off my pedestal jerk. But most of the time, I just don't feel like I'm quite good enough. I kind of have a hearing deficiency, so whenever I ask "what?" after someone said something, they all look at me like I'm an idiot. I really hate it. As for being different, I KNOW that I'm different. You can just never quite fit in.

Radio Saturday:

Sprinkles:

^Sorry, but can I ask why you feel superior to someone else just because you "read a lot"? People that don't read a lot can actually be quite intelligent, shock horror.

I mean because, if we were both to read, say The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (a novel that's way more pretentious than it has any right to be and still rock as hard as it does), I would get more of the references than the average kid. And sometimes I'll bring up something I'm reading that I'm really excited about, and I'm met with blank stares.

That's all I meant.

I'm going to shut up now and pray to God/The Lady/Cthulhu that I didn't just start a fight, because that was really not my intention.

hmm...i understd why Sprinkles might hv taken the remark the wrong way... but i also get where u're cmg from, RadioSat. reading certain kinds of books is kinda like bg in a club...ppl who read similar stuff will know what ure talkin abt, & those who don't, won't.

im the only bookworm in like my entire family tree (as far as i know of) so i kind of emphatise with u. at the same time i realise u dun hv to be a heavy reader to be intelligent, & there r all kinds of intelligent.

still doesnt stop me frm occasionally wishing i was more like them, tho.

but whatever it is, i still belive its important to be different & to be u.....

Radio Saturday:

Sprinkles:

^Sorry, but can I ask why you feel superior to someone else just because you "read a lot"? People that don't read a lot can actually be quite intelligent, shock horror.

I mean because, if we were both to read, say The House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski (a novel that's way more pretentious than it has any right to be and still rock as hard as it does), I would get more of the references than the average kid. And sometimes I'll bring up something I'm reading that I'm really excited about, and I'm met with blank stares.

That's all I meant.

I'm going to shut up now and pray to God/The Lady/Cthulhu that I didn't just start a fight, because that was really not my intention.

[btw, I used to be Sprinkles, I changed my name]

The only reason I kind of challenged you on that was because the way you said it originally sounded really pretentious and arrogant... as if to say that "wow, I'm more intelligent than a lot of people because I read". That's just how it came across to me, sorry :\

And you didn't start a fight. This is a discussion board after all; people will disagree with you.

But I kind of understand where you're coming from.

But I am also a firm believe in the fact that different people are intelligent in different ways. For example, someone who is booksmart and academic may not have a lot of "street smarts" etc., and visa versa.

yeah, I kind of do. Its like... Im the only in the family who's like REALLY clumsy and irresponsible. I cant help but think Im adopted or something >.>
and with my friends... they are able to do the best in the things they try to do while I end up in the Mediocre section... and watching... y'know bands like MCR be able to rise from where they came from just gives me some form of hope.

Hope I didnt sound too melodramatic XD

I find this really odd, but I can relate to most of the things, if not all of the things that each and everyone of you are saying.

I've always, always had it drilled into me that people think I'm "smart" academically, and I really don't think that changes much, or sets me apart from anyone else at all. It's different levels of maturity within my group of friends-- everyone grows up at a different pace, and things that happen in your life affect how quickly you "grow up" as opposed to your friends, I think. For instance, I've always felt very out of place within "groups" (friends and class groups) since a young age, but it has shown more within recent years that I do act more maturely than my friends at most times, and I do tend to get very frustrated and impatient with them. Being an only child, and growing up around mainly adults at home, I'm used to people "getting" what I'm talking about, or the point I'm trying to prove, and accepting it, or challenging it, but mainly just acting mature, and it's hard for me to handle it sometimes when my friends just don't get something, or can't understand where I am coming from due to lack of life experience, lack of maturity, or whatnot.

I'd be excluded from things, like parties/elebrations in Primary School (mainly in year 6 and 7) because, and I quote as I was told, that I would ruin the fun, and I assume this is because I really see no point in mindless childish crap that my friends thought was funny, but I don't know. But hanging around adults, and my mother's friends who accept me, and respect me and don't treat me like a KID is almost guaranteed 100% better for me most of the time than being with my actual friends, who just don't get me.

In saying all of this, I'll also add that many of the people who actually "know" me have come to accept the fact that if they treat me a s a child (as some idiots have done) I will rebel that condemnation wholeheartedly. I don't feel like a child, I don't act like a child, and hence no one should treat me like a child.