Is there a link between genius and mental illness?
For me no.
I also am not a fan of the whole " back in the past we would have been shamans etc". It’s debilitating and it prevents most from reaching their potential. Yeah. Some talented people and some perspective maybe differerent but for me no. MI sux.
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I think it’s a myth.
But I do think suffering makes some people dedicate themselves to different arts.
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This is purely anecdotal . Quite a few people I interact with in the high IQ community are on antipsychotics. They are certainly gifted. Some might also be geniuses.
My argument would be they’d be way more smarter without the antipsychotics. Psychosis is pretty much brain damage and the loss of iq is widely reported and has been for decades. Just saying.
Even here on sz com we see the high end of things. 20% the meds don’t really touch so there’s a lot of heartache out there. Really is and from my experience it’s not realistic to promote such ideas even in a community like ours.
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Some scientists believe in the correlation between creativity and mood disorders
Not in my experience. Most with SZ/SZa are more likely to be more cognitively impaired than those without the illness.
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Maybe not logically, but for creative people it seems to fuel it for me, including you and numerous others on this forum
STOP RIGHT THERE.
I fight negative symptoms all day every day. Everything I do is in spite of this illness, NOT because of it. Stop giving credit for my achievements to a medical condition.
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I’m sorry, I’m not saying it is because of your illness, I had no intention of hurting you, I think your ability is inherent in you, not due to illness
The passion was inherent, the ability was learned over many years with lots of effort.
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I wasn’t trying to say illness creats creativity, but some people with profound minds like yours can turn ill.
Please don’t be angry at me, you’re one of my best friends on this forum
Yeah, mental illnesses stop people from being geniuses. That’s the link between genius and mental illness.
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I actually read thats the difference between genius and madness. The madness is the one with lower iq.
I have no idea if theres any truth to it though.
Do I think there can be gifted schizophrenic people? YES. Do I think there can be schizophrenic geniuses? a much smaller yes. There’s certainly nowhere near enough of such people though to validate a link between SMI and being gifted/a genius. I was merely in factual mode when I said what I said. There was no intention of promoting anything that might encourage people to do something detrimental to their mental well-being.
I would not be upset if you removed my post.
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It’s cool. Was just stating an opinion. Sorry if you were offended but it’s a common thing and we’ve dealt with it over the years for sure.
You have the right to think otherwise matey. No dramas.
I wasn’t offended at all. With the benefit of hindsight it wasn’t the wisest of things to write.
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Yes, there is. Nash comes to mind. But, apparently, genius is more consistent with mood disorders.
Yeah didn’t want to offend you. I think it’s a common sort of urban myth here is my point. We see plenty of really smart and gifted individuals and many move on to lead great lives but even here it’s an uncommon thing.
I’m not dissing your personal experience but I’m trying to say that mental illness really holds people back and that link between genius and mental illness isn’t backed up by any science at all. It’s just a myth for sure.
Based on my own personal experience as a seriously mentally person, with a late dx of ASD, I don’t disagree with you. I will soon be a pensioner having never found the occupational ‘sweet spot’ between a high pressure white collar job, that would be detrimental to my .mental well-being, and not having the manual/practical skills required for a blue collar type job.
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