We all experience a bit of angst now and again, but some of us really, truly suffer from anxiety. People always seem to identify over-thinking as a negative trait, but according to science, people who experience anxiety or worry on a regular basis, actually seem to be much more intelligent than the rest of ‘em.
There have been a number of studies conducted in order to measure the correlation between anxiety levels and intelligence levels. Many of them have found that those with higher levels of anxiety, actually have higher IQs as well.
Jeremy Coplan, a professor at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, conducted a study of 26 patients with anxiety disorders, and 18 people with no history of anxiety disorders: it was found that the higher their worry levels were, the higher their IQs were as well.
Similarly, 126 undergraduates participated in a study at Ontario Lakehead University, where they filled out surveys and questionnaires designed to measure both intelligence and how much they stress about things in their lives. For instance, they were asked to scale strongly agreeing or disagreeing with statements such as I am always worried about something.
After analyzing these results, it was also found that those who worry more have high levels of verbal intelligence.
It is thought that, perhaps those who worry are thinking about past and future events more than the present events at the moment: feasibly making you nostalgic? Your memories can recall exact words, and conversations due to your excellent verbal skills.
You do, however, lack in recalling the feelings of the memory. This, in turn, worries you more: it makes you think that you have a bad memory, or you can’t remember something for a bad reason.
So, while worrying is seen as a negative trait, and high intelligence as a positive one, we can now connect the two and conclude that smart people just simply worry more.
So don’t worry about worrying, *wink* it just means that your brain is doin’ a whole lot more work than everyone else’s.