I've been lurking here for a week now and I have a lot of memories of being in the shoes of many of you who post on here with their insecurities and obsessions. This is especially for those who are above average in intelligence, but badly wish to be >98th percentile, or are ashamed that they are not.

I'm now an almost 34 year old cardiology fellow at a large academic institution in the Midwest. In my youth, especially adolescence and early 20s, I was obsessed with my IQ. Back then, there were only a few good tests, the best ones were the Mensa tests and RPM, and then towards the tail end of my IQ obsession, Xavier Jouve's tests were available. My scores were consistently in the 120s- low 130s range (midwit, if you will). I also obsessed over practice effects just as many people here, and was convinced I was actually in the 115-125 range when accounting for my poor working memory.

I ended up going to therapy for low self esteem issues stemming from insecurity about my intelligence. Therapy took a long time to work, about 6 months before I broke the habit. I managed to excel in undergrad and on the MCAT, went to a prestigious medical school where I was an above average student, landed an internal medicine residency at an Ivy League school, and am now finishing up my cardiology fellowship. Starting next year, I will earn 450-550k/year depending on my productivity. When I stopped obsessing about IQ, I focused on real life accomplishments and I will earn more than the smartest friends I have from high school and undergrad. (Bragging, I know).

If you think you have an unhealthy IQ obsession that is meaningfully affecting your life, please step away from this subreddit and IQ testing in general and get professional help. You may not have access to professional help right now, but recognize that you have a problem and don't deny it. As the cliche goes, acknowledging a problem is the first step towards fixing it.

If you're not sure that you have these issues, read the list below and see if any rings true:

Your obsession over your intelligence/IQ causes obvious dysfunctions in your life (low mood, decreased attention, feelings of worthlessness, etc).

You spend more time obsessing over your intelligence than personal accomplishments

You worry that you are only as good as your lowest score.

You alternate between believing that all of your scores are inflated to convincing yourself that your highest scores are representative of your intelligence.

You choose to do IQ tests in your strong domains, but refuse to do full scale IQ tests, like the CAIT, because you know it will give you a lower score. (This one is more subtle, but it contributes to the feedback loop of seeking tests that will give you a high score to boost your self esteem)

A relatively low score on a test can ruin your day or even your week

You can't talk about these thoughts to anyone in your life because you are embarrassed

Didn't even read but it sounds like you over think things are are cursed. GL with your ego maxxing and insecurity goals of 2023 bruv. I just banged the misses 3 times today and cuddled. What did you do with your massive IQ? My body is flooded with feel good chemicals and now I'm chit posting for luls before I wake up and go into an easy stress free job which I find very rewarding. Here you are posting on a die gaying indian building forum about your bic brain. Sad.

This has hit home for me.

I got a huge ego boost when I did the Danish Mensa test when as a 14-year-old. It gave me a score of 129 which made me feel limitless.

I was good at maths and physics at school and people would think of me as clever for that but I would spend a lot of time on it. I was the best in those subjects and would be the go-to person for any question regarding the topics. If there was a competition I would participate and I would get some sort of distinction. I ended up in the top-20 on national physics and chemistry competitions in my country.

However, I was mediocre at pretty much everything else. I could not memorise anything, I read slowly, my vocabulary was poor, and ironically I was very weak in arithmetic.

Of course, I would just double-down on my strengths and ignore everything else.

Fast forward a few years, I started doing natural sciences at Cambridge. I was still very good in maths and physics compared to my peers (as far as I could see) but there was a new beast I had to tame; computer science.

I wasn't so good at it and started doubting myself. So what did I do? I did that same mensa test again (or almost the same; the one I did then was gray scale but the one I remembered doing as a teen was colorful). The result was 115, one standard deviation below what I first got.

That killed my ego. I immediately started doing a lot of tests over the next week. All the mensa tests I could find. I remember most of them were much higher (highest being the Norwegian one at 133 iirc) but there was at least one other 115 on an Android app that was very tightly timed.

Countless IQ tests later, I am still extremely insecure about my intelligence. From what I can tell, my IQ is likely in the 115 area with a spike for spatial skills (and to a smaller extent non verbal reasoning) that helped me shine in STEM but I'm not special. I struggle verbally and I am always dazzled by the depth of the vocabulary that my peers possess. Most of them can do cryptic crosswords and I struggle with the normal crossword. My working memory is also extremely average which inhibits my learning rate and hampers effective communication. I also realised that everyone I know knew how to read before they went to school and were bookworms as kids. A few of my friends were programming in primary school also. Needless to say that I did nothing of the kind and only started reading books for pleasure at 11. In other words, I'm average.

I also have been in an industry that is even more competitive than Cambridge which doesn't help.

I don't know what I'm going to do but this post has really rung the alarm bells.

Some of the most intelligent people I know are unable to figure out life and happiness. Walk the buddhist path and minimize your ego. Find what you really enjoy. People thinking you have an amazing brain seems like a really shakey and unstable way to derive happiness and purpose. The best times people have are when they completely forget what they are and are lost in a laugh or a silly time with friends.

It actually seems pretty simple when you think about it. Stop comparing yourself with your overactive brain. Stop defining yourself by your brains output and identify with the consciousness or the "witness" in the back of your head that watches and runs the thought machine spitting out a million ideas a second. You aren't your thoughts, you aren't peoples opinion of your brain.

The intellect is a wonderful servant, and a lousy master. Just have fun, smash girls, get out in the sun, put your toes in the sand, listen to comedy and all that chit.

https://www.amazon.ca/Dhammapada-Ekn...s%2C225&sr=8-1

Software for your brain. Someone recommended this to me on here back when I was making 100k a year, stressed out and just status maxxing. My quality of life has gone up YUGELY.

These were copy and pastedhttps://www.reddit.com/r/cognitiveTe..._got_help_you/

I think some screening is important to avoid low end problems.

otherwise mostly agree

the more you obsessed with something the more insecure you can become.

I nearly practised jelqing due to people on the misc posting about how women are whorers who only care about d*ck sise - and I'm a legit 7 inches by 6 inches.

bruh iq is meaningless

IQ is not a measurement of intelligence, but it's meant to show how good you are at solving puzzles and figuring out problems. Some people suck at symbols and math, but you could tell they are highly intelligent despite that fact. Others could remember everyone's phone numbers and are filled with textbook knowledge, but if you asked them to give their own opinion on a topic they wouldn't be able to do it or would have an NPC response.

Speak to a 200 IQ math genius and you'll see how low their EQ is and how antisocial they really are. There are ups and downs to everything. People obsess over the strangest things and the values we put on others is ridiculous. I know how intelligent I truly am and I can see where my potential lies and that there is no way beyond a certain point. Not everyone is in tune with that level of self-awareness and that is a shame.

I think most personality things are flame.

Nuclear family = normal

Not = deliberately dysfunctional