Depression & Intelligence

<p>After being on CC and HSL, I am a firm believer in the positive correlation between high intelligence and depression in teenagers.</p>

<p>Hurray ?</p>

<p>Yep. Star for me.</p>

<p>Eh… 34 ACT =D
SATIIs: 740 Bio, 780 US History</p>

<p>Good school, caring teachers and administration, amazing friends, keeping up my band and my social life, 5APs and lots of ECs but making do with straight As.</p>

<p>(imagining a bunch of angry CCers jumping on me and castrating me with my own entrails)</p>

<p>I agree. Maybe having high intelligence gives you the ability to anaylze things in greater detail than others. This then leads people to think themselves out of happiness. If you’re constantly over-analyzing things, it is very difficult to be happy. Trust me.</p>

<p>I’d say the correlation is true only because many CCers are not satisfied with their current situations due to the fact that they are intellectually superior to their peers; as a result, CCers may experience difficulty finding friends with whom they can discuss various disciplines which may not interest normal teenagers. The failure of finding people to talk to can result in depression.</p>

<p>Also, when you are a high achiever, you begin to expect perfection all the time. Of course, being perfect all the time is irrational and unachievable. Leading to feelings of inadaquacy.</p>

<p>Additionally, people always say to do your best, but what if your best is generally a perfect score/perfect results?</p>

<p>Well if you do your absolute best, and it’s not a perfect score, it’s your best still. I mean you put all you had into it, right? You can’t do better than your best.</p>

<p>^ That’s irrational- who thinks like that? Knowing that your best isn’t good enough is one of the worst feelings.</p>

<p>^ Totally agree. Might as well not even try at that point.</p>

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I’ve never thought of this. Maybe this is one of the reasons that I’m constantly depressed?</p>

<p>Assuming intelligence is one of most defining characteristics of a person, it makes sense that a person with an abnormally high (or low) one would be at a greater risk of isolation, and thus depression.</p>

<p>Maybe the ability to analyze things in greater detail or depth than others only leads to the unhappiness because it separates you from others. Like the ability may not be detrimental in and of itself. In fact, in instances it could be good - for those inclined, analyzing can be fun and interesting.</p>

<p>Good enough for whom? That’s subjective. Only you know what your best is.
I got the belief from my comp sci teacher.</p>

<p>Be happy with your best work, and accept what you got. If you know your best is a 100, then you shouldn’t be upset with a 100. If you do less than your best, then you’re cheap ****ting yourself.</p>

<p>^Well, I’m far too competitive to be satisfied with my best if it’s not 95th+ percentile.</p>

<p>Interesting topic, but depends on one’s definitions of ‘intelligence’ and ‘depression’. I’d say masochistic perfectionism would be a more accurate label.</p>

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<p>luckily, people who are not satisfied with being below the 95th percentile, tend to be above it (or at least close). That’s why we don’t see more people severely depressed over their SAT scores.</p>

<p>Like if I had scored in the 50th percentile, I would have been broken/ruined. However, the very fact that I would feel this way practically necessitates I would score in a significantly higher percentile.</p>

<p>There are of course exceptions, though.</p>

<p>Like me. I get so frustrated that I just totally shut down and quit.</p>

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<p>I definitely have this problem</p>

<p>^Me too. </p>

<p>Speaking of depression, the thought has been dwelling with me that I will not gain admittance into my dream school, Hamilton College. If that were to happen, I don’t want to know what I would do. Anyone else extremely worried about denial from your dream schools?</p>

<p>^^ I used to have that problem in middle school.</p>

<p>^ Yeah, but now it’s denial into ANY school.</p>