It wasn’t that long ago that I was regarded as “gifted” and sometimes referred to by psychiatrists and college/grad school professors as being a “genius.”
Compare that to now, when my memory is for ■■■■, I find it extremely difficult to learn new things, and I can’t even read a damn book anymore.
My IQ probably was tested when I was a kid, and I just don’t remember it, not that IQ scores mean that much. I don’t think much of IQ tests/scores.
I just know I’m not as sharp as I used to be, don’t have the lightning quick thoughts anymore.
I’m not any less intelligent but cognitive issues can give the appearance that I’m slowed down. I think it has more to do with the patience level of a person interacting with me rather than my communication barriers. Imho!
the schizophrenia and the medication topped of with 7 rounds of ect has made me feel blunt and slow. sometimes i get scared thinking of dementia to be honest. all the poems i wrote were well before my diagnosis . these last 4 yrs have been hellish. now i can’t write ■■■■ and my memory is like swiss cheese. so yeah i definitely feel like i lost intelligence
I was studying for a bachelors in sociology when I developed schizophrenia. I still feel intelligent in many ways, I can still read a book and retain the information quite well. It’s mostly that when I watch a show, I never remember it. I can watch it numerous times without ever spoiling the ending. Faces keep changing on me too. I think that one person looks like another and I can’t always tell them apart if they are out of context. I don’t know if that’s from schizophrenia. It could be some other issues. It’s embarrassing when I call people the wrong name thinking they are the other person. It’s also embarrassing that I can hardly remember any names at all.
I still have an intelligence level that is good enough for the job I do.
When I was a kid I was considered gifted, but I strayed away from education and went in with the bad crowd.
My social intelligence is limited, but I think my illness makes me think differently to a lot of normal people, and somehow that is seen as good because I have a unique perspective on things
I think I’ve always had learning difficulties . In the early 60s to mid 70s ,when I was at school, that wasn’t picked up on if you were of average or higher intelligence . My verbal intelligence far outstrips my non-verbal intelligence.
My intelligence when it comes to practical matters of daily living is low to very low . Before moving to where I am now I was basically self neglecting . My stepdaughter provides quite a lot of practical support where I’m living now .
I don’t think the meds or the schizoaffective have had an increased negative effect . It is very possible though that age has .
As for social intelligence - mine isn’t good at all .
I feel a lot slower and I have a lot less confidence in learning than I used to but, my IQ is pretty much the same and I don’t really come across anything that I find too hard. I am a bit unsure how I would fare at a university though, and I am weighing up wether to go at the moment.
Maybe, i used to study linguistics for 3 years and did pretty good. Then the illness hit and i stopped doing everything. With people randomly coming up to me in uni and saying things, i went crazy and ended up leaving uni to hide from “them”. Two years later ive become stressed and applied my intelligence to everything related to figuring out how it all works and who is behind it. To this day i still read fringe topics to try make sense of it all. I no longer have any interest in much of the academic fields.
Tho being stressed constantly has really tired my mind out, my attention span is shot.
I know I’ve lost intelligence due to the illness and I wouldn’t be surprised if I was also being effected by the meds too. Right now I’m doing ok though. Not as good as when I was a young lass though.
Haldol was a decent med for me, but after a few years on it, I realized it made my head empty of thoughts.
and I mean none:
Zero, Zip, Nada, hollow, Nothing, Null…
I begged to get off it and try something else.
Yes very much so. And some aps I’ve tried (haldol and invega) made me feel intellectually disabled.
Maybe they need better IQ tests.
I recently saw a documentary on tv about Ted Kaczynski (the unabomber) and his IQ is supposedly 167, but to do what he did and to get locked up for life doesn’t seem very smart to me.
