Mental Illness = Highly intelligent indivdual?

[cupcakecarnage]

I've been doing a bit of research and reading over some threads on this site and some other ones, and i've noticed that a lot of people with a 'metal illness' (depression, anorexia, psychosis, ect.) are highly intelligent people. It got me thinking, why are all these intelligent individuals a prisoner of their own minds? Why do they have a mental illness? and why do people with greater intelligence levels have a higher chance (or so it seems) of having/getting a mental illness?

I've been told a lot lately that im very articulate, intelligent and more mature than i should be for my age. This is what started the whole mental illness intelligent level thing (I've been diagnosed with depression, anxiety and social anxiety). I then watched a current affair tv program and it had a story on a girl with anorexia and she was very intelligent for her age and very aware of her condition and what it was doing to her and her family, and then there is stephen hawking, most of his best work happened after he became paralysed. So my question is why do intelligent people have a higher rate of mental illnesses than people with a lower intelligence level?

*In no way am i trying to affend anyone, and if i do i apologise. I am simply explaining/ expressing my opinion and curiosity.*

 

[Minus]

Intelligent people are no more immune to mental illness than anyone else so it is not unusual to find bright people with problems. A am not aware of any connection between Stephen Hawking and mental illness but admittedly i never developed an interest in him.

As far as people with mental illness as a whole being brighter, i have never seen anything valid to support that. The people that i know with mental illness run the whole range, but my observations are not valid proof of anything.

One study published in the Journal of Consulting Psychology looked at prior intelligence test scores of people who later developed acute mental illness and found no correlation between intelligence and psychological adjustment.

If you want to break it down into further subgroups a slight correlation can be found. For example in the study mentioned it found that schizophrenics, other than paranoid and catatonic types in their sample tended to have lower pre-illness scores. That was later supported by a study done by the Department of Clinical Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, London where they concluded that schizophrenia does not lower intelligence. What they were seeing was that the lower intelligence was a characteristic before the onset of schizophrenia and not a decline caused by schizophrenia. Of course this in no way means that intelligent people are immune from schizophrenia. There are well known examples of brilliant people with schizophrenia. It would be misleading to believe they are the norm for the illness. A Cornell study among other things found "Preschizophrenic children, adolescents, and young adults perform below matched controls on a variety of standardized measures of intelligence." This is not to be confused as a causal factor. This is also just one branch of mental illness and it would be a mistake to generalize it further.

 

[SophiaGrace]

I dont think this is true simply because mental illness hampers your ability to cope with stress, which doesnt make one feel intelligent at all.

 

[Badjedidude]

I'm no expert in this issue, but personally I'd say that there's no real connection between the two.

1. You can be intelligent and mentally ill.

2. You can be intelligent and not mentally ill.

3. You can be unintelligent and mentally ill.

4. You can be unintelligent and not mentally ill.

I have no idea what the statistics for these would be, but I'm betting there'd be a larger number of unintelligent mentally ill than of intelligent and mentally ill. But... like I said, I'm not a psychologist/psychiatrist and I'm not doing research in this area.

 

[SofiasMami]

Hi-
I'm not sure there is a correlation between mental illness and intellect. I was a social worker for severely and chronically mentally adults and most had average intelligence.
Even if there is a correlation, remember the statistics maxim that correlation doesn't mean causation. For example, everyone who ate fried chicken in 1865 is dead but that doesn't mean they all died from eating fried chicken.

Teresa

 

[Badjedidude]

Even if there is a correlation, remember the statistics maxim that correlation doesn't mean causation. For example, everyone who ate fried chicken in 1865 is dead but that doesn't mean they all died from eating fried chicken.

Excellent point.

I totally agree and I don't think anyone could have said it better.

 

[Callie]

I have a lot of issues...I've had problems with eating disorders, social disorders, anxiety disorders..well the list goes on. ANYWAY, I'm not exactly stupid, but I'm not super smart either. My brother IS very smart and there's nothing wrong with him in any aspect of mental illness.
I have friends who are...well, to be frank...pretty "dim" and they have some of the same problems I have.
BUT, on the other hand, there are people like my son. He is...I'm by NO means gloating or whatever...basically a genius, his IQ is 2 points shy of genius level. He was given that IQ test when he was 7 years old, he's 9 now. That said, he's not a "normal, typical" child. He has Asperger's Syndrome, which IS a mental disorder (believe me, I know cuz my insurance won't cover anything to do with my son's illness).

To get to my point...geez, I talk a lot...you can do all the studies you want (the "you" is a generalized you, not YOU specifically), but there will always be exceptions to the rule, there will always be someone or some group that doesn't conform. You can look at whatever study you want and always find something wrong with it in some way or find at least one person who doesn't fit the description.

 

[SociallyAwkward]

When you mean mental illness what exactly are you referring too?
Stephen Hawkings has ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease which isn't a mental illness but a neurodegenerative disease that thankfully has not impaired his cognitive functions yet. Plus he was highly intelligent before the symptoms of his disease showed. What causes us to be intelligent or not, is it external factors (education, etc...) or internal (something in our DNA)?

 

[Rigel]

I remember a study of some sort, that finds a correlation between autism (i believe) and exceptional musical/artistic talent, caused apparently by their extremely analytical minds; i'll try to find out more because i can't recall the details exactly, but it would serve as an example

people with greater IQ's tend to overanalyze their surroundings. Now you could probably think this would be great, but it doesn't fare well in the breakneck speed and chaotic lifestyle of the 20th century. I remember ppl with high IQ saying how easily they get overwhelmed by being constantly bombarded by information on every step; they process an incredible amount of thought on matters that we may find mundane and irrelevant; The question is whether that kind of stress may cause some sort of mental illness to develop at one point

I can think of something else. If anything perhaps the people who are shy and reclusive tend to find more time for the things they like; learning, being creative and so on. It's a curious thing; but I think it makes sense. If you're not into going out and being around other people all the time, you may invest that time in other productive activities. Not much to do with mental illness, it's just a thought

 

[iris]

Stephen Hawking doesn't have a mental illness, it's a physical condition in his case.

I did read somewhere that highly intelligent (gifted) kids are more likely to develop a mental illness in the course of their lifetime.

 

[Badjedidude]

I did read somewhere that highly intelligent (gifted) kids are more likely to develop a mental illness in the course of their lifetime.

I read somewhere that Jesus was a flying tractor carbeurator. Just because someone published something doesn't make it true; and that even applies to studies. I'd need to see several peer-reviewed studies before I even began to think about believing something like that.

 

[iris]

I read somewhere that Jesus was a flying tractor carbeurator. Just because someone published something doesn't make it true; and that even applies to studies. I'd need to see several peer-reviewed studies before I even began to think about believing something like that.

Yeah, dude, you've got a point there.