The burden of intelligence

Having the opportunity to spend time with a considerable amount of smart people, I’m always surprised how my high IQ friends have great speaking abilities, are highly proficient in problem solving, artistic and creative minds that never stop to amaze, so I often think to myself if there Is any consequence to these seemingly super human abilities, although my experience is totally subjective it has certainly inspired me to look into the downfalls of intelligence.

It turns out there are some bad news, a paper published by the journal of intelligence has found an association between high IQ and various mental and immunological diseases such as anxiety bipolar disorder ADHD depression, as well as allergies and immune disorders, the founding was done by Pitzer College researcher Ruth Karpinski and her colleagues who surveyed members of Mensa a high IQ society who are in the upper 2 % of top IQ that 132 or higher, in comparison to the general population being at 100.

The survey included a multiple anxiety and mood disorders, ADHD and autism. The authors of the study compared 3715 members. Results where[BR1]  mind boggling as they showed that highly intelligent people are 20 % more likely to be diagnosed with autism 80% more likely to have ADHD, 182% more likely to have at least one mood disorder and 83 % more likely to have anxiety, these numbers are concerning  but what comes next is even more staggering as the research further shoed that highly intelligent people are 84 % more likely to have an immune system disease, 108% more likely to have asthma and 213% more likely to have allergies

The researchers surprised by such differences turned into psychoneuroimmunology to find answers, PNI for short examines how accumulated chronic stress influences the brain and autoimmune systems. Karpinski and her colleagues propose the hyper brain/hyper body theory. This theory holds that, for all of its benefits, being highly intelligent is linked with psychological and physiological “overexcitabilities, this gives them heightened awareness that could hep with creativity, but it can however lead to depression and poor mental health.

A very clever person may compulsively overanalyse a critical situation from his girlfriend, trying to foresee all the potential outcomes it may predict. Though this is an advantage when used to plan complicated tasks or master something , the same power can be used for negative thoughts that cause anxiety and the psychological effects can be catastrophic.

Psychological Overexcitabilities derives from higher tendencies to overthink and worry

Whereas physiological overexcitabilities derive from the body’s response to anxiety and stress that produce cortisol and cytokines therefore contributing to a variety of autoimmune issues

There may be many different explanations for this phenomenon in addition to the overexcitability hypothesis, and they may all be relevant to some degree. One possibility is that the genes associated with intelligence also make you more prone to mental illness, but intelligence does not directly increase your risk of mental illness. Another possibility is that people with higher IQs are often more socially isolated, which leads to more anxiety and depression. For example, people with autism spectrum disorders and above-average IQ are at much higher risk for depression. That may also happen to a lesser extent with intelligent people not on the spectrum.

It can be argued that the study done by Karpinski is to be taken cautiously since its correlational, as it’s possible that members of Mensa are in some way different not just in IQ but some other trait as well. But its to take in account that if this study provides to pe applicable to the general population then intervention can be made accordingly to help people avoid illness and live happier lives.

It seems like that Intelligent people make mistakes just like all of us, but those mistakes can be harder on them as they know they should do better or live up to a certain expectation this can create a burden. This is evidences by a survey done in 1926 by psychologist Lewis Terman. Surveying over 1500 intellectually gifted kids through their lives, the result of the studies showed that intelligence had no real direct influence on their live achievement. As all rates suicide, alcoholism success where the same as the rest of society, furthermore some participants complained that there lives where burdened by the knowledge that they must live up to their promising intellects.

Another downfall is that intelligence doesn’t necessary correlate to better decision making  or being more openminded as Dr. Keith Stanovich suggests that people ho are more intelligent are fund to be no more likely to be unbiased or better at rationalizing while being more prone to rational bias blind spots, this makes the less likely to see their own flaws and more likely to see others, this can be a considered to be major lack on insight and hold back intelligent people in the achievement of success or catching opportunities this inability to rationalize ones own actions and having a biased prospective is often referred to as Dysrationalia.

The problem of inability of connection is as viscous as it sounds, as highly intelligent people find it difficult to fit in, this an effect of different interests between themselves and peers or even fear of failure which can manifest into crippling perfectionism and inability to even start.

 To conclude there are widespread arguments on the nature of the links between intelligence mental health, physical health and success, this is made more difficult by the fact that measuring intelligence its in it self a hard task as psychologist today ague that intelligence takes many forms many of which are not possible to detect in a IQ test, as for example creative intelligence musical intelligence. And many also argue that mental health issues are a contributing factor for some kinds of intelligence.

Having a high IQ or being Intellectually gifted in any area can be both a blessing and a curse as on its own intelligence doesn’t guarantee anything but as evidence shows (Karpinski 2018) only mental and physical disorders, this shows how even the most powerful minds have their down falls, so look after each other and font discriminate based on Intelligence. As it seems like we all have the same issues.

References List:

Cravens, H. (1992). A scientific project locked in time: The Terman Genetic Studies of Genius, 1920s–1950s. American Psychologist, 47(2), 183.

Karpinski, R. I., Kolb, A. M. K., Tetreault, N. A., & Borowski, T. B. (2018). High intelligence: A risk factor for psychological and physiological overexcitabilities. Intelligence, 66, 8-23.

Stanovich, K. E. (1993). Does reading make you smarter? Literacy and the development of verbal intelligence. In Advances in child development and behaviour (Vol. 24, pp. 133-180). JAI.

Stanovich, K. E., West, R. F., & Toplak, M. E. (2011). Intelligence and rationality.

Stanovich, K. E., & Stanovich, P. J. (2010). A framework for critical thinking, rational thinking, and intelligence.

Terman, L. M. (1981). Mental and physical traits of a thousand gifted children (Vol. 1). Stanford University Press.

Terman, L. M. (1931). The gifted child.

Vialle, W. (1994). “Termanal” science? The work of Lewis Terman revisited. Roeper Review, 17(1), 32-38.

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