Is there a link between mental illness and persons with high IQ, creativity, and talent? From the many talented, creative and expressions, thoughts and ideas from a number of celebrities, singers, sportsmen, writers’, politicians and even some of our own Singaporeans, yes it does point to that.
More than 30
studies have linked higher intelligence to mental health disorders including
major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other mental disorders.
Affecting
some 2.5 percent of the U.S. population, bipolar disorder or major depression
alone, has touched many of our greatest achievers, including Vincent Van Gogh,
Buzz Aldrin, Emily Dickinson, Ernest Hemingway, and Jackson Pollock – just to
name a few.
Some of the
celebrities that had to come to terms with mental disorders include TV host
Ellen DeGeneres, Lady Gaga, Jim Carrey, Brad Pitt and his ex-wife Angelina
Jolie.
DeGeneres was
reported to go into deep depression after her show on ABC got cancelled way
back in 1998 while Lady Gaga revealed her difficulties in dealing with
depression and how she eventually learned to overcome it.
Hollywood
megastar Angelina Jolie slipped into a depression in 2008 after
tragedy struck in her family while equally big movie star Pitt felt depressed
early on in his acting career, and attributes a trip to Casablanca to helping him overcome his depression.
But the plus
of facing all these adversities is that they all have the tenacity to bounce
back and rebuild their lives.
Mental
illness and high grades in education
Other
research supporting a link between intelligence and mental health problems
shows bipolar disorder may be four times as common among young adults
who’d earned straight-As in school.
I am not
surprised that the correlation between A grades and bipolar disorder was
strongest among students excelling in music and language, supporting popular
notions about writers and artists with regard to mental health.
Indeed,
persons trying to cope with mental disorders are highly intelligent people and
given the right opportunities without discrimination, they can soar to greater
heights. They are perfectionists and will not accept slip-shop work.
A
professional lady who is also very intelligent told me recently that my late
wife, Doris who battled schizophrenia for 44 years was a smart and creative
person. That is so true as she not only produced 8 successful books but
was so meticulous in whatever she did. In proofreading all my books, she could
spot a missed comma a mile way.
The
professional who knew I battled depression for some time in 1995, encouraged me
to continue with my writing, speaking engagements and advocacy work as she told
me I have the ability to express myself very clearly, can foresee problems
coming on-stream and come up with constructive ideas that can make Singapore a
better place to live in.
Take
proactive measures to comfort and counsel students who fail or do not do that
well in examinations
We have in
our midst some brilliant students who study in some of our top schools and
often peer or parental pressure pushes the students to overstretch themselves.
But when they do not do as well as they expect, such as when they score 4 A’s
instead of 5, the results can pull them down and they can get depressed,
wrongly believing that they are ‘not good enough’.
On the other
extreme end, there are students who try very hard to score well in exams, but
fail and when the results are made known, it pulls them down so badly that some
turn to suicide as they believe that they cannot succeed in life.
In October
2016, a State Coroner’s inquiry revealed that after an 11-year-old boy failed
his exams, he believed – in his troubled state of mind, that he had
disappointed his parents. The student then jumped 17 floors from his bedroom
window and died. “11-year-old
boy’s suicide due to exam and parental stress: State Coroner”
The Ministry
of Education (MOE) has to be proactive and come up with measures to prevent a
recurrence of such tragedies. We need thinkers in the civil service to
tackle problems. MOE needs to have a helicopter view of challenges
which students will face when they fail to make the grade.
Here’s what I
propose:
For a start,
there is no need to highlight and publicize the high achievers to the whole
school when the exam results are out, because those who fail or do not score as
well as they expect to, will be demoralized when the successful ones outshine
them.
The high
achievers can be recognized privately in a separate meeting with the Principal.
The demand
for school counselors will have to go up if we hope to help students cope with
the education system which is of very high standards.
Next, given
that the school will have the results known from MOE well in advanced, it is
best to group those who have not passed the exams to be counselled and
comforted by the Principal, teachers and counsellors with the key message that
it is perfectly ok to fail as there will always be opportunities to excel with
the support of the school. Parents of these students can be included in
these sessions which can be held fortnightly until the situation becomes
stable.
Students who
pass, but are disappointed that they did not do as well as they ought to, could
also have similar separate sessions, with parents tagging along.
RAYMOND ANTHONY FERNANDO
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