6 Struggles of Being Overly Intelligent

Intelligence like anything else is really hard to measure. Even though we have what is known as general intelligence or the g factor coined by a famous British psychologist Carles Spearman (1863-1945), people still disagree that intelligence can truly be measured. For example, how do you separate those who have street-smart, and have life experiences, from those who are generally better with logic, reading, and taking tests? That aside, we will cover 6 interesting studies linking general intelligence and psychology.

DISCLAIMER: This video is for entertainment purposes only. It is not intended to replace medical advice. Please visit your medical or mental professional if you need help or advice.

Writer: Sara Del Villar
Editor: Brie Villanueva
Script Manager: Kelly Soong
Animator: Mara Erika
YouTube Manager: Cindy Cheong

REFERENCES:
Nemko, M. (2016, 27 September). The Burdens of Intelligence. Psychology Today. The Burdens of Intelligence

Sabater, V. (2022, 21 February). Being Extremely Intelligent: The Dark Side We Don’t Talk About. Exploring Your Mind. Being Extremely Intelligent: The Dark Side We Don't Talk About

Annals of neurosciences, 19(3), 107–111. Singh

Coplan, J. D., Hodulik, S., Mathew, S. J., Mao, X., Hof, P. R., Gorman, J. M., & Shungu, D. C. (2012). The Relationship between Intelligence and Anxiety: An Association with Subcortical White Matter Metabolism. Frontiers in evolutionary neuroscience, 3, 8. The Relationship between Intelligence and Anxiety: An Association with Subcortical White Matter Metabolism
NCBI - WWW Error Blocked Diagnostic

Hambrick, D. Z. (2017, December 5). Bad news for the highly intelligent. Scientific American. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from Bad News for the Highly Intelligent

Science News Staff. (1998, June 1). Stress may keep neurons down. Science. Retrieved November 10, 2022, from Stress May Keep Neurons Down

Singh, Y., & Sharma, R. (2012). Relationship between general intelligence, emotional intelligence, stress levels and stress reactivity.

Zeisel, S. H., & da Costa, K. A. (2009). Choline: an essential nutrient for public health. Nutrition reviews, 67(11), 615–623. Choline: an essential nutrient for public health

Additional source about the link between hig iq, choline and depression:
Zhao, D., Xu, X., Pan, L. et al. Pharmacologic activation of cholinergic alpha7 nicotinic receptors mitigates depressive-like behavior in a mouse model of chronic stress. J Neuroinflammation 14, 234 (2017). Pharmacologic activation of cholinergic alpha7 nicotinic receptors mitigates depressive-like behavior in a mouse model of chronic stress - Journal of Neuroinflammation

[Psychgo]

Do you feel high intelligence is a curse or a gift?

[trinaq]

Some downsides of intelligence may be the tendency to overthink, people getting annoyed when you casually correct them in conversation, and prioritising thinking over feeling.

[jarrodborders]

High intelligence is both a gift and a curse, but knowing when and how to apply it is the real gift.

[pjuliano]

My brother and I were bored at school. They teachers said we had learning disabilities. We were taken to mental specialists of some sort and were given IQ tests. We were both way above average. The specialist said we were just under stimulated by school. We both ended up being scientists in different fields.

[thejoey]

When I was in the 3rd grade my teacher told my parents that I had a learning disability. My parents took me to a psychologist that put me through tests. Turned out I had an IQ of 152, and my teacher just didn't know how to respond to me. I had/have trouble making new friends, and still have some issues in social situations. I tend to cope by trying to put myself on the same mental level of the person I'm talking to. It can be exhausting, so I tend not to "people" often.

[corrinakrivakova]

Nah high intelligence is one thing, the ability to use it when it's needed and keep your mouth shut when it's not, is another

[MrNuki]

"It takes more than intelligence to act intelligently." - Dostoyevsky

[stevenesquibel]

1)Mental and emotional disorders
Over analysis
Hyper awareness
2)Stress
3) social burden
Burn outs
4) negative expression
High iq lacks in one place when high in another
5) self esteem rely on others eyes too much

[bulhakov]

There were a few things I had hoped to hear about:
- during childhood development high IQ is correlated with low emotional/social skills (though they do catch up in adulthood)
- nihilism - the better you understand how the world works (atheism, moral relativism, illusion of free will), the more difficult it is to find "meaning" in life
- decision paralysis - this one often strongly counters the "arrogant know-it-all" aspect of a high-IQ personality - being aware of the complexities of factors that influence the future and distrust of intuitions may make it difficult to decide on an optimal action
- loneliness - the stunted EQ and irritability with "dumb people" lead to a significantly smaller social circle

[ZachLorenz]

I’ve found that the expectations that are intrinsically associated with intelligent people usually manifest as perceptions of competency, high executive function, and being the most effective person in the room (depending on the room). But people are people, and as soon as you consider that people have mental disorders, it can cause those big gaps between expectation and reality

[tomtomtroller]

I used to be depressed af at school because i'd get punished for not doing my homework and studies yet I always got 100% without them. On my final year a teacher always ignored me but a student asked why I did not have to do my homeworks while his friend had to do it right here right now. The teacher made me happy since their answer was pretty simple and straightforward but also something I'd have liked to hear long ago, "It is an exercise to help better grades, your friend may need better grades but 'Tom' does not so I do not need to ask more of them. It is unfair but that is how I see things." And I recall he was not liked as a teacher yet he was a nice person and they helped me a bit stay at school when all I wanted was to be done with it and go do something else.

[justin]

When I was growing up, I always hated the double standard against intelligent kids. Kids who were physically faster and stronger than the rest were praised and encouraged, but kids who were smarter could not celebrate their intelligence. We always had to worry about the feelings of the same dunces who bullied us when the teachers were not looking. Back in the day, the kid who could not 'get along' was always at fault. When a fight broke out, they always took the side of the kid who was crying. Parents were often bigger monsters than their kids.

[jaredkennedy]

I struggled with the perfectionist aspect for years, to the point of not doing anything due to constantly trying to perfect a design or idea right out of the gate. Growing up, it was always "do your best", and an expectation of first time perfection. The greatest lesson I've learned in my adult life is now "Don't let great be the enemy of good". I don't even remember where I first heard that, but initially I dismissed it as an excuse to turn out half assed results. The more I worked it around in my mind, though, the more I understood that producing something adequate to build off of later is much better than something absolutely perfect but way too late.

[ionic]

I’m not going to claim I have super high intellect but I definitely can relate to most of these to some degree.
The last two years of college have been pretty stressful as I can’t just waltz my way through it just like I did with high school. It doesn’t help that a lot of the things I’ve been assigned are very time consuming, and it’s really hard to manage time with my ADHD. Ironically I’m procrastinating on a project I have to get done just by watching this. Due to this, I’ve been struggling to get As and Bs in classes that should be easy for me; which has dealt quite a blow to my ego.

I hope everyone out there struggling with academics try their hardest and keep focused on the tasks ahead of them!

[areyousirius]

I think burn-out is the scariest thing as someone with "high intelligence". Growing up, I never tried in school, hell, I didn't HAVE to try to get good grades or test scores. I could be absent from school for a whole week and still place first in class. I didn't study- I didn't know how to, actually. But, after COVID, I fell into depression, and school became... Difficult. It was weird. It was terrifying. I felt so stupid. Ironically, my depression caused me to feel stupid, and feeling stupid just made me more depressed. It was an endless cycle. After 2 years of that, I learned to try. I learned how to put effort and I learned how to study (regretfully, I'm still trying to integrate it into my life). The expectations are just as scary though. Everyone just expects you to get it right, and when you don't, they scream and yell at you for getting a 70%.

[N-VAMusic]

My biggest problem is that I have been paired with multiple therapists to try and tackle my mental issues but I am a highly self aware person and usually I self analyze to the point that I just confuse every therapist I interact with. Like I can take a look at my past and pick apart how that may be affecting my current psyche and then explain that to my therapists and they often just end up agreeing and congratulating me on my self awareness but that doesn't fix my mental state and I'm not sure anything ever really will. It's hard to feel like I'm making any sort of progress towards happiness when it seems even professionals are not capable of understanding me. And that's not even a "hey look how smart I am" flex type thing but just how I can best describe my experience.

[yayhoo]

I scored 136 when I was younger and both my parents were very intelligent. However, my parents were also extremely dysfunctional which left me severely traumatized and unable to function normally. I think my awareness and sensitivity made it worse because my parents burdened me with their problems starting at a very young age. They conditioned me to accept their stress and anxiety without complaint or objection. So in my case it was a curse which left me with a lifetime of pain and misery due to childhood abuse. I never really accomplished much in my life. I sabotaged school and every job and every relationship. Only until recently, after getting into therapy and learning to process my unresolved trauma, did I finally finish my degree in physics. I still continue therapy and I am getting better a little at a time. I still work as a security guard even though I have my degree because i get to work alone most of the time and that brings me peace. At some point I hope to work as an engineer which would be a lot more fulfilling.

[fytoobv]

I think being regular or playing dumb and actually being smart is intelligent. You're the underrated character and you haven't shown all your cards yet. You don't need to show off your strengths right away

[The_Viscount]

One of the best decisions I ever made was to shift away from valuing myself based on my achievement and intelligence. Instead, I've chosen to measure my worth based on how much effort I put towards living with integrity and kindness. I don't always succeed, but by placing the value in working towards those goals and rectifying mistakes, I find myself being kinder not just to others, but myself. Compulsive, self-injurous thoughts still occur, but not as frequently and not as strongly. Compassion is a skill that is not dependant on intellect, beauty, athletic ability, or anything time may erase. I hope my epitaph says I was kind. I hope that's how I'm remembered.

[Kingpin]

My mother has (repeatedly) talked about how I was tested for my IQ when I was young, that it's in excess of 150, and the only reason that it isn't higher, is because the people testing me "ran out of test", and so couldn't continue. She encouraged me to pursue maths and science in order to make use of my near "genius level intellect".
I wanted to be a writer. She discouraged me from pursuing a writing career... until after I flunked uni because I just couldn't make myself interested in the courses I was doing. She's since apologised for steering me wrong.
I went and got a job, and after nearly sixteen years in the business, I can say with some confidence that I am the best in my field... though it is a dead end job and I work nine hours a day in a 10ft cubed room underground.
And I was bullied on my way here. In addition to my "high intelligence", I'm also high functioning autistic, so I have a "unique" perspective on how things should work and have very specific skills and strengths. My previous coworkers didn't understand me and refused to adjust their expectations of me, leading to them criticising and insulting me until I wanted to leave. This happened in four different buildings, and while I like my current little dungeon, I'm starting to hear the same bs from my current boss, so I'm worried that history might repeat itself again now. As for my "high intelligence", well, my high IQ has been paired with a low EQ, leading to me struggling in social situations, often being unable to think what to say when prompted in a reasonable time frame, and nearly having a panic attacked when overstimulated at a work place dinner, only being saved when half the staff left to catch their trains/busses home.
With all of that, and a few genetic conditions that I'm also not happy with, I've ended up with severe depression and worry that things that I want in life (like a family of my own) are things that I don't deserve or shouldn't have. My "high intelligence" has done me no good except to make my mental situation worse with extreme rumination and near constant self-doubt. It doesn't help that every time I think to myself "hey, it isn't do bad", something bad happens that brings my little house of cards crashing down once more.

Last time I commented on this channel, it was to say that things were going well for me. I'm sorry to say that, by the time Psych2Go found my post and responded, I was already back in the dark, and all things considered, 2022 has been the darkness year for me so far.