- Yes
- No
- Unrelational
0
voters
Interesting question. Being “smart” is hard to define, there’s book smart and street smart. Of all the people on here who have graduated college or attended college at some point in their life they didn’t seem to have it any harder or easier than the average Joe.
It may be harder to be at the top or to have a lot going for you-and then to lose it than if you had nothing at all. I’m a prime example of that. There’s people on here who lost high paying positions due to schizophrenia, people who lost great jobs and lost their families and their houses and it must be hard to fall from the top. But if you take me, before I got sick I had nothing. I was working minimum wage jobs for $2.65 an hour, I wasn’t going to school and at the time I got sick I didn’t have a car and I was living with my parents. Who had it harder?
From their stories, people who had jobs that took intelligence or graduated college suffered just as much as me, or more. I don’t think intelligence shields you from the effects of schizophrenia
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I had intense complicated delusions and I think it was because I “used to be smart” before the illness…I’m still smart but can’t concentrate now.
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I was a high school dropout with no relationships with a significant other and washing dishes at a restaurant when I got SZ. So now any accomplishment feels like a step forward to me.
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True @77nick77 street smart are always hard to find, on which subjects are made! To teach in university
Higher IQ is generally associated with better outcomes.
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For me the psychological effects of bullying related trauma +severe social anxiety + absolutely crap executive functioning(some very intelligent people with ADHD have suggested I might have the inattentive type)- they’ve been far more debilitating than the sz/sz-a. The sz/sz-a has been comparatively mild. I’d have done a lot better in life with just the sz/sz-a.
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Yeah I’m pretty sure that the “smarter” you are the outcome will be better
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Damn… I’m fu-cked lol
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You’re no dummy @AKendrick
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I was genius level IQ in elementary school, gifted program, odyssey of the mind program etc., but I had my first pyschotic break at 14(diagnosed at 15) which the experts say is unusual for a female. But anyway, I couldn’t function for high school at all and it was a strong blow to deal with at the time. I ended up working retail for awhile and becoming a wife and mother at a young age.
I think because my illness happened at such a young age it may have been a bit of a blessing in disguise. I have been this way for so many years now that my life before my diagnosis feels almost like I was someone else.
In the end, I am not really sure how to respond to this poll. I voted unrelational because I think it might have more to do with age of first pyschotic break than intelligence or college degree.
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Oh! Thanks @firemonkey I will read that
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I don’t think my IQ was tested, but I was put in the gifted classes because I would finish my work so far ahead of everyone else that I was bored 3/4 of the time. Well, except for math, it has never been my friend. I always did well in the other sciences and the humanities. I know the SZ ripped away some of my cognition because what I could see instantly when I was younger takes some work now.
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Could it just be normal aged related decline? Something that happens to all of us, but the more intelligent you the more gradual the decline.
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Some comments I’ve received.
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The difference in before and after my first psychotic break was very marked in me. Before, I was a straight A student in college and it was all fun and easy. Afterwards, I struggled to make C’s and everything suddenly became difficult.
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I fell intellectually ill at masters a 3 year course where I was able to complete only one year.
Just pure luck or gift of medicine ! My mom took me to a specific pdoc he is way expensive he changes for first visit 2500 rupees.
The main things with me right now is forgetfulness.
Hope I don’t forget any important stuff.
I am really living only in present moment.
Even typing this above text I took a pause for 2 mins.
Does high ap make you lose memory?
It is just my opinion but I think the illness itself causes loss of memory. My grandmother had sz in 1950 before meds were used and one of her major symptoms was loss of memory.
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I see a lot of sz diagnosed folks using super big words and talking in circles as if that is like, acting intelligent. Word choice is sometimes a side effect of intelligence but some folks seem to think it IS intelligence, I totally disagree.
I actually think the “schizophrenics are smarter” can be a harmful stereotype. I don’t want to be classified as anything if it’s attributed to the disease, even if it’s positive. Let me be who I was before and still am, I’ve put in the work to recover so that I can do that.
Just my two cents. I know some people like the idea that they got it due to intelligence, who knows there could be SOME truth to it, but whenever I hear a healthy individual remark “oh everyone who has that is so smart! Have you heard of John Nash?” I die a little inside lol.
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