Mental illness, has very little to do with intelligence. It is usally an imblanace of nero-chemicals. A subject which I have learned quite a bit about since my brain injury. Case in point there was a fellow in the 1800's that had a rail-road spike go through is head into his brain. Before the accident a charming well liked fellow, after which he became a jerk. He had to same level of cognition as before the incident. So really these issues are mutual exclusive. You can also look at socio-paths that are brilliant, but have no regaurd for humanity. Then you have Narrisic Personality disorder which person tries to sound accomplished and brilliant to cover their low self image and esteem. I could go on but I must depart for work. Have a good one all. I will try to return this evening.

You know, I don't honestly believe that all of these people were definitely mentally ill, sometimes the things that doctors cannot understand get categorized into mental illnesses, all of which fall into the categories of social disorders, panic disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders and psychotic disorders.

Intelligence is often the gift that comes with a mental illness. The most creative time of year for me is winter months, when the stress of cold triggers euphoric hypomania (Stress + I love winter), and usually, something good comes out of it in terms of inventions. There's nothing wrong with thinking different and often people get caught associating a stigma with mental illness, obscuring the gifts.. It has its uses and when applied constructively, is a source of creativity. That old cliche, "there is a fine line between genius and insanity", is almost right. There is no line and if there is, the line doesn't matter.

Mensa also has regional and national gatherings, social clubs, invention clubs, travel clubs etc and provides many avenues to meet other intelligent people like you. I think they also have a singles club.

After I went to my first mensa meeting, my mom asked me how I liked it and I said "they are different like I am different."

"I want an incisive, inquisitive, insightful, irreverent mind. I want someone for whom philosophical discussion is foreplay. I want someone who sometimes makes me go ouch due to their wit and evil sense of humor. I want someone that I can reach out and touch randomly. I want someone I can cuddle

An IQ from 100-140 is pretty common (in my circle of friends anyway). But its interesting that individuals with IQ's above that usually come with some form of dementia or conflicting social quirks.

Do you have proof of what you claim?

William Sidis - The guy had serious personality disorders.
Nicola Tesla - Obsessive Compulsive disorder as well as a host of others.
Michael Faraday - Dyslexia
Thelonius monk -Asperger's syndrome
Daniel Tammet - Autistic Savant
Winston Churchill - Bipolar disorder
Abraham Lincoln - Depression
Isaac Newton - Believed to have Bi polar disorder / Asperger's syndrome and a host of others.
Albert Einstein - A study by Cambridge and oxford shows that he may have had Asperger's Syndrome
John Nash (a beautiful mind) - Schizophrenia
....ect. And that's just to name a few.

I know. My point was that doctors misdiagnose people all of the time, usually because they cannot find a "fit" for the symptoms, so they take whichever one fits, instead of admitting that they do not understand the person.

Go spend some time in a mental hospital. You'll redraw that line quite quickly.

There is a fine line between what others" do not understand," and what "cannot be explained, other than by a mental illness."

I was actually committed to one back in early 2007, because of a medication that should have prevented a full manic episode along with stress of a marriage failing. At the time of my breakdown, I had nearly completed building a 4 axis cnc from raw materials completely of my own design. As it turned out, once I recognize I was in an acute manic state, I was that much closer to solving the problem, by refusing the one medication that caused my deteriorating mental state, and was released 4 days later.

Your latter sentence has no relevance, at least to me. Actual accomplishments that benefit others, in my opinion, has a considerably higher value than a title and potential for such accomplishments.

It's my experience with women who self-describe as intelligent usually define intelligence along the lines of "agrees with me". I guess that's understandable if one's mating differentiation strategy is intelligence, but I've found intelligence is not so easily defined, and seems to be several quite different things that make the notion of intelligence not very useful.

Are intellectual types too wrapped up in themselves, too full of themselves, in other words, too Egocentric?

Do they have unrealistic projections and expectations?

Are many intellectuals doomed to be forever frustrated, isolated and alone?

Interesting. I was committed in 2005 after trying commit suicide because of the medication prescribed to me over a misdiagnosis of Bipolar Axis I with mild Schizophrenic symptoms, Panic Disorder and Social Phobia. Interestingly enough, I've never exhibited any of the actual symptoms for these (I am a volunteer public speaker, for example), until they put me on medication to "fix" me. None of the people I encountered in the hospital were on any level of reality, and didn't even know anything about the diseases they were diagnosed with. They were, however, clearly mentally ill.

I have no idea why you interpreted my sentence as being directed at you. I specifically said, "others", to include doctors who misdiagnose people with high IQs because they do not understand them, and others who claim that having an IQ above 150 usually means you have a mental illness. Until there is a study done to confirm this, where the tests given by a psychiatric hospital confirms the illness and a Wechsler IQ test is given at the time they are mentally ill to confirm their IQ is above 150, I will say that it is wrong.

I agreed that empathy and compassion are not inherent in people with high IQs, but I see that across the board, and I doubt everyone here is a genius. I think that both of those traits are learned qualities, and having a high IQ makes it significantly easier to learn those traits and understand others.