So I went to an Anti-Stigma meeting with my “Young Adult Group” last Thursday and one of the major points was that people with MI (schizophrenia is what they were really talking about) are geniuses and I really didn’t get that because if we are such geniuses than how do we come to be so disabled? She drove the point that we are creatively intelligent and have genius level intelligence. I can’t remember if she gave out information on a test showing this but I’m pretty sure she never said anything of the case.
I also remember that on the site here somewhere there is a list of all known home remedies thought to help and those that are known to have false hype and don’t work/make things worse, art was one of these that have a huge hype but proven to not be helpful.
But what do you think? Do you think we are geniuses or do you think we are disabled?
it’s not true… but its persistance fascinates me though.
You know, with this belief not being based on fact, I am inclined to think there must be something else than truth to it, for it to persist in the survival of ideas. My guess is that it has something appealing, that makes for people wanting to believe in it. I think of it as a myth. And a myth is not just any false belief… a myth is entertaining, has some beauty to it, often some tragedy… Maybe here it is such age-old themes like suffering has its worth, or the converse, that everything, including genius, comes at a price. Maybe it has its origins in the mystery of madness… the mysterious, or the unknown, can be dangerous and scary, but it can also hold the promise of new riches or wisdom to be found. Negative stigma, of the kind that makes us to be dangerous, criminal, violent, etc., is the other side of the coin, it seems to me. And these are also clearly false. But the question to me it seems is why do these prejudices function and survive nevertheless.
I’m not going to say that ALL people with mental illness are geniuses, but our illnesses often make it difficult for us to express our actual intelligence. when I was first diagnosed they did a standard IQ test on me and I scored a 125, which isn’t bad. last year they did a ‘modified’ test on me, one that took into account my illness and made adjustments to the testing process. I scored a 176.
Technically speaking I am genius, as anything over 130 is considered genius these days. I don’t feel like genius, and sometimes I think the test was somehow done wrong, but then people give me complex puzzles, things that seem so easy to me that my Pdoc just stared at me as I solved it in 4.2 seconds, a puzzle that takes a person with an IQ of 130 approx. 10 seconds to do…
Maybe they are trying to make me feel better by making me feel smarter? if so why is it I can instinctively determine the right amount of force needed to bend a metal bar to a perfect angle with the use of a tool? I can put an 32 degree angle on a aluminum rod without using a measuring device, and hen checked after there is only a variation of maybe two degree either direction. I have trouble with math but when it comes to shapes and problem solving I excel.
We do have the capacity to see unreality… most people are stuck on the “surface,” Even if they took to divergent thinking it would soon be restored by their incapacity to maintain it.
However, mentally ill folk are teh coolest. We are the only ones who look inside. Some of us learn to see the connection between our pasts, our psychology, and neuroscience. And some go beyond that and throw out that which they don’t want and become really content people.
And some go beyond that… (and become sociopaths) haaaha
Ive always felt this body is limiting my potential…i dont know if im a genius but if i could focus and collect my thoughts i would be published several times…does the disabling factor cancel out the genius? You could be the most intelligent person ever but if you cant function it all becomes pointless. Idk i think id rather be stupid happy and functional this ■■■■ sucks it not worth it…
haaaha