![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Cass on April 5, 2009, at 15:51:51
Sometimes I feel like depression lowers my IQ by at least 20 points, seriously. I just feel so slow. My motor is running so sluggishly. I'm around all these people who are so quick witted. Sometimes I get the joke, but I'm just too tired to even respond.
Posted by Dinah on April 5, 2009, at 19:54:42
In reply to Depression and IQ, posted by Cass on April 5, 2009, at 15:51:51
I feel that way too sometimes. Even though my depression is much better I still feel that way. I hate it too. I always valued my intelligence perhaps a bit too highly.
I really really hate it when my brain feels like it's trying to get a thought through quicksand. I can almost hear the squelch as it tries to step forward.
Posted by Kath on April 6, 2009, at 10:47:55
In reply to Re: Depression and IQ » Cass, posted by Dinah on April 5, 2009, at 19:54:42
Yes - I've noticed that also.
I play an online version of 'scrabble' with a couple of people. I have noticed over the past several months that I just make a more simple word on my turn than I would have before. Sort of can't get the 'gumption' or something, to look at my letters & think of various options. It feels a bit scarey, as I'm 62 & wonder if I'm getting some form of dementia!!!!
Kath
Posted by Phillipa on April 6, 2009, at 13:06:12
In reply to Re: Depression and IQ, posted by Kath on April 6, 2009, at 10:47:55
Kath try 63 dementia or what? Love Phillipa
Posted by SLS on April 6, 2009, at 15:58:58
In reply to Depression and IQ, posted by Cass on April 5, 2009, at 15:51:51
> Sometimes I feel like depression lowers my IQ by at least 20 points, seriously.
Of course it does. In my experience, not only does depression reduce the speed of thought, it also reduces the level of sophistication at which the mind works.
I like to call what depression does to one's mental status as a reduction in FUNCTIONAL IQ. One may still score high in an IQ test when given enough time to complete it, but in the real world, this level of intelligence does not equate to real-time intelligence. Also, we have completely failed to factor in the deficits in memory that depression produces. Without short-term memory encoding, one cannot synthesize sophisticated ideas and understandings that require multiple steps of processing. This further reduces functional IQ.
So...
Is our IQ what we test at, or, rather, what we now function at. Having had several complete remissions, I can tell you, without equivocation, that my functional IQ immediately jumps up to where I originally tested at once I respond to treatment. This new-found intelligence really did scare me at the time. I might not have been any smarter than the people around me, but I was much smarter than I could have ever dreamed I could be when compared to the vegetative, oppressive, suppressive, and mind altering state of the depression that I had been confined to for as long as I could remember.
- Scott
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Social | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.