Intelligence And Anxiety: A Love-hate Relationship

Typical is the image of the brilliant student, with an impeccable curriculum, who despite his intellectual gifts and his remarkable capacity for academic success, is consumed by a sea of ​​nervousness every time a test approaches. Intelligence and anxiety, in this and other examples, seem to go hand in hand.

This hypothetical relationship between a high intellectual level and anxiety has been studied and examined, both for its evident empiricism and for its theoretical-practical implications, on many occasions and from various disciplines.

A study by Lakehead University in Canada has established strong support for this link between high intelligence – brilliant, creative and analytical minds – and anxious tendencies – fear of the social, anticipation, nervousness and excessive worry, among others.

Caution, however, should guide the assimilation of possible causal relationships of this kind: it is not true that someone with high creative potential or high IQ has some sort of psychological disorder or problem behind them.

However, what can be said is that there is often the stereotype of the person whose behaviors and internal states seem to be out of sync with the capabilities of a more than privileged mind.

The science behind the relationship between intelligence and anxiety

There is a popular saying that ignorance can bring happiness. Reversing this saying, we get that the opposite of stupidity – wisdom – can become synonymous with unhappiness. Anxiety, in turn, has enough power to inflict this unhappiness on people.

The fact that people with high IQ tend to have, more likely, episodes of anxiety and even chronic and generalized anxiety, has raised relevant lines of research that aim to elucidate why an intelligent person can experience frustration, unhappiness and even make decisions inadequate for your well-being.

While in the academic field you can see outstanding students who show a more than desirable tranquility and balance, on more than one occasion you can also see students who, despite their intellectual gifts:

• They tend to anticipate events negatively.
• They quickly become frustrated with unexpected changes.
• They show traces of stress with an abnormally high frequency and intensity.
• They show a considerable drop in academic performance.

Thus, the above behaviors can harm academic and professional success, and probably personal success.

White matter: implications for intelligence and anxiety

The brain’s white matter is responsible for transmitting bioelectrical information between neurons, not so much for processing information in the brain, which is attributed to gray matter.

Aiming to deepen the study of this relationship between intelligence and anxiety, the scientists responsible for the aforementioned study used neuroimaging techniques – and specifically, magnetic resonance – to reveal the underlying causes.

The findings were as startling as they were, almost to the same degree, logical and expected: people in whom high intelligence and markedly anxious characteristics converged  generally had a higher density of white matter. 

This increased density, in statistical terms, could explain the intellectual power of these people and, at the same time, their tendencies towards chronic and generalized anxiety, since  white matter has been associated with emotional control. 

evolutionary explanation

In the evolutionary course of our species, part of the scientific community believes that the development of intelligence and the willingness to feel anxiety went hand in hand.

The reason could be none other than the fact that,  in order to improve the survival of our species, it was useful to optimize the analysis and processing of information in order to be able to anticipate dangers.

Thus,  by developing a greater density of white matter, this intelligence necessary for survival would be promoted. On the other hand, as the nervous system has faster and more efficient ways to communicate and transmit information, anxiety states would appear more frequently.

These conclusions also lead us to a possible theoretical explanation of emotional and behavioral blockage that involves a disproportionate amount of anxiety. Thus, when anxiety reaches excessively high levels, there is a saturation of the nerve communication pathways and the intelligence potential  drastically decreases, causing a feeling of paralysis in the person.

As we have seen, having a highly intelligent mind is, in most cases, a desirable element for many people. But coins have two sides and, as we have seen, a high degree of intelligence can bring with it traits of anxiety and difficulty in emotional control.

Intelligence is important, but is being smart really everything ?