Does intelligence ever go up d then down and the up again?

[jennifer_bloom]

I had a doctor who could not think properly for a short while but now he is intelligent again. At the time that his brain was temporarily impaired, we did not know if he would continue with his medical career but 5 years later he is just as smart as he was before.

My dad knows somebody who was very intelligent and made over 600,000 a year. But shortly after his divorce, his mind stopped working properly and he lost his ability to make money. Now he isn’t qualified for jobs that pay 120,000 a year cause he’s not smart anymore.

I also know a few people that went from high IQ jobs to mental retardation.

Updates

+1 y

I make grammar and spelling errors cause I’m ill.

[CalmUntilAbused]

I mean... A person's health condition can impact their capability to understand the world around them. Some might even claim it's the diet that is the key factor. Now, if we don't ask for too much and consider anything below an intelectual impairment, most of these issues are temporary, as our bodies are capable of regaining the balance if allowed all the chemical components they need (or that's the theory, at the very least). As for the divorce example, however... I'm not sure whether this divorce happened in one of the Western countries (that would amplify the mental shock of the divorce itself, as divorce is basically a prolonged suicide for men in these parts), but even the mental anguish itself might have been enough to send the man into a downward spiral of alcohol abuse. Now, alcohol combines two dangerous qualities - it's both degrading and addictive. While I never really got addicted to alcohol, there was a time when I was close and what saved me might have actually been my economic instability (if I could afford more alcohol at that time, I might even be dead by now), so I know just how potent that effect is. This combination of mental and general degradation with addictiveness is what makes alcohol dangerous. If it was only degrading, the body itself would reject it (and it actually sometimes does in the beginning, that's why some people puke after drinking too much alcohol). That might explain the continous nature of that divorced man's intellectual impairment. The alcohol might be both slowly degrading his brain and keeping him prisoner (that is, if he did fall down that downward spiral of alcohol addiction, which is more of an assumption on my side), therefore rendering him incapable of recovery.

[Wise4myage]

I think if people apply themselves and they love to learn, then intelligence should go up.