Anyone with an IQ over 130 is automatically neurodivergent ?

Post Reply New Topic

A comment I came across. I've seen several similar comments. Is it true though? I doubt that it is.

I think it might be that children who are identified and labeled as gifted might often be neurodiverse because their neurodiversity makes their giftdeness stand out, and thus they are identified as gifted, whereas a NT child who is of high intelligence might not stand out and therefore might not be labeled as "gifted".

^ A good point. Thank you.

I joined Mensa over 40 years ago and observed that most of us seemed to have chosen to avoid social immersion in high school and were only then (in our 20s and 30s) beginning to experiment with social encounters.

Since IQ is a measure of several different neurological processes, one might conclude that a clustering at one end of a spectrum might be called "divergence".

I've never been much good at social encounters, but kismet brought a special person into my life when I was at my lowest mental health wise. Periodic attempts at socialising since she died have been varying degrees of a failure. For whatever reason I don't come across well. Fail to make a good initial impression.

It's been through my mind and not my far from perfect social skills that I've gained 'friends' and 'followers' on Facebook and Twitter. The more intelligent people are the more they're willing to want to know me online. They look beyond the weirdness that still reveals itself,to a lesser degree,online.

It is neurodivergence in the sense that your brain differs from the average brain in how it works. As simple as that. Does it automatically mean autism? Probably not, but it would need to be studied. I have personally met a lot of "gifted" individuals, and most of them had some autistic traits, but it wasn't a diagnosis, because it didn't cause problems. They might have never seen a psychiatrist or a psychologist either. But a lot of them could be considered socially awkward, yes, more than in the general population.

Deleted

Last edited by firemonkey on 29 Oct 2024, 10:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

It looks like Reddit users are mostly autistic

It was a f***ing stupid reply by me.Sorry.

I tried to join Mensa over 30 years ago, but they didn't seem to have anyone who knew how to stuff an application form in an envelope.

I don't have the self confidence to take part in any F2F groups, be it Mensa or meeting other members of the local branch of the Labour party. Any F2F group in fact. The fear of f*****g up,and being mocked and ridiculed,is far too great. Online groups are comparatively better, but there's still that feeling of not being good enough, not worthy enough. That's the chronic effects of bullying related trauma.The online high IQ community is far more accepting of my being a part of it, than I accept myself of being.

timf,

I joined Mensa in 1981. I used to attend AGs and a few RGs...but backed off after COVID. Have you been to many AGs? If so, perhaps our paths have crossed.

I lived in Houston then and pretty much kept to the local involvement. I have fond memories and learned to expand my social skills somewhat. I rejoined Mensa a few years ago and found it significantly changed. I now live in a state where a Mensa meeting in the largest city in the state produces about seven people. The people you can interact with online seem to have hostile political orientation that kills conversation. I suppose this is simply a reflection of the changes in society in general.

I do not use Facebook so I am not able to navigate Mensa or Intertel as this seems to be the preferred method of social interaction these days.

One of the characteristics of old age is being able to irritate people by telling them how much better it was in the past.

I am sorry the Mensa in the UK was unable to mail out an application. I was able through Mensa to connect with a couple of people in Japan on a business trip. That was very enjoyable.

Ha! Isn't that the truth! However, I remember having to pretend that I didn't like the song "Hangin' Tough" in 1989 because I was "too cool" for that. I am now unabashedly so cool that I can like anything I want.

I did a deep dive into some related academic articles yesterday. Intelligence is one of the things I've had to keep up with because it keeps coming up in my research with other things.

I can't find my note about it so I'll go off of memory. In a normal population, 68% of the people have intelligence that we would call regular. The intelligence test score numbers vary and in my opinion don't matter that much. Most autistic people actually score inside of the 68% range. Autistic people often seem more intelligent because they can focus their brainpower onto one thing and excel at that. NT people spread their energy around and are "masters of none" when it comes to things they are interested in.

13.5% of the population on the right has "superior" intelligence. Again, the numbers vary, but a smart NT person like me and more of your regular autistic people will be in this region. These are people who will likely go to college, marry, and have white collar jobs. 13.5% of the population there on the left is what we would now call intellectually disabled, but like on a Forrest Gump scale. You will also find some autistic people here in this area, but these will be people who cannot "pass" as non-autistic and will require helpers to get along in life. The types of NTs you'll find here will be people who cannot functionally read books, go to college, or do more complex jobs. Autistic people in this range probably could do those things, but likely could not do more complex social things.

Those 2.35% regions on either end are "very superior" on the right and I don't even know the current PC word for the left. A person with Downs would score on the left. Downs people, in my opinion, cannot be IQ tested with others because they are too different. Autistic people who have significant trouble communicating will score in this range on the left. On the right you will find these 130-140 range people. They can function at a high level either as NTs or as autistic people but will not necessarily succeed. They are too different.

The 0.15% on either side is what my husband calls "on the podium." This is scoring something like a 0 on an IQ test or beyond either 140 or 150, depending on the test. My husband is in this range on the right. These people are definitely untestable and will need some kind of help with some aspect of their lives. They are not like other people and will likely either feel lonely or be used to being alone and have trouble when asked to communicate.

Pardon me if any of that sounded offensive. I am tired today and perhaps speaking extra plainly. But this topic interests me so I thought I'd post.

I was tempted to post results, but thought it better not to.

I don't think so, I think a lot of that comes down to how is the person scoring like that. I score in the low-140s, but the tests are always kind of weird in that the less thinking I do about the questions, the higher the scores go, which isn't terribly surprising for somebody that's ND with ADHD as a component.

Somebody can have a very high IQ and still be thinking and operating the way that a NT does, just with a bit more horsepower behind some of the skills. IQ itself isn't a great measure as it tends to be pretty focused due to needing to be able to standardize it enough to use on a test that can be deployed to measure large numbers of people.

Likewise, I wouldn't necessarily assume that somebody with an extremely low IQ is ND, they may just be functioning in a more sluggish way.