I do not believe it to be true, but as a very general, very broad statement, it does seem that intelligent people tend to be more depressed than 'other' people. Is it a case of "Ignorance is bliss"? I am (despite popular belief) quite intelligent but I am not depressed, but I do lack some social skills depending upon my company.

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smart people over think life and it causes them stress and other complications, this happens to me sometimes, and my mates who lack a higher level of thinking cruise through their lives just rolling with the punches and smiling.

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Yes - because intelligent people can see past the sugar coated world and into the corrupt truth, when you see how ugly things in the world really are, you tend to be a bit dissillusioned and depressed.

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not so much intelligence, but over thinking.

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I imagine it's not so much being intelligent, as thinking too much about things you cannot change.

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Now, whilst I think it is true, that intelligent people do seek out "the truth" and that seeing it can sometimes lend itself towards disillusionment, I think that to use this as a reason (I prefer the word excuse) for depression is wrong. If you are intelligent enough to see the truth about things, then you should be intelligent enough to do something about it, to make your world (note, I said "your" world, I'm not talking greenpeace here) better.

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I have a fair degree of intelligence (apparently my IQ indicates I am a genius, but I'd take that with a pinch of salt), I am hardly ever depressed. However, a few years ago I was often depressed / angry with almost every facet of life. Then one day I decided to stop watching the news, within a few weeks of not knowing what was going on I was a lot happier. I have since taken this one step further and actively avoid any news of any kind (when I refer to news, I mean mass media style news). So in my case ignorance is bliss.

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In terms of the more intelligent people searching for the real meaning into things (ie not taking them at face value), this combined with empathy is a killer. Nothing like knowing the world is a terrible place but then caring too much about the things in it.

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yeah, it can be depressing to know how people work, what motivates them to be utterly dumb, and what motivates people to strive, and it can be depressing to not have any power to change it.

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I don't know about depression specifically, but it is well documented throughout history that the geniuses of this world - Da Vinci, Einstein, etc suffered from psychological illnesses, including depression. It's also been documented that people of higher IQ are more prone/susceptible to these illnesses as well.

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The more you know.. the more you realise how *$%ed up everything is. And how little you can do to fix it.

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I really don’t feel as though it's the intelligence of the person that defines whether they are more prone to depression or not. I feel it’s more about that individual’s strength of mind.

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The strength of an individual’s mind has an impact on how easily they can become depressed, but does not cause the depression itself. What we are saying is that because the intellect's mind is so open to worldly things, and because they understand/interpret so much more, this makes them more susceptible to depression.

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I have way too much empathy and can feel other people's pain more than is healthy. I really do wish I could be just a little bit more cold and uncaring, as I am way too empathetic at the moment. I get angry and upset sometimes that I can't make things better for people - I gotta learn that's the way it is.

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Possibly intelligence does equal depression. However it appears that it is actually other things, such as a disappointment in others. Dissatisfaction with the world around them. And a sense of frustration at their inability to do anything about either. Not intelligence.

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I guess when you spend more time with your intelligence, you tend not to socialise and share your thoughts and feelings .. so they are kept bottled up, causing 'over-thinking', loneliness and loss of hope... which can be a cause of depression.

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sometimes I wish I was stupid and didn't know ****. Perhaps I would be happier that way. But then, I can see plenty of examples from dumb people who are depressed by all sorts of dilemmas... Hard to say who's happier/more depressed than who. Intelligent people can't try to be dumb and see if they are happier and vice versa.

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