Lately I have been thinking a lot about the association between perceived intelligence and depression.
We are all aware of the phrase "ignorance is bliss" and I am convinced there may be a psychological foundation in this. If you look at famous thinkers of our time, many of them have had major psychiatric disorders. My interest and I will do my research project on this when time comes, is whether a higher level of intelligence is going to increase the likelihood of someone developing major depression, bipolar, schizophrenia or another significant illness or whether there is correlation between the two that may have some form of causality in both directions.
I had an interesting conversation with someone suffering from Bipolar disorder just tonight where he said that through conversations he has had with other sufferers, generally they are more "switched on" and generally "smarter" than those without this disorder.
It is something I will have to look into further and I may expand on this post at a later date after I have researched it more.
ive always thought this is true, because people who are more 'switched on' think things over more, and therefore can develop unhealthy obsessions/anxiety/depressions etc about things that other people wouldnt think about so much.
ReplyDeleteid love to see research on this.