IQ and drug addiction

[svacheme3]

A high IQ is correlated with some other things. Social problems and some other psychological conditions. These are correlated with drug addiction, since people with those problems tend to use drugs to cope. This was the case for me. I have a very high IQ, 151 on a professionally administered offline test. I have been diagnosed at different points with ADD/I (inattentive subtype, no hyperactivity), social anxiety, social phobia, and reward deficiency syndrome. I had extreme trouble making friends my entire life despite trying everything from SSRIs through alcohol and marijuana. When I couldn't make any friends after living in a dorm freshmen year of college, I tried harder drugs. Coke and opiates were the first things in my life that let me talk to people and interact normally in social situations. All of a sudden I had friends, it was great. Several years later now, and while I still have all the social benefits, I am also strongly addicted to opiates, and have legal problems because of coke. Since I view being addicted to drugs as preferable to being unable to have normal social interactions, I'll probably stay addicted for life.
I was in gifted classes all through school, and I'd say maybe a fifth of the other high iq people went down the same road with drugs; some use responsibly, a few destroyed their minds and lives.

 

[double ewe]

In thinking more thoroughly, my best guess would be that there's a point on the IQ scale at which people begin to be more susceptible to drug addiction than the population in general.

I would imagine that those who are "above average" in intelligence would probably tend to correlate with lower rates of abuse than average (but also because of all the other factors that correlate with less drug abuse and high intelligence, like family, socioeconomics, etc.). However, I wouldn't be surprised to see that those at the very top are a little more likely than average to be drug users, simply because extreme intelligence really does tend to skew people towards extreme personalities.

I know that the plural of "anecdote" is not "data," but having grown up around very gifted kids, I've seen the weirdness that starts going on at the very top end of the scale.

Data on introversion and intelligence tends to bear this out. 75% of children with an IQ over 160 are introverts, and introversion tends to correlate with depression, which in turn correlates with drug abuse. It's several steps removed from a direct causal relationship obviously, but it certainly gives some merit to the idea.

Cool article on gifted children: http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/What_is_Gifted/learned.htm

 

[Lysis]

We'd all like to think that what makes society disown us makes us uniquely special and "better" than those who disassociate from us. Sometimes though:

 

[Smyth]

this test is pretty decent: http://www.iqtest.dk

The FIRST time having attempted this test I get 112, whereas I thought I would get something higher, but alas that wasnt the case.

Check this junk IQ test I did a few days ago though:

http://www.free-iqtest.net/

I got 145 on my first go, and it was so easy I barely even found any room for improvement upon retaking it. I think I only got up to 148 on my third go.

 

[ebola?]

>>
Any chance you've got a link to the data or remember the textbook it came from? I'm always looking for a good thesis topic and this would be an especially interesting one.>>

Unfortunately not. This was 5 years ago, and I've since sold the text back.
It was not even a primary study, so it doesn't really tell us how this relationship bears out over the range of IQs or what variables might moderate this relationship.

ebola

 

[systemicTN]

Yes, that was my first thought...that there would be a number of confounding factors and lurking variables, which is exactly why it would be a cool study to do.

 

[I_Stay_Dead]

This is a fucking stupid thread. There are drug addicts with various IQ scores. If anyone likes to think of themselves as 'special' and smart because they're drug addicts then they're deluded. There is the idea of tortured genius - it may sound romantic but honestly there's nothing romantic about mental illness.

 

[systemicTN]

This is a fucking stupid thread. There are drug addicts with various IQ scores. If anyone likes to think of themselves as 'special' and smart because they're drug addicts then they're deluded. There is the idea of tortured genius - it may sound romantic but honestly there's nothing romantic about mental illness.

I think you've got it backwards. The question isn't whether being a drug addict makes you smart, it's whether there is a tendency for people with certain intelligence levels to become addicts. I think we all know addicts who are smart and some who aren't as bright, but I would imagine there is some sort of relationship between intelligence and addiction, albeit maybe a small one. Without taking a truly random sample and doing some analysis, there's really no way to 'prove' anything and that makes this simply a subjective discussion.

 

[spiralza]

There are dumb people and there are smart people, and all of them do drugs.

There's no (good) way to gauge this sort of thing, really.

 

[Lysis]

I think you've got it backwards. The question isn't whether being a drug addict makes you smart, it's whether there is a tendency for people with certain intelligence levels to become addicts. I think we all know addicts who are smart and some who aren't as bright, but I would imagine there is some sort of relationship between intelligence and addiction, albeit maybe a small one. Without taking a truly random sample and doing some analysis, there's really no way to 'prove' anything and that makes this simply a subjective discussion.

There is nothing unique about wanting to feel good and feel euphoria. Who would NOT want that? The difference between a drug addict to casual user to non drug addict is self control. And sorry, ADHD is no excuse to be unable to get your shit together.

 

[Ham-milton]

Yesterday my sister, wife and mom were talking while waiting at the hospital all day about how she drank during the first trimester, and how I could have had a higher IQ if she hadn't.

I'm kind of pissed about it. I mean, 145 is nothing to complain about- I'm sure I'd have ended up a lot more socially awkward if I adjusted up much more- but perhaps drugs wouldn't have been so appealing.

 

[Lysis]

We're all genius supermodels on the interwebs.

 

[Dextro 2C]

I definitely believe IQ does play a role. I think people who are strong minded can keep their drug use under control. Weak minded people have a harder time, hypothetically speaking.

 

[ranunky]

A high IQ is correlated to the ability to repeat learned information not with actual intelligence or ability to learn.

You mixed that up.

Tell me how being able to rote learn will help you here: http://www.iqtest.dk

 

[Khadijah]

Looks like yo ass missed the part where online IQ tests dont mean shit.

when I say repeat learned information it means this. Kayla got raised in a upper class area with good schools that pays a lot of attention to each student and gets lots of encouragement from her teachers n family to learn n stay in school. Toya got raised without no money in the hood and didnt have shit for teachers they were more like babysitters. Her moms wasnt around to help her study for school cuz she workin 2 jobs to take care of her. No bothers to reach out n help her n becuz of that she does shitty in school. They could both take a IQ test and score totally different but it dont mean kayla is smarter than toya. One got raised to understand shit in the context of the things they ask about on the IQ test. Becuz toya didnt get the EDUCATION to LEARN the type of things they ask about on the test she got a shitty score n ppl think she dumb. But its becuz they didnt ask about shit she knew.

Everybody got their own area of knowledge. if you ask em about somethin they dont know they might sound dumb as hell. but get onto the subject they understand n be into and they will know their shit front n back. A IQ test dont measure your true ability to learn or your level of true intelligence. there aint no single, objective "intelligence" level in everybodys head that is either high or low. it aint that simple. bein smart is way more about havin a quick mind and bein able to think thru things than it is about bein able to answer random questions related to math n shit like that. My uncle took a IQ test at a psychologists one time, and another time took the same one and got different scores each time. maybe it changed since then but he told me that they actually asked how many senators are from each state or some shit like that. Now tell me just how, in any way, is that a measure of intelligence. Na its a measure of how well you remember shit from your history class in school.

it just is a narrow-ass measure of certain things in a certain context thas really only a reliable way of measuring a vague form of intelligence among the ppl that know the things on the test. It would be a accurate measure of intelligence, WITHIN the group of people that all got taught these things. Then you could compare. but You cant compare the score of someone who studied a chapter of a book and took the test on it, to someone who never heard nothing about a damn thing that was in the chapter and then just got threw into the test. Of course they gonna do shitty if they dont know it. You dont know shit til you learn it or someone teaches you so how you gonna expect someone to know this from inside of their head somehow. how would they know it if they never been taught it. not only that but when it comes to the shit like patterns, etc that they ask about on them tests. In every culture the way shit gets percieved is different. in a african country they might see a clear pattern in the way some colored blocks are arranged that makes total sense to them but maybe the makers of the test seen a different pattern. So who the fuck is to say whats what. Thas all Im sayin.

Disagree if you want, but here I am again defending this shit and explainin myself, when THIS IS RELATED TO DRUGS AND IQ. Hell I dont give a fuck if yall disagree wit me or not thats cool it aint about that but its jus that without the drugs part, this aint a DC topic at all. Thas the last time Ima say it. This shit be gettin mad retarded. Im guilty of replyin to people too but thas it, if you dont understand it then ignore it or make it related to the actual thread. I aint gonna reply to no more questions about how valid the test/concept of IQ is, and if yall wanna talk about it we can jus close this shit up cuz there is already a thread about this in the P&S forum to talk about that part of it. If you dont wanna say somethin bout DRUGS n IQ then GTFO or its lock city up in here.

Dont mind me Im noddin but for real please errybody. it aint that hard. For some muthafuckas claimin to have such goddamn high IQ's, yall sure do suck at followin simple directions

 

[McNAB]

Looks like yo ass missed the part where online IQ tests dont mean shit.

most of them are phoney, but the one i linked to however is not.
its made by a danish mensa member, and inspired by Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices.

This test is developed with the aim of measuring your Intelligence Quotient (IQ). The test is Culture Fair, i.e. it minimises the effect of cultural variables, such as language, mathematics, etc. The test is based on logic, but is furthermore designed to test learning capability, memory, innovative thinking and the ability to simultaneously address several problems.

The test measures the general intelligence - g.

 

[ranunky]

most of them are phoney, but the one i linked to however is not.
its made by a danish mensa member, and inspired by Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices.

This test is developed with the aim of measuring your Intelligence Quotient (IQ). The test is Culture Fair, i.e. it minimises the effect of cultural variables, such as language, mathematics, etc. The test is based on logic, but is furthermore designed to test learning capability, memory, innovative thinking and the ability to simultaneously address several problems.

The test measures the general intelligence - g.

Yeah man, I wrote exactly that to her in a PM. Let's get this back on topic.

I think people with high IQs tend to be able to make better decisions and are harder to fool by government propagnada so they don't fear drugs as much.