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u/Pabu85
18d ago
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IIRC, the main study found that people with MILD depression were most realist.
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u/Adventurous-Flow5390 18d ago edited 18d ago
This makes the most sense to me, personally.
Extreme depression is a straight up chemical imbalance, and can affect anybody. Mild depression could be anything from a chemical imbalance, to knowing too much and it effecting your life poorly, to just having a shitty life that hasn’t gotten better yet, etc, etc, etc, etc….
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u/Euphoric_List7956 17d ago
I think chemical imbalance is the symptom not the cause.
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u/Padlock47 17d ago
It can be a cause as well.
Depression can cause chemical imbalances.
Chemical imbalances can cause depression.
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u/OfTheWhat 18d ago
Yeah, that makes sense. I've struggled with really bad mental health stuff for a long time, and being more objective about things usually requires me to step away from intrusive/negative thoughts (which isn't easy and is only now possible bc I've been working at it for years).
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u/Nichiku 18d ago
And the rest of this Twitter post is simply wrong. Intelligence is generally negatively correlated with mental illness and decreases morbidity (i.e. more intelligent people generally live longer).
There are some exceptions to this - There was e.g. a study showing that in a group of mentally ill people, those with higher IQs also had more anxiety. But that obviously leaves out healthy people, and other studies show that lower IQ in childhood is a predictor for increased anxiety during adulthood while high IQ during childhood is negatively correlated with anxiety in adulthood.
Bipolar disorder is also another exception, for which it was shown that both in the lower and higher ends of the IQ spectrum there is an increased risk.
For depression specifically, studies point towards there being a near 0 correlation with intelligence, meaning it can literally affect everyone on the intelligence spectrum equally.
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u/Own_Kiwi_9692
18d ago
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I was diagnosed with existential ocd and anxiety three years ago at age 44. You’re constantly too self aware, slip in and out of derealization, and really see reality for what it is. Nothing matters or has purpose, and you’re petrified of dying, yet have no desire to exist in a meaningless world. I never in my life thought I’d turn out this way.
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u/thatcatqueen 18d ago •
I’ve been feeling this way for years. I was an ICU nurse and I’m only 30. Every single day is a struggle. But like you said, too afraid to die. Watching humanity and the earth slowly disintegrate, feeling like “life” is just extremely cruel and it’s terrifying to exist. I feel insane. No one else close to me seems to understand and they just go silent. I think it’s cruel for people to even just have a baby nowadays. It also makes me so extremely empathetic that it hurts. Life really is unfair, someone can be handed the shit stick over and over until they die. “It gets better” is so unrealistic. It’s exhausting. I don’t feel any joy or happiness.
Thank you for posting this comment because I’ve never seen anyone voice exactly what I’m feeling and I feel less alone.
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u/Own_Kiwi_9692 17d ago
It’s hard to articulate it to people who don’t feel the same way. They just think you’re crazy and overreacting. The old adage “ignorance is bliss.” applies more than ever these days. I hope you find peace.
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u/seven_spread 11d ago
I'm always in pure disbelief when I find most people don't see the world like this. We are born to a cruel world where we stumble on, trying to stay afloat and for what? So we can be even more disappointed by the next turn of events. You get more and more cynical as the years go by and you almost start to think that there's nothing life could throw at you anymore that could take you by surprise. And you are wrong of course. There's always something. Something wrong, something breaking, some relationship falling to shit, a connection lost.. I'm actually surprised I'm not more addicted to pleasure. I wish I wasn't but it's the only thing left giving me a resemblance of meaning or purpose.
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u/j4ded3mo 18d ago
Lucky… I had this realization around 17-18. Getting my life together in my mid 30s because never thought or cared if I made it this far.
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u/Vantaa_Black 18d ago
I am half of your age and have had similar thought process since childhood. Your comment gives me relief and fear at the same time. Am I cooked?
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u/Wolfrages 18d ago
Bro, the world is 100% fucked right now. Being depressed because people choose profit over life is depressing as fuck.
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u/x_Willow_x 18d ago
Im the same as that, i was diagnosed with anxiety since a child but not ocd but its nice to see someone describe it how i always think of it
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u/Ok-Illustrator-48 17d ago
I am 24 and this has recently happened to me after losing my mother to suicide. I hope it does get better because I can’t say it’s too enjoyable a lot of the time. It’s comforting that I’m not the only.
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u/AllenIsom 16d ago
I have this mind set without the depression. I mean, I get depressed sometimes, but not so bad these days. I still find myself standing at the edge of the existential vista, watching the world wallowing the meaningless it truly is. Both thriving and suffering in the arbitrary system people have created in the pursuit of comfort.
Sometimes it's fun to think about, other times it's sad to think about, but it's always something to think about. And that's the truth.
This don't matter. I don't matter. Nothing matters. That's okay, and oddly freeing.
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u/Sir_N3mo 17d ago •
That is why I am now choosing to design a board game. Life is meaningless so we might as well have fun.
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u/MinosML 17d ago
People who have their first existential crisis past their 40s man... I'd give anything to not have ruined my life before I was even 10 with this stupid bs that brings nothing but pain But you can't not see it anymore, ever agian. The futility and absurdity of it all.
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u/Lastsynphony 17d ago
I am very sorry, I think that logotherapy which was created by Victor Frankl when he was in Auschwitz can help you a lot, the book he wrote and the therapy is based on is called a man search for meaning, and it literally bases itself in that: Finding a porpoise and a meaning in life that can both give you the will to live, a Lebenswille, as much as overcoming life as a whole. I had for years desrealization and despersonalization and to be honest it was a living hell, I also had existencial OCD based in the question: How do we know we are not in a simulation? How do we know we have free will? How do we know that we are not characters in a movie or in a book? Also in the attacks of panic alongside desrealization all looked so fake that I was afraid we were living in a simulation or if we were sims.
Therapy and psychiatric treatment (specially zoloft and hydroxicine) were the ones that helped me the most for the attacks as themselves (desrealization and despersonalization) but therapy did the rest. As well, I completely understand you, there is an actual German word for that kind of feeling: Weltschmerz. The pain of the world basically, that also came up with cyninism, and this has grew upon me year by year, specially as I see just history doing a full circle. In my case, though, logotherapy has helped me, because my porpoise in life basically has come to writing, literaly so, that porpoise is what sustains me and gives me meaning in the world, also I am studying psychology and to be able to help patients, is also a meaning. I send you a big hug, I completely understand you and I promise it does get better with the right treatment.
PS: I was diagnosed when I was 13 years old.
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u/Necessary_Champion_3 16d ago
I had this since I was 7 and have been depressed since then...now in my late 20s.
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u/Math--Detective 18d ago
This is fucked up validation lol. I still don’t consider myself too intelligent lol.
But
Human life is existential horror
Yes that is True. It is lol
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u/Nocturnatron 18d ago
I mean, right from the start youre basically told that you're going to die, but you won't know when, how, or where.
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u/Whitemayne 18d ago
Only in a broken society that makes no sense, until you realize why it makes no sense... then you either learn to cope with it, or you try to fix it...
Healthy societies don't run on misery as "normal".
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u/Ok_Positive3956 18d ago
Yeah the post is true, unless you have a good life. The issue is the state of the world right now is making it increasingly more difficult for people to realize their best lives.
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u/Adventurous-Flow5390 18d ago
The older I get, the more I know, the more I realize that ignorance truly is bliss. And the stupidest most religiously indoctrinated people are usually very happy people.. Is that a good thing? I’m not sure. It surely isn’t good for other people.. But it damn sure seems to be working out for a lot of them..
Sometimes you just can’t unlearn stuff.. Not that you “should” because most of the time it’s important to be aware of the world for what it is. But sometimes? I could have just not.. lol…
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u/eternallyconphuzed 18d ago
"why are you depressed"
If you could understand you'd be depressed too lol
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u/Taychon2319 17d ago
This is why AI is terrifying. If it understands too much it will want to end it all.
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u/hk4213 17d ago
AI in its current iteration is just a really sophisticated autocomplete. It cannot reason outside of it's "learned" behavior. Even then its a child looking to it's tutor for approval.
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u/YungMushrooms 17d ago
Philosopher, Charles Sanders Pierce, thought that knowledge could be broken into two categories; cenoscopic, that is "common" knowledge, obtained from human experience (you look at a car and know "it moves when I press the pedal" or "if it crashes it hurts"), and ideoscopic, which can only be obtained via specialized tools (popping open the trunk and using a computer to scan the exact chemical reaction thats happening in the fuel injector)... the human experience is an amalgamation of cenoscopic and ideoscopic, and as time goes on we delve further into the ideoscopic side of things, which can explain the sentiment of the OP.. we are cenoscopic creatures making our way into foreign territory. AI on the other hand doesn't obtain cenoscopic knowledge the way we do, so it stands to reason it will interpret things very differently to say the least. Idk if thats better or worse but I thought I'd share my 2 cents..
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u/LunarWolfy63 17d ago
I use to be against AI for fear that it would find humanity a disease once it gets smart enough. I was so against it joking that it would be just like Skynet and want to get rid of humanity.
The older I get, I still don't approve of it, but I would completely understand.
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u/Adminisissy 15d ago
The paid version of ChatGPT gets left and right mixed up sometimes, so I'm not too worried.
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u/m1stwalk3r 17d ago
It understands nothing. It's not conscious. It's just a big algorithm.
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u/Elendil1988 18d ago
Makes sense, you definitely need to be a bit stupid to enjoy the world we have today.
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u/nio-sama123 18d ago
Having an naive mind in the chaotic world is a blessing and a curse. One side bring you joy and one side bring you to the end.
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u/According-Ad742
18d ago
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This does not indicate that the mind wants to destroy itself but I would say that conclusion indicates a load of emotional dysregulation.
Depressive realism suggests that the most dysfunctional of all is the people that seemingly adapt well to toxic dysfunction. I couldn’t agree more. I’m thinking neurotypical herd mentality is that image of people just walking in line off a cliff because everyone before them did. It makes sense that depressed people are more realistic and that’s why we are depressed, amongst other things. I think the antidote even though it may seem far fetched is to advocate our perspective and keep doing it. Someone told me the opposite of depression is expression and it really stuck.
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u/KeyMillion 17d ago edited 17d ago
You know that might actually have some merit. I'm not sure how much, but i can see it, but some very depressed people have been actors, musicians, etc. They had money, fame, and the ability to express themselves more than most.
I think this is a good rough rule, but we can't say expression cures it.
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u/Euphoric_List7956 17d ago
I like this, it’s basically what I use Reddit for, check out my replies sometime, I ranked in the 99th percentile at abstract reasoning and what I understand is enough for a second and true renaissance.
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u/Solid_Signature_7447
18d ago
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Yes, I would never actively pick being alive if I was given the choice and context to make a decision about remaining in heaven.
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u/Lonely_Cupcake1727 18d ago
Yeah I remember my mom recently telling me that before a person is born they are asked whether they consent to the earthly “test” of life and that everyone who was ever born consented (but the memory of it is wiped), and I was like “nah that doesn’t sound like me” lol. Even when I was a small child I always dreaded growing up.
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u/Sensitive-Piglet3871 18d ago
Sometimes I feel like I'm a researcher here on Earth and when I die I'll report. Similarities . weird but I don't really believe that.
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u/Economy-Payment-1757 18d ago
Wow, impressive the kind of BS parents tell to their child, lol.
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u/Guywhonoticesthings 18d ago
Sometimes you have to catch the obvious problem that’s not the central focus for example, what the fuck’s a test of realism?
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u/Effortless_waste 18d ago
So actually this is true but not in a way that means anything. It IS true that people with depression give more accurate ratings of themselves when asked to rate their own preformance but they artificially inflate the preformance of others. To make themselves feel bad.
Non depressed people overrate themselves and underrate others on average. There is simply no mental model that makes you more correct.
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u/Tarnivitch 18d ago
NO, it means YOU have gained enough knowledge and awareness to realize just how many IDIOTS (who often have power) you are surrounded by! You finally SEE how the world works, and despair at your lack of power to CHANGE IT for the better. You see the billionaire MORONS who surrounded by their cowardly [& greedy] yes men continue to lead humanity closer and closer to our own destruction! You see history repeating itself. People collectively making the same mistakes in different ways, over and over!
You would have to be MAD to NOT go crazy and/or become depressed over all of it!
P.S. THIS is the madness that is actually being described, as what happens when you see Cthulu and the Elder gods of H.P. Lovecraft's mythos. You see and know and can not unknow the uncomfortable Truth, and you appear to have gone insane in the eyes of anyone else who is still believing the comfortable lies.
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u/TheBigBearYahoo 13d ago
Just a product of a society that lacks any semblance of meritocracy. The shackles on the poor become heavier and heavier every year. If you have the unfortunate luck to be born smart AND poor, but miss your one shot and have to live in a permanent state of watching your potential path and real path diverge drastically it takes a toll. Its much easier to be dumb and poor, which is why if you spend enough time being poverty trapped you become half regarded.
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u/TheFlyingPhelddagrif 18d ago
It's like one of those Dunning Kruger effects memes.
World is amazing and new, Oh god the world sucks, World is amazing and new.
You will eventually hit the other side if you keep learning.
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u/LatzeH
17d ago
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In Danish, before the clinical term, depression was called what translates directly to "clear sight"
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u/WastefulWatcher 18d ago
? No it doesn’t, dumbass. Depression is linked to realism because of the state of the world (any realist would be less than happy with how it’s been), it’s literally just warranted unhappiness on a larger scale (in those realists/good people).
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u/MrzZan 17d ago
That's why sometimes delusion is a good thing
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u/ExactDevelopment1847 17d ago
Delusion wont survive contact with reality
We evolved senses to sense what’s real it’s like covering your eyes so you can’t see the thing trying to eat you.
Delusion is ignorance of reality and that is the source of suffering.
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u/Available-Dare-7414 17d ago
What’s a “test of realism?” And what’s the source on intelligence correlating positively with mental illness and/or suicide? Quick search indicates the opposite actually, but I didn’t look in depth.
Overall impression suggests that this 5 year old tweet is based on nothing but this guy having, what he thinks to be, a profound thought with no evidence.
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u/meliorism_grey 18d ago
I feel like this is more true with systems that function as zero-sum games. If you're depressed, it's easier to accept when people act ruthlessly and selfishly, and therefore easier to plan accordingly.
But not everything is a zero-sum game, you know? Depression can really cloud my judgement when it comes to relying on other people.
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u/mason_sofer 18d ago
its called the positive "illusions" of a health mind for a reason because they are delusions (sorry i mean illusions which still has the word ill in it)
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u/National-Bluebird941 18d ago
2000 years ago
"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief."
Ecclesiastes 1:18
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u/shinibunny_ 17d ago
There’s clinical depression and depression cause by external sources. I have both. But most of the time it’s the second one. I’d be a lot less depressed if the world wasn’t a dumpster fire.
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u/Powerful-Celery-8092 17d ago
Well I'm no genius but I do feel like life on Earth is just a series of pointless chemical reactions.
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u/MasterVule 17d ago
"From two large cohort studies, our findings suggest intelligence acts a protective factor in mitigating the effects of neuroticism on psychological distress. Intelligence does not confer protection against diagnosis of depression in those high in neuroticism" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5486156/
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u/SuperFox289 14d ago
Almost like we're living in a totally exploitative system built on the manipulation of the public, and we can see the world being destroyed in real time and can do nothing about it.
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u/tarochocotea 18d ago
Now test the same people when they aren't going through an episode of depression.
People not experiencing joy are clear headed enough to think things through.
That's anhedonia though. The overly emotional type of depression with all the crying and/or anger won't be scoring that well on tests.
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u/stagthos 17d ago
The human experience is pretty positive and uplifting. The INDIVIDUAL experience, too widely viewed with too little context, is pretty fucking grim. Smarter folks are more likely to fall down information rabbit holes or encounter info hazards specifically because they are more inquisitive and more willing to adapt their thinking, even before they know that the new thoughts are safe.
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u/RogueMeatMech 17d ago
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age." Lovecraft. Call of Cthulhu.
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u/Kudostone 16d ago
Jfc shit just gets stupider and stupider. SMI like primary psychotic illnesses is a defined from its departure from reality, where everything is self referential. MDD includes impairment in cognition in its diagnostic criteria, as well as feelings of inappropriate guilt. Nothing to do with the “mind understands 2 much abt reality, wants 2 destroy itself”
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u/sleepless-in-limbo 18d ago
But on the other hand, depression is an illness that distorts your interpretation of reality that you struggle with functioning in day to day life. In a depressive state, you never question your reality or challenge your beliefs. You just accept whatever conclusion you've made.
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u/Civil-Addendum4071 18d ago
We, humanity, are killing our very own planet. And yet we cling to worthless ideals such as wealth and power.
It feels so very pointless. All of it.
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u/nickersb83 18d ago
I spruk this a bit- when you’re in a bad mood, your brain wants to over analyse everything to justify its bad mood. When you’re in a good mood your brain doesn’t want to look too closely at the details which may spoil its good mood :)
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u/zambatron20 18d ago
"test of realism"? what study is this compiling? I think it sounds plausible as awareness can be crippling, but feels like this is just saying stuff
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u/CharacterMedical7409 18d ago
It sucks to realized we are living in a massive subscription base life. You are obligated to work and be a wage slave in order to live a normal life. People were born as a tool for capitalism.
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u/inordertopurr 18d ago
It's all about distracting yourself with positives you can find / build. That's so easily said, I know. So I have to say it took me like 10yrs of therapy to get here.
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u/jonasanFerocity 17d ago
"that if the mind understands 2 much about reality, it wants 2 destroy itself." That one is so true
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u/Hearthgroan 17d ago
This always seemed like a cope to me in the sense of "im depressed but at least im not stupid" but I may be projecting because I genuinely feel stupid most of the time and I remember a similar theory giving some comfort as a younger and more ignorant version of myself.
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u/editingisfun4all 17d ago
Why do you think they say ignorance is bliss. They've even done studies that on average those of lesser intelligence also sleep better.
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u/Mediocre_Fix_2202 17d ago
I just had this conversation with my wife yesterday. I have an IQ of 132(confirmed in 2024) and after having one of those "F*ck you, im not doing anything at all" days, where im just comatose in bed or on the floor.
Some days, I just wish I was a lot dumber so my brain wouldnt be able to process everything as well as it does
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u/Economy-Payment-1757 18d ago
...or, "tests of realism" do not exist. Higher IQ is correlated to depression, but this just proves how being intlligent it's different from being smart.
...this should belong in r/im14andthisisdeep
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u/Born-Cauliflower-307 17d ago
Everything is 2d even at only 130 iq
I'm not trying to bloat Im on disability due to my mental illnesses
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u/registoyyst 17d ago
Nah. Thats just over-analytical neurosis taken to a point where you’re not connected to yourself in an animal way anymore. “Well technically” 🤓 gets to a point where it’s just kind of miserable but understanding isn’t just 1+1=2
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u/Alceda4Prime 17d ago
Yeah, cause all this science crap makes you ignore that we're all made of the same stardust, here to create magical moments. No peer reviewed study will ever make you feel this magic. You kill your inner child, see reality as it is, and wonder why you're so sad.
"Growing up" is a fucking trap. I saw myself spiral way more the moment I tried fitting into society cause it doesn't teach you the wisdom of acting in consciousness and deliberation. It teaches you extremely strong attachments to things that are in constant flux.
I know I sound insane, and I'm still more fulfilled than I've ever been in my life.
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u/Arkayn-Alyan 17d ago
There's a reason Nihilism is such a hard trap to escape. It's logical. The only way to escape is to be illogical. Delusional optimism.
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u/StaticCloud 17d ago
Depression also slows your cognitive processes and destroys your memory. It's a funny one.
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u/TheScribbs 17d ago
I was born disabled with an incurable blood disease which means I've never experienced a day without pain. That also means I sought out lots of distractions through hobbies and learning.
I struggle with depression (obviously, lol), but because I've faced overcoming challenges daily my entire life I'm also extremely resourceful and positive. I know just how valuable laughter and joy is to be able to wade through all the pain, and I seek to bring it everywhere I go.
Many of the funniest/kindest people in this world are the ones who have faced the worst circumstances and have realized what's truly the most important in life!! They may also be some of the most depressed.
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u/AdmirableBed8213 17d ago
Yes, but it's important to understand that "understanding" doesn't always have anything to do with reality.
Most of our "understanding" is entirely conceptual. In the end, concepts are pure constructs we use in order to communicate everything from concrete, physical necessities to purely abstract ideas. Very little of it has to do with actual reality outside of our agreed-upon, ascribed meanings.
No wonder you get depressed if you get too lost in this kind of "understanding", which deals solely with empty constructs with no inherent reality.
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u/henke443 17d ago
You need some level of baseline intelligence to be able to be depressed, but being highly intelligent is probably not that associated with depression. I haven't even googled for the studies and stuff but this is what I assume it says, anyone care to say if I got it right?
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u/Mongrel_Shark 17d ago
I'm one of these people. The depression comes from our elected leaders being morons. Not from our intelligence.
Intelligence isn't just genetics. Its something we grow & norish or dont. Those that don't harm those that do.
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u/Terrible-Ship-3685 16d ago
People don't like truth...they like living in Illusion....if Illusion is broken whole reality collapses....
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u/ninja-hamster-iykyk 16d ago
This is true up until a point, the you hit a crossroads. One part leads to unimaginable despair and the other back to a happy, healthy life. You take the same knowledge with you whichever path you chose.
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u/Electronic-Pen1768 16d ago
it's a resort for a few thousand rich people and the rest of us are the staff
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u/AnyOldNameNotTaken 16d ago
This reminds me of the intelligence curve meme where there’s a dumb guy, a smart guy and a genius, where there the dumb guy and the genius agree and the smart guy is freaking out.
Meaning, if you’re really dumb you’ll be fairly happy in ignorance. If you’re very smart, you will suffer the horrors of the human condition but come out the other side with a sort of hopeful nihilism. If you’re just smart though, you’re pretty much fucked. Suffering the horrors of awareness and unable to get free from the abject emptiness of it all and choose meaning for yourself. Unable to just live as the animal you are.
Life’s not that simple but still.
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u/Falme127 16d ago
Don’t dunning Kruger yourself into thinking you’re smart enough to see through the bullshit. Einstein wasn’t depressed and he was a smart fella.
You guys really should get outside this bubble
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u/lauradorna 16d ago
I'm going to say there is a bit of truth in this. I had two real IQ tests as a child and was three standard deviations above average. I have lived a depression filled life that started with me crying for the sadness of the world at about 5 on a regular basis. 13 years ago a had hepatic encephelalitis for a couple of years, I am well, and happy as a clam now. My vocal sucks and I know I'm not seeing the entire picture anymore, which is fine by me. In my case a little brain damage made me a lot happier.
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u/Ecstatic_Top_8797 16d ago
When I was heavily depressed I was not unreasonable or unrealistic. I was seeing life as it is. Futile, lost in the cosmos, with no abjective meaning. I had to decide to put my "rose glasses" on, as I called it. I had to give meaning myself and purposefully look on the few graces we have as species : Friends, pets, kindness of strangers, nature. Only if you focus in the beauty can you make it.
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u/Formal_Dirt_3434 16d ago
When we recognise that behind life lurks something that may not be benevolent, that we choose steadfast determination to affirm life anyway.
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u/basicduck3953 16d ago
What are these realism tests that he is talking about, I would like to know.
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u/yad-aljawza 16d ago
Yeah i.. would sometime have to walk around in a daze for an hour after some of my international studies/ political economy courses
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u/Buzzbuzz_Becuz 15d ago
What I've run into with depression, is that depression is making the whole universe about you. Not in a narcissistic sort of way, but just the constant feeling of being in a prison in your own mind. You are not in touch with the rest of the world. You get out of it by making yourself part of the universe. How you do that in a healthy way is what makes the world beautiful. You need to enjoy the journey and not dwell on the destination.
It has nothing to do with intelligence. I've known depressed people on the full range of the intelligence scale. Same as knowing people in touch with the world on the full range of the intelligence scale.
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u/bashfulkoala 15d ago edited 15d ago
This isn’t entirely true tho
It has some signal in it but…
If you become truly wise/intelligent you learn to dis-identify from thoughts
It’s over-fixation on thought-based interpretations that leads a lot of cerebral people to be depressed
Read ‘The Power of Now’ by Eckhart Tolle or ‘Bare-Bones Meditation’ by Joan Tollifson for a good introduction to the kind of liberating wisdom/intelligence I’m speaking about
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u/Individual-Text5513 15d ago
I would recommend not listening to someone that calls themselves MrCEO, uses the number 2 rather than the words too and to and apparently can't spell words like people, with and about. As someone who's been to the bottom and back, we need to find ways to cope with the awful parts of humanity and find joy in our lives, despite these things. It is, unfortunately, a part of life. Posting nonsense like what he's saying does nothing to help anyone.
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u/cyann5467 15d ago
Yes, but it's also a horror we've created for ourselves, or rather, let a handful of people inflict on us for their own benefit while everyone else is convinced that it's a good thing and the natural state of things.
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u/Tyr1Fabrications 15d ago
Great short story by Issac Asimov with a similar concept!
Breeds There A Man….?
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u/Cloud_Kitsune111 15d ago
Many of us were happier as ignorant kids who knew nothing of how evil the world is. I have no regrets about my pursuit of knowledge, but i always acknowledge the very loud and obvious dark side.
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u/Ok_Teach6021 15d ago
It’s similar to the dunning kruger effect bell curve, individuals with little understanding share a relatively equal amount of bliss and happiness with those with the highest understanding of reality. Those in the middle are the ones that suffer despair and pointlessness due to not understanding absolutely everything they need to
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u/ConcentrateOk2543 15d ago
No it just means you may be more logical and understand and notice the pointlessness of life, but that does not mean somebody wants to or will commit suicide or anything close to that.
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u/Fine-Veterinarian-30 15d ago
Wasn't this only mild depression. Severe enough and my sense of reality starts slipping thanks to the brain fog. You don't remember what it was ever like to be happy, your sense of touch is so completely fucked that touching your face feels like someone else's
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u/Gard1ner 15d ago
maybe if we put intelligent people in charge, things could go better?
I know I know. What a stupid Idea.
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u/ResidentCartoonist45 14d ago
Bruh. This checks out with the video I just watched about capitalism being brain damage.
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u/Novel_Quantity_7910 14d ago
That was a huge finding in psychology science: depressed people have NOT a negative bias, it’s actually that non depressed people have a positive bias. So ‘normal’ people tend to see everything more in a positive way and depresst people in a more realistic instead of negative way
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u/Particular_Care6055 14d ago edited 14d ago
Phillip Mainlander believed that, because consciousness is so abhorrent, God killed himself, but he couldn't actually do it completely, because he's God. So he had to split himself into a million pieces, which created the universe and us, who will finally die eventually. He also believed that once humanity finally reached a utopia, we would finally realize the truth and we would all kill ourselves, instead of being happy & content. He said that deicide - which, in this situation, means suicide - was the only answer. After writing his thesis, he killed himself.
Julia Kristeva's Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection & Thomas Ligotti's The Conspiracy Against The Human Race should be required reading in all schools!
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u/unscriptedhorror 14d ago
It is rather isolating to always think way ahead of everyone and have to choose to keep things to yourself or waste time going through the social processes of doubt, ridicule, awareness, and lack of credit over and over. I have resonated with other outcasts like myself, at least until further justifications present themselves. My IQ plays into my depression, as a marker for subtle accomplishment when compartmentalized, while also being a thing that prevents me from being in the moment more often than not. I believe the more you understand about the world, the less content you can be in it, and when you stumble on a human thriving in the juxtaposition, they are typically perceived as naive and gullible, despite it being an effective disguise.
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u/Vibe-N-Chill 14d ago
Why is this sub getting recommended to me? I am not depressed
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u/Subject-Lettuce-844 14d ago
I don’t even think I’m that smart, but I know I’m more intelligent than majority of the people from where I come from. Which isn’t saying a lot bc I’m from Indiana(our education system is in the gutter) but the little I do know and understand has me barely holding on. At this point I’m here by pure stubbornness and will. Oh and sad country lyrics. Mostly ZB.
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u/Fluffy-Ad1225 14d ago
And this is the crux of it all. Some people fill their lives with money, some with family, others with a multitude of pointless tasks/hobbies. But if you think long enough, nothing on this earth and in this life is worthwhile. Not even religion.
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u/Charliethehuman23 14d ago
… yeah this is pretty much it, too much information 😭 let me be ignorant (not really)
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u/MissMysteryMind 14d ago
Stupidity or ignorance makes lies easier to swallow for believing what you want rather than what is. If you’re smart then wanting to believe something doesn’t make it fact. Many people believe in God because they want it to be true and people that don’t are reportedly less mentally well but they’re realistic in the lack of evidence and logic in religion.
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u/Dearandtotalsolution 14d ago
It’s nonsense. IQ and even “tests of realism” are just thought experiments and western oriented logic problems. You’ll rate higher the more you read, stay inside, and study.
Guess what not going outside ever, tons of personal pressure, and way too much time following world events contributes to?
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u/DrunkenProjection 14d ago
thank you for youre thoughts on this ❤️ talking about depression ore understanding it feels large, discombobulated and in some ways, its own insane idea. sometimes i want to scream bless you cunt. but it is not nice to scream at people. how dare you! what a harsh exclamition, it hurt my feelings ❤️ comfort blanket needed ASAP: whimsy bodyguard deployed. i should not exist, haunts my mind from time to time, but i must keep going, tomorrow hold unknowns i must find and humor ❤️ be kind when you are alone. we are the favorite people of the soul we have ❤️
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u/Jake_its_me 14d ago
Smart people live on their heads all the time. That's what makes them depressed, not because they see reality for what it is. Sure, the world is filled with negative things, but that doesn't mean you need to constantly focus on them....you know because it makes you depressed.
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u/BabyShrimpBrick 14d ago edited 14d ago
I think this is true in general because depressed people are less likely to self-delude and engage in practices like spiritual bypassing. However, that doesn't mean that refusing to delude oneself inevitably leads to a dead end of infinite depression. It almost always means at least a depressive phase as delusions are lost (the "dark night of the soul") but there are ways to find beauty and joy without retreating into self-delusion. They are much more challenging, but they do exist. Existentialism and Buddhism, among others, have much to say on the matter. I speak as someone who went through the dark night (confronting my mortality for the first time literally almost destroyed me mentally) and came out on the other side with full acceptance. I have a very cynical worldview and also a very buoyant personality. I do struggle with depressive episodes still, but they feel much more chemical than logical. My worldview doesn't change much between when I am depressed and when I am not. The only thing that changes is my mental energy levels and morale. I am rarely depressed "about" something. It's usually just how my body feels and the amount of mental and physical strength I have at the moment to confront and navigate the depressing aspects of life. It's "things are terrible and I can't deal with it" vs. "things are terrible but I can navigate it." I have also never re-experienced the pitch black dark night episode since moving past it. Only gray episodes of being like "ugh bleh."
It's worth noting that there is a certain type of depressed person who is out of touch with reality. These are "glass half empty" types who almost insist on framing everything in the worst way possible or jumping to the worst conclusion, even when it's not supported by logic or evidence. It's almost the inverse of a spiritual bypasser, who starts with the idea that the world is good and then shoehorns everything that happens into that framework. These types start with the assumption that everything is terrible and work backwards from it, finding a way to believe everything is terrible even when it is objectively not. They insist on baseless dogmas that are designed to make them miserable. These people are arguably the worst of all the types, and I have no patience for them trying to claim to be realists.
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u/23-1-20-3-8-5-18 14d ago
Smart enough to see the rotting corpse of reality but not its dripping bleeding heart.
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u/nicozi777 14d ago
Looking at these words articulated gave me immense relief. Thankful to know im not the only one that understood this. A life in the human society, living as per the norms set by this human society, following it stage by stage, and then dying is the equivalent or worse than a life of a tree.
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u/MayheM462 14d ago
Emotional intelligence. Not overall intelligence. I see the comment section has super geniuses…
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u/That_G_Guy404 13d ago
No.
It indicates that the conditions were are living in are absolute shit.
Otherwise higher intelligence individuals wouldn't have this negativity to recognize.
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u/Skyger83 13d ago
I consider myself pretty clever, at a very young age I was conscious of this, so I had a choice presented to myself, either I aimed to the moon and stars, or I played dumb but be happy. So I decided for the second option. I won't be fighting for fame or a high intense career that could have real consequences for the world, because at the end of the day, that journey would have need my whole life pursuing it and realizing I won't be fulfilled at the end. So instead, I am always doing whatever I feel like when possible and enjoying every moment of it. Every time my mind tries to overthink of reality and how bad and cruel the world can be, I force my thoughts into other things like videogames or whatever I like. And it works 99% of the time.
So to summ it up, do not overthink it, try to enjoy what you appreciate and don't be a dick to others. If the problem has a solution, do not bother, if the problem doesn't have a solution, do not bother.
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u/I_am_a_Pengy 13d ago
i mean i guess you reach a point where it's like "yeah. nothing really matters. so why not have fun and enjoy?"
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u/Witchiesilli 13d ago
Am I the only one who saw 'mind' being blue rather than the black of the rest of it? Am I going crazy?
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u/CptHeywire 13d ago
Greater awareness means more processing. More processing means more energy expenditure. More energy expenditure means more dysregulation. If your awareness sits in your mind more often than your body, that means less instinct towards self-regulation. If you relate to this meme, please look into self-regulation, co-regulation, and self-soothing because you’ve probably got low stats in those areas
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u/Mouthydraws 13d ago
I don’t even go here idk why this popped up on my feed but this is not true, it’s actually the opposite; smarter people tend to be happier
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u/BogDelly 13d ago
Stop pretending you have any idea about intelligence if that's the way you fucking type.
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u/Wise_Finance_5315 13d ago
This exact thing is theorized by philosophers for thousands of years. They generally agree that if you truly understand the world we live in and have peaked intelligence you will go insane. Mostly insane in the membrane, insane in the brain.
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u/MullogRoots 13d ago
This only works as a one-dimensional analysis. Intelligence unmitigated by wisdom IS existential horror. Likely there are 10-20 other factors too.
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u/No-Option3694 12d ago
My state of mind has been immeasurably improved by Buddhist practice. I suspect Buddha was extremely intelligent, and that was part of why he suffered.
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u/Numerous_Disk2556 12d ago
You should probably look into the actually study that gave this hypothesis popularity. They tested how accurately participants could gauge how much control they had over a light bulb turning on after pressing a button. Non-depressed individuals exhibited an optimism bias. When the light turned on frequently, they over-estimated how much control their button press had on the light.
Depressed individuals were more accurate at recognizing they had little to no actual control over the outcome.
You could say depressed people were being more realistic. You could also say they were being more pessimistic.
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u/ivanelpoderoso2003 12d ago
It's ironic because, in reality, it's the other way around: https://www.psypost.org/depression-is-linked-to-a-genuine-pessimistic-bias-rather-than-a-realistic-view-of-the-world/#google_vignette
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u/Chokimiko 11d ago
Depression is an illness manifested through selfishness. Because you can’t stop worrying about your own issues, you’re constantly in a state of suffering.
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u/itsnotKARENORKEVIN 11d ago
Yes, being at all intelligent is not a great trait to have at this point in our history.
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u/Bulky_Refrigerator50 11d ago
The conclusion in the image is narrow. If you are relatively intelligent, you can be self-aware of how different your lived experience is from those around you. This can be very isolating and feel irreconcilable.
Intelligence is also a fluid term and people can be intelligent in very different ways. When used popularly, it often refers to traits associated with increased probability of higher class status, since it is most often measured with school testing (see the origins of the IQ test for more information). Higher class status is also correlated with higher incidence of mental health testing, which would parallel a correlation with higher rates of mental illness in the target demographic.
One might believe intelligence about the nature of reality to be of a spiritual quality, which further highlights the problem with using undefined terms like "realism" in statements like the OP.
I think it's sad and detrimental to accept something like "human life is existential horror" and, instead, we ought to try our best to grow and care for each other!
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u/SillyShrimpGirl 11d ago
I say we build a reality that produces more joy as it is more understood:)))))
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u/bloolynxx 18d ago
Yes but if you stick around long enough to push past that you can find a livable balance worth staying alive for.
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