The most intelligent people and their curious relationship with depression

More intelligent people tend to have a more ruminative mind, and they also feel displaced from a reality in which they do not usually feel identified. All of this increases the risk of suffering from some emotional disorder.

The smartest people are not always the ones who make the best decisions. A high IQ is also no guarantee of success or certainty of happiness. In many cases, these profiles are the ones who are most trapped in the knot of their worries, in the abyss of existential anguish and in that hopelessness that consumes the reserves of optimism.

There is a popular tendency to see all these geniuses of art, mathematics or science as taciturn creatures, as somewhat peculiar people and very attached to their oddities. There we have, for example, Hemingway, Emily Dickinson, Virgina Woolf, Edgar Allan Poe or Amadeus Mozart himself…

Genius, creative and exceptional minds that took their anguish to the edge of the precipice that heralded the tragedy.

“The intelligence of an individual is measured by the amount of uncertainties he or she is able to withstand.”

-Immanuel Kant-

However, What is real in all this? Is there a direct association between high IQ and depression? Well, it should be noted first of all that High intelligence does not necessarily contribute to the development of some type of mental disorder.

Yes, there is a risk and a predisposition to excessive worry., to self-criticism and perceiving reality in a very biased way, tending towards negativity. Studies such as the one carried out by Alexander Penney, from Lakhead University, Canada, tell us that intelligent people are characterized above all by having a “ruminating mind.”

In that way, It is common to end up feeding worry and anxiety, until little by little there is a risk of leading to some type of emotional disorder.. All of this gives shape to something very concrete: in our society we have brilliant people who take advantage of their full potential by investing not only in their own quality of life, but in society itself.

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However, there are many works, analyzes and books that reveal this singular tendency. Especially among people who have an IQ of more than 170 points.

The personality of the most intelligent people

“The creative brain” It is a very useful book to understand how the mind and brain of the most intelligent and creative people work. In it, the neurologist Nancy Andreasen carries out a meticulous study that shows that there is a fairly significant tendency for geniuses in our society to develop different disorders: bipolar disorders, depression, anxiety attacks and panic disorders, especially.

Aristotle himself already revealed at the time that intelligence walked hand in hand with melancholy. Geniuses like Sir Isaac Newton, Arthur Schopenhauer and Charles Darwin suffered periods of neurosis and psychosis. Virginia WoolfErnest Hemingway and Vincent Van Gogh took the fearful step of ending their own lives.

All of them are well-known figures, however, in our society there have always been silent, misunderstood and lonely geniuses who have lived in their own personal universes deeply disconnected from a reality that seems too chaotic, empty of meaning and disappointing.

Studies with very intelligent people

Sigmund Freud studied with his daughter Anna Freud the development of a group of children with an IQ above 130. In this first work he discovered that almost 6% of them ended up developing a major depressive disorder.

In addition, Also famous are the works of Lewis Terman, a pioneer in educational psychology at the beginning of the 20th century.It was in the 60s when he began a long study with children with high abilities, children who exceeded an IQ of 170 points and who participated in one of the most famous experiments in the history of psychology. They called these children the “termites” and it was not until the 90s that they began to draw some important conclusions. The first is that Intelligence is not a guaranteed synonym for success.. The second, that the most intelligent people are not the happiest either. Among the most recent works we have that of MJ Adams, EH Hawkins, D. Porteous, IJ, psychologists from the University of Edinburgh. In this studio The often significant relationship between high intelligence and neuroticism was demonstrated.

Intelligence: a very heavy burden

The “termites”, Lewis Terman’s children who have now become elderly adults, claim that being brilliant has not given them life satisfaction. Although some of them achieved fame and a relevant position in society, A good part attempted suicide on more than one occasion or fell into addictive behaviors, such as alcoholism.

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Another significant aspect that this group of people declared and that can also be seen in those who have high intellectual abilities is that they are very sensitive to the problems of the world. They are not only concerned about the presence of inequalities, hunger or wars. Very intelligent people feel upset by selfish, irrational or illogical behavior.

The emotional burden and blind spots in very intelligent people

Experts tell us that Very intelligent people sometimes suffer from what could be called dissociative personality disorder.. That is, they see their own lives from above. Like the narrator who uses a third-person voice to see his reality with meticulous objectivity but without feeling fully a participant in it.

This approach often causes them to present “blind spots”, a concept that has a lot to do with Emotional Intelligence and that Daniel Goleman developed in an interesting book with the same title. They are self-deceptions, serious flaws in our perception when choosing what to focus on and what to ignore so as not to take responsibility.

Thus, what very intelligent people often do is focus exclusively on the shortcomings of their environment, on that out-of-tune humanity, on that strange and naturally selfish world where it is impossible for them to fit in. They often lack adequate emotional skills to relativize, to fit in better, to find calm among all that outer jungle and that disparity that confuses them so much.

Likewise, something that we can undoubtedly deduce from very intelligent people is that they often suffer serious deficiencies in that other type of matter, the emotional. This in turn leads us to another conclusion: another factor should be added to the always overrated IQ when developing psychometric tests.

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We talk about “wisdom”, that vital knowledge to develop authentic daily satisfaction, to shape a good self-concept, good self-esteem and those ideal skills to invest in coexistence and in the construction of real, simple but tangible happiness.

We cannot forget something that studies such as the one carried out at the University of NewCastle, in Australia, remind us of: People with good emotional intelligence are those who enjoy greater mental health and a better quality of life.