“Ignorance begets happiness. ” According to several studies, this popular saying has partial evidence to support it, for example, according to a study by Lakehead University in Canada, there is a very obvious relationship between anxiety disorders and high intelligence, an almost direct link between brilliant and analytical minds and excessive anxiety and social anxiety.
We recently talked on our website about the apparent correlation between creativity and bipolar disorder. Well, first of all, what these studies say doesn’t mean that behind someone with an exceptional IQ or with remarkable creative potential, there’s a psychological disorder. Way.
- There is a relationship between anxiety disorders and high intelligence.
- Evidence that is believed to have originated in the white substance of the brain.
Science, and in particular the psychology departments of most universities around the world, periodically try to provide interesting information and data with meaningful evidence that can help us later in clinical practice.
Thus, an obvious fact is this: there are many people with high abilities who exhibit behaviors and states incompatible with this privileged brain, are not happy, are frustrated and do not always make the best decisions.
There are many psychiatrists and neuropsychologists around the world who often face the same problem: patients with high IQ who suffer from chronic and generalized anxiety, what is the reason for this fact?
Those who work in education will see it very often, there are bright students who are characterized by exceptional balance and tranquility, others, on the other hand, tend to get frustrated with any change, to anticipate negatively and to fall into a very stressful state. stress, to the point of impairing your academic performance.
Tscahi Ein-Dor and Orgad Tal, two psychologists at Lakehead University in Canada, conducted several experiments at various schools and universities to study these behaviors that ultimately affect the personal and professional success of many students. these studies the MRI test, which was precisely what showed something as surprising as it was unexpected.
Anxiety disorders and high intelligence could be explained by a small brain abnormality in white matter. Remember that this structure, mainly made up of myelinized axons, is linked to the transmission of information and determines our intelligence and the agility of cognitive processes. In turn, she is also involved in the emotional issue.
Some scientists believe that as human intelligence developed, anxiety also developed. The reason? With a very specific objective: to anticipate the dangers, so that the ability to analyze and process information helps us improve our survival, anticipating risks and threats. Evidently, when anxiety reaches very high levels, intelligence loses its potential, as the person feels literally paralyzed.
This small abnormality or variation in the white substance of the brain does not determine that 100% of people with high abilities develop an anxiety disorder at some point, there is an increased risk, a more obvious susceptibility to not being able to control emotions and stress. All these processes are generally highlighted by the following features:
At this point, the question is almost inevitable: how to deal with it? How to handle a hyperactive brain incapable of putting filters on a very complex reality, full of data, emotions and stimuli? It could be said that the best thing to do would be to End this anxiety, reduce it, make it as small as possible.
For as curious as it may seem, the answer is not that, the key is to take advantage of anxiety, to manage it effectively, to know how to use its full potential, because if high evolutionary intelligence and anxiety go hand in hand to achieve an end we must move towards that end, we will learn to use this activation to understand what others do not see , to anticipate risks, events and probabilities, but let’s do it with balance, knowing how to put filters, neat paths in which all this mental energy can circulate in an organized way.