Suicide Risk in Young Men Linked to Intelligence

[ckramer]

What do you think?

One more clue has been discovered that may help identify young people in danger of taking their own lives: Intellectual capacity in early adulthood is strongly related to subsequent risk of suicide in men, finds a study in this week's BMJ.

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I think it's BS.

[Rush1184]

1. The test was given at the time of conscription into military service...

That alone makes it seem a little fishy to me/

[murray hill farm]

2. i think it might be a "logical" conclusion

but certainly not enough of a study to say for sure that intellegence is linked...but, probably one could suspect without the study, that those who scored lower on "logic" and "association" would be more likely than those who scored higher, to commit suicide.

[Djinn]

3. I would have thought the opposite

every single person I know who has suffered from depression, attempted suicide or actually suicided has been really intelligent.

maybe I just don't know many thickies?

[ckramer]

4. I agree. Hemmingway for example.

Poor people would commit suicide more often than the rich, that I believe.

[havocmom]

5. the suicides I have known were all very very intelligent and impoverished

most of the potentials I know, likewise. There was a study back in the 90's (can't remember who did it) that said depressed people were much more in touch with reality.

I'm through looking for truth. I want a nice, cozy delusion to hide in, like most everybody else.

[double_helix]

7. I agree with that

For the most part, depressed people are overly sensitive and overly intelligent which leads to them being overly connected to reality. This faciliates many great things - like art, science, etc - but they are always on the edge and never able to relate well to humankind, who they see as being depraved and self-serving. Depressed/suicidal people are depressed because they see too much of the truth about people (including themselves), and are unable to cope with it.

For the most part, the human brain is designed to see subjective truth -- to believe whatever is necessary to help the individual survive -- not objective (hard) truth like a computer, which may tell the individual things that may run counter to their own survival (e.g, if a person really is inferior relative to the group, it hurts his/her survival to know that objective truth. Better to believe a subjective truth and try to convince others of it).

[Djinn]

9. reality theory

I dunno about people with depression having a better connection with reality - personally I'm good these days but for most of my teens and 20's I suffered from depression to varying degrees.

When it got really bad reality wasn't something I was overly acquainted with...."I'm ugly, I'm stupid, everyone hates me, I'll be a loser all my life, my friends just pretend to like me, my family would be better off if I wasn't around."

None of that was reality, I'm generally a really cynical person - a glass half empty type, but depression twists reality so that EVERYTHING is painful and that's just not how the world is

[Tafiti]

12. One of my favorite authors once wrote...

...what I like to call the happiness quotient:

"Happiness equals 1 over awareness."

Brilliant, I thought.

[kimchi]

6. I would have too.

It seems that those most aware of the woes of the world would have more cause to be depressed and/or end their lives. Normally those who are aware are more intelligent than average. Not always, though.

There is a burden that comes with knowledge. Not everyone can get over the feeling that others do not understand them, or do not "get it".

"Ignorance is bliss" is a cliche because it has truth in many instances.

[JohnLocke]

8. Bogus. It's the opposite (nt).

[ClassicDem]

10. I don't believe it.

If this were true it would mean that black males are less intellegent than white males since the suicide rate in black men is half that to whites. And then Japanese men would be twice as smart as whites since their suicide rate is twice as high.

[Stirk]

11. Intelligence might make a person feel isolated,

and that could lead to depression. We're social animals, after all. Nothing is worse than being cast from the pack.

I suffered from clinical depression in my 20's and was suicidal- even medicated. I wouldn't say I had a greater connection to reality during that period. Just the opposite, in fact.

I don't know that I'd call myself "highly intelligent", whatever that means, but I was certainly dirt poor and felt that I had no chance to get out of it.