<p>It might be more of a case of correlation, not causation.</p>
<p>I mean, I won’t bother even getting into the various subjective definitions of “intelligence”, but a lot of times, the people who are more “intelligent” are also the ones who are willing to seek out a broader worldview, which sometimes shatters the fairy tales that people sometimes hold to comfort themselves.</p>
<p>No, the two are not synonomous with each other, although it’s generally true that increased knowledge leads to seemingly higher intelligence. :)</p>
<p>And to add on, people with lower levels of intelligence only see the simple things. They witness the birth of a baby and tearfully applaud the miracle of life (despite the fact that it happens, like, a hundred times a day). Smarter people groan at the increased overpopulation problem lol. Dumber people (OR, as lower-achieving folks have thoughtfully renamed them, “unmotivated people” 
) are always happy (assuming they’re not completely unemployed), enjoying time with their families and having fun with life. Smarter people wallow in the depths of the world’s major and minor problems. Because all the issues are left to be resolved by the only people clever enough to understand and take care of them.</p>
<p>…I have just typed perhaps my most extreme overgeneralization ever. 
But anyone at least mildly agree in the partial sense?</p>
<p>Flowers for Algernon, anyone?</p>
<p>People who are mentally challenged probably are happier because they’re living in, essentially, a bubble; they are unconnected to the outside world.</p>
<p>People who just aren’t smart may be unhappy if they don’t make enough money. My dad is not smart, didn’t go to college because of it, and isn’t able to find a job. And he is definitely not happy…</p>
<p>People who are very smart may also be unhappy if they’re unable to connect with others, such as Charlie.</p>
<p>In my own personal experience, the more intelligent I become, the less bubbly I am.</p>
<p>Though, I do agree that ■■■■■■■■ people are happier than normal/smart folks. 5 years experience working at the Special Olympics definitely reveals that.</p>
<p>This is so typical CC. “Though my IQ is 174 (very high), I cannot shake my feeling of despair towards the world. The imperfections of IQ testing does not even allow me to figure out how truly gifted I am. Alas…”</p>
<p>Perhaps if you guys wanted to be happier, you’d go outside and make friends instead of posting all day on a website based around people lying about themselves to impress strangers applying to college.</p>
<p>Accepting the reality will make you ultimately happier. If you can do that, no matter how intelligent you are, you will be happy.</p>
<p>Seriously, alot of people just get sad because they do nothing all day besides post on sites like this. Go out and do something. You will feel better. Go exercise. Or go to the mall. Or a Church, or whatever house of worship you may use. I say church because I’m Christian. Its better to just do something else.</p>
<p>Being on HSL isn’t sad. It’s being on the parts of this forum that actually matter towards college. This forum is just for the lulz.</p>
<p>Dude, it’s like Plato’s Cave. We’re blinded and in pain now, but when we can see everything a bit closer to how it really is, it’ll be worth it.</p>
<p>There are times when I feel really sad, it’s true. I think a lot about progress. I think a lot about whether things really can improve. And of course, I wonder if living has any purpose. I also think a lot about people. I always get a little hurt when I say something that’s incredibly sincere and thoughtful, and people find it offensive or think I’m being sarcastic, and then call me an idiot (as happened on a comment on a Youtube video recently). A lot of times, I feel like I’m trying to open peoples’ minds, aesthetically, and they’re just resisting. I guess it’s not really my job to open minds, though…
And whenever I’m about to lose faith in humanity, I read something like this passage by E.M. Forster:
And that’s the kind of person I aspire to be.</p>
<p>I suggest you guys read “The Conquest of Happiness” by Bertrand Russell, who was a pretty intelligent guy. Those old stuffy British dudes really knew something!</p>
<p>I also feel that in general, the less intelligent the person, the more volatile their emotions and the more worldly their reasons. But maybe this is just a stereotype.</p>
<p>Weird. My New Year’s resolution is to become HAPPY.</p>
<p>I’m a senior and going off to college… time to be in the ‘big league’ with lots of great minds ;)</p>
<p>Other goal for 2010? Solve a rubik’s cube under a minute. Currently having trouble past the cross. lol</p>
<p>yes. there is. idk stuff about IQ and whatever, but in general, there is. intelligent people question things more, are less complacent, and realize the flaws/inconsistencies of society more. that is one reason for intelligent people’s sadness. another reason may be social ineptitude, though i believe that would be only at extremely high lvls of intelligence. the 2 reasons do not go hand-in-hand, nor are they mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>people who experience the first reason generally worry about not only the typical toils of life, but also society as a whole, while most people only have to worry about the usual problems in life.</p>
<p>my parents are both really smart and have depression… i’m pretty smart, but i’m hoping i’m not as smart as them haha ;P</p>
<p>Wow. You would actually want to be less intelligent so that you don’t need to think?</p>
<p>Plato would be very disappointed!</p>
<p>1) depression makes you stupid. like you can’t concentrate and stuff</p>
<p>2) smart people like to pursue goals, which is fun while you’re doing it but then you realize it’s really silly. some smart people never learn to have a life outside of whatever goal they’re pursuing. but idk how much this is correlated with smartness, a lot of dumb people pursue goals too.</p>
<p>3) smart people have decreased risk for post-traumatic stress disorder. google it</p>
<p>4) presumably intelligence helps you sort through problems and make sense of the world. but you might also end up thinking way too much</p>
<p>5) smart people might get bored more easily with the world, as someone was saying. but i also think they come up with a lot of neat ideas and things to do. i am smart and i love it because i have zillions of ideas in my head and even when i’m doing nothing there’s never a dull moment. but i’m also depressed so what the hell</p>
<p>did i succeed in making a post that makes no sense at all</p>
<p>I don’t know if intelligence is the reason behind it, but I think there would be a correlation. It’s the same with religion - the more intelligent and/or well-educated a person is, the less likely they are to believe in religion (I’m not sure if there are any studies about the actual belief in a higher power, without the religion factor).</p>
<p>I’m definitely a lot unhappier than my dumber counterparts. I’m sure my depression is clinical. The biggest reason is what romangypsyeyes pointed out - I’m extremely bored. The only challenges in life are stupid ones like money, but I have no way out because I’m locked in by a system (K-12). In general, the second is that more intelligent people tend to care more about the world and society, as was already stated. For example, more intelligent - or at least more educated - people look at the Middle East and understand what a complicated war we’re really at. Uneducated and stupid people look at the Middle East and think TERRORISTS! Well-educated, smarter people tend to stereotype less, or understand where stereotypes come from rather than apply them. Dumber, less well-educated people are perfectly content to place people out of their happy life bubble.</p>
<p>Depression doesn’t make you stupid, though. I don’t agree with that at all. Depression is quite internal. For an intelligent person, depression is actually easy to hide. It doesn’t have to affect your performance at all, though the depression person probably has to put in twice as much effort to accomplish the same results as he or she could have without the depression. Depression is an emotion. Only stupid people let their emotions control them entirely.</p>
<p>applicannot, you have to make challenges for yourself (that’s what I’ve learned). I went to a k-8 Catholic school and was incredibly bored, so I turned to drugs to give me something to do. However, I then discovered an injustice within my community (poverty-ridden suburb of Detroit) and it gave me something to focus my attention on. I started a non-profit because it required literally every aspect of my intelligence. </p>
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<p>Depression is NOT an emotion, it is a biological and neurological reality that is nearly impossible to just “control”.</p>
<p>Depression is an emotion. There is also clinical depression, which is a biological and neurological reality. For example, I’m clinically depressed, so I have a long term, mental health issue. But you can feel depression as an emotion, and when it is nothing more than an emotion, it certainly can be controlled. Even when depression is clinical, it can be defeated. Counseling, medication, motivation on good days, and so on and so forth can put the person in control of their depression rather than vice versa.</p>
<p>It’s difficult for me to create challenges with a) no money, b) no transportation, and c) a very small, very pointless town. I did transfer schools, which helped.</p>
<p>Sorry it was a typo, I meant to say it “not JUST an emotion”.</p>
<p>There is always a way to create a challenge. I started the organization when I was below poverty line and with only a bicycle (as I was 12 at the time lol). You just have to be creative. Put intelligence to work.</p>
<p>This reminds me of that one House episode with that guy from MIT who ended up doing drugs and working as a janitor because he was too depressed being smart and being unable to relate to his wife.</p>
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<p>i have dropped 15 points in IQ since going crazy.
[AmbivaBlog:</a> Yes, Stress and Depression Make You Stupid.](<a href=“http://ambivablog.typepad.com/ambivablog/2006/06/yes_stress_and_.html]AmbivaBlog:”>http://ambivablog.typepad.com/ambivablog/2006/06/yes_stress_and_.html)</p>
<p>I’m smart. (Even by CC standards). I’m happy. Maybe I’m an unusual case, maybe I’m not far enough above average to get depressed. I can definitely see how it can happen to others, though.</p>
<p>I think most smart people get depressed when they bite off more than they can chew. They tend to grow up and get called geniuses, and are used to success. Then suppose one of these geniuses goes into mathematics (just an example, I don’t know enough about other fields), where the people making the most progress pop up once every generation or so. All of a sudden they can’t do anything significant, and feel like they are failures.</p>