Why is there a correlation between being smarter and having mental health problems?

[Kingofkings1992]

[Lliam]

Psychology pathologizes everything. If you are not a programmed robot, you supposedly have mental health problems.

Smart people don't fit into nice neat boxes. They think outside the consensus, so they seem odd to idiots. Their behavior may appear eccentric.

But then there are the number of smart people who are sociopaths and criminals. Look at the wealthiest people in the world. They think they are too smart to be bound by morality. They see people as similar to bugs or livestock.

[Kingofkings1992]

I view people as rodents who are in my way

[NamerOfStars]

Two reasons: first, because increasing intelligence puts ever more pressure on people to break through the cognitive dissonance of how little sense much of society makes, and second, because UNintelligent people with mental health problems often rarely leave the house; you simply don't encounter them.

[purplepoppy]

In any situation smart people see a lot more potential outcomes while dumb people just assume one outcome. I think that puts the brain under more stress.

[FreyaRed]

Dumb people tend to wishful thinking in regard with their person. Smart people can't allow themselves such comfort.

[TommyMountainFigure]

I've no idea, but the brain is something which is thousands of years away from finally being understood.

Who is to say Autistic people who can look at numbers and make them sing to their tune, aren't merely gifted, instead of perceived as something wrong with them?

[Juxtapose]

Speaking as an autistic person myself, without modern medical knowledge and an understanding population? If I survived long enough to adulthood I would have wished I was dead by that point.

Be able to do crazy things with numbers or remember every date on the calendar doesn't really do much for you when you can't socialize well. Autism is definitely a detriment because we are social creatures and we can't fuck that aspect up. When we were tribals, even having a different accent would mark you as an enemy and therefore mark you for death.

[TommyMountainFigure]

@Juxtapose If ever there comes a time when experts say ESP is possible. Those with Autism will be the most likely to achieve it.

[Juxtapose]

That'd be a nice fantasy.

[NamerOfStars]

Those of us who can put on a shirt with a tag and wear it without screaming. Being gifted and having something wrong with you aren't mutually exclusive.

[TommyMountainFigure]

@NamerOfStars They use to believe the world was flat until proven otherwise. Who is to say that just because you may be told there is something wrong with you today, that in years to come when testing gets more advanced you are not then considered to be more advanced! I personally don't think someone with Autism should be labelled at all. A man with Autism or a man without it? Both are men, and that' where the line should be drawn!

[NamerOfStars]

Someone with basic logical abilities, that's who. There is no "advanced"; evolution isn't progress towards a goal, but away from a starting point. By the rules of natural selection, how well do you think a person with extreme sensory sensitivities, repetitive behaviors, and difficulty reading social signals is going to do?

As to not labeling them, while you see huge levels of variation in the functioning of autistic people, and the idea of using one word to describe all of them was a huge mistake, not using anything at all is even worse; people who have special needs HAVE them, and pretending they don't exist is not only going to keep them from being able to contribute to society and live happy lives, it's going to make them REALLY resent you.

Not putting too much value in categories isn't the same as not having them.

[TommyMountainFigure]

@NamerOfStars So you think it right for someone to say, let's give him a wide berth because he is autistic? Because I'm not saying people with Autism should be deprived of any medication they need, of course I'm not. I just think it wrong for people's attention.. SPECIFICALLY ignorant people who think that merely because someone has Autism they are different, and as such should be avoided.

[NamerOfStars]

But they ARE different. For you and me, the sound of fingernails scratching a blackboard is unpleasant, and will leave us shuddering; it might leave an autist writhing on the floor, since their brains don't filter things out like ours do. When you need concessions, you need concessions.
Does that warrant treating them as unworthy of regard, or less than human? Of course not- but that's down to people being jerks, which can't be helped if they don't want it to. It's not the same as not telling others what you need.

[Astarlessnightsky]

The smarter or more educated you are the more you understand the bs thats going on in the world, which is kind of depressing.

[leahzrc]

I think the more aware you become. The more crazy you become. I would rather be blissfully ignorant then at the point of no return.

[gabe10]

Not always because there’s other reasons why you could end up depressed or mentally ill like poverty or physical illness or bullying. Those things can happen to anyone of any intelligence level.

[Juxtapose]

Those with wisdom or intelligence have burdens to bear because they are not shielded by ignorance. They witness the horror of the world and how little people do about it without any rose-tinted glasses.

[exitseven]

I think that artistic people are more likely to be crazy. Look at the Hollywood crowd.

[OtterMan68]

Smart people often have harder times fitting in and feeling accepted.

[Lessthanaveragr]

That's a good question, especially because I'm a highly intelligent person, but I'm a psycho.

[Pohjolan]

Ignorance is bliss.