(calm upbeat music) (eye chimes) - [Amanda] Hey, Psych2Goers,
and welcome back to your favorite spot for
all things psychology. Thank you so much for
your love and support enabling us to make
yet another exploration into everyday psychology, so let's begin. Do you ever wonder if your
problems can be concluded to the idea that you're just
too smart for your own good? Even high IQ comes with its own
set of highs and lows, sigh. We usually think of the highly intelligent as people who are destined for success and given more opportunities than others. But what if there are some problems that are more likely to arise just because you are intelligent? According to psychologists
and extensive research, there are some problems smart people are more likely to have. Before we begin, please do
not use this to self-diagnose as this is not a scale
for rating intelligence. With that said, here are six problems only smart people have. Number one, they often suffer
from psychological disorders. Yes, you heard that right. Research suggests that your intelligence can also mean an increased risk of you developing certain
affective disorders. Psychologist and
researcher, Ruth Karpinski, conducted a study in which
all of her participants were members of American
Mensa, a high IQ society, which requires all its members
to have an IQ in the top 2%. The participants self-reported whether or not they were diagnosed with or suspected they had a
range of mood disorders and anxiety disorders. Disorders reported
included attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder, ADHD,
and psychological diseases that include environmental
and food allergies, asthma, and auto-immune disease. According to the study,
this implicates high IQ as being a potential risk
factor for affective disorders, ADHD, and for an increased
incidence of disease related to immune dysregulation. Number two, they're night owls. Are you frequently
burning the midnight oil? Are you more awake while the
rest of the world sleeps? According to researchers,
Richard D. Roberts and Patrick C. Kyllonen,
evening types are more likely to have higher intelligence scores. While being a night owl may
sound like a good thing, and it can be, there are some downsides to working through the night. Firstly, your schedule
is likely messed up. You work long hours throughout the night without getting tired,
but because of this, you stay up through the night, and then you also have
to get up early for work. If you don't get the necessary
sleep, you may feel tired and groggy when you have
to work during the day, or when socializing with friends. If your sleep schedule is off,
you likely won't be feeling as alert and well-rested
as your friends at 7:00 am, which means that morning
picnic you all had planned, well, you may just feel
that you need to cancel. You're too tired, maybe reschedule for an evening of dancing instead. Number three, they have high expectations. Did your test scores label you as smart early on in childhood? Did this raise other's
expectations of you? Even you may have these
paramount expectations from none other than yourself. People expect you to succeed and achieve nearly perfect
scores on all your tests because you displayed characteristics that deemed you as smart. So meeting these expectations may hang as a bit of a burden upon your shoulders. And those expectations ultimately
cause you serious stress if you don't manage them effectively. It's best to take it one step at a time with whatever you do,
look towards the future but don't be discouraged if it's not everything
you thought it would be. Odds are a year or two from
now, you won't be thinking about that A-minus on your geography exam. Number four, they're overexcitable and can have high energy. Have you ever had an intelligent friend who always seemed to be extremely intense and excitable in whatever they did? Do they go long hours without sleep because they're always hyper-focused or excited regarding their work? In the 1960s, Polish
psychiatrist and psychologist, Kazimierz Dabrowski,
introduced the concept that being highly gifted or intelligent is associated with psychological and physiological overexcitabilities, otherwise known as OEs. It's most often a sudden high energy towards a certain situation or topic. It displays itself in varying ways, such as a competitiveness,
compulsive organizing, compulsive talking, impulsive
behavior, and others. It's unfortunate that
these OEs are treated as a problem by teachers or parents. Intelligent students and
children are often mislabeled or punished due to unawareness about OEs. As research from the
University Kebangsaan Malaysia suggests, gifted students
who are frequently labeled as problematic because
of their intense behavior should be given assistance
and understanding in coping with their overexcitabilities. Number five, they overanalyze things. Have you ever admired someone
for their intelligence but notice they always
tend to overanalyze things? Well, this urge to analyze likely has a strong link
to their intelligence. This tendency to
overanalyze may be connected to the hyper brain, hyper body theory, proposed by Ruth Karpinski
and her colleagues. The theory connects
being overly analytical to Dabrowski's psychological and physiological
overexcitabilities or OEs. These psychological OEs cause you stress, and physiological OEs appear
as a response to that stress, so as a result,
over-analyzing often occurs. Let's say you receive a negative remark from someone you care about, someone who is smart and also
exhibits overexcitabilities, may overanalyze the comment
causing physiological OEs in the form of the body stress response, which means more stress and anxiety. They could be creatively
imagining all the scenarios and implied meanings
from this one comment, while another person may shrug
their shoulders and move on. Number six, they can
become super stressed. (sighs) No surprise here. It was a long time coming right? With all the extra analyzing going on, it ultimately had to lead to this. It has often been
suggested that smart people are some of the biggest
worriers, no, not warriors, but hey, with all the
stress they've been through they might as well be called warriors too. Karpinski's studies only add to this idea that those who have a high IQ and likely display overexcitabilities are often suffering from stress. With psychological OEs,
people will often ruminate and feel stress about certain situations. Since physiological OEs appear
from the body's response to this stress, when these two interact, it can cause both physiological and psychological dysfunctions. Stress, stress, stress. The truth of it all is the more you think and ponder on an idea,
the more you may think of negative scenarios or problems, and therefore stress about them. We hope we were able to give
you insight in some of the ways you can identify the
sneakiness of smartness. Do any of these resonate with you? Leave a comment down below
and feel free to share any experiences and
thoughts you have as well. If you found this video insightful, be sure to hit the like
button and share it with those out there still boggled with the trials and tribulations of intelligence. Don't forget to subscribe to Psych2Go and hit the notification
bell for new videos. As always, thanks for watching.
