I fear it may be a bit of a self-fulfilling stereotype. Based on my experience (some extended family, some from when I grew up, and some from my kid’s schoolmates), “spicy” far from guarantees intelligence, and intelligence far from requires being “spicy”. Most of the folks I’ve encountered with mental health diagnoses are not particularly intelligent, excluding self-diagnosis, no more so than other folks, maybe a bit less since the sample includes low-functioning autistic.
One example of a high functioning autistic who was smart was a girl my kid knew. I’m not so sure about it, because she didn’t seem strange to me. Turned out her parents were loaded, and bemoaned the mental health industry because they had taken their kid to 4 child psychologists who all claimed she was normal before they finally found a “good” one that would actually diagnose her. They seemed quite proud to have a “special” kid with a mental condition that meant she was smarter than other people.
Which is a huge part of the issue, ever since Asperger’s became popularized back in the day. People heard “mental deficiency that makes it ok to be an asshole, and it means you are smart, and generally functional”. I’ve known a few people that self diagnose because they want to be considered smart and didn’t like considering other people’s feelings. They mistake “incapable” for “not liking to” when it comes to accommodating others.
People who are neurodivergent can be smart, but the diagnosis is diluted by a lot of self-diagnosers or mental health professional shoppers. This leads to some bad outcomes, like a story where a company declared they wanted to exclusively hire autistic people because they wanted the smartest.
I have a mix of friends and the most spicy ones are also the smartest and most talented. Stereotypes are true sometimes.
I fear it may be a bit of a self-fulfilling stereotype. Based on my experience (some extended family, some from when I grew up, and some from my kid’s schoolmates), “spicy” far from guarantees intelligence, and intelligence far from requires being “spicy”. Most of the folks I’ve encountered with mental health diagnoses are not particularly intelligent, excluding self-diagnosis, no more so than other folks, maybe a bit less since the sample includes low-functioning autistic.
One example of a high functioning autistic who was smart was a girl my kid knew. I’m not so sure about it, because she didn’t seem strange to me. Turned out her parents were loaded, and bemoaned the mental health industry because they had taken their kid to 4 child psychologists who all claimed she was normal before they finally found a “good” one that would actually diagnose her. They seemed quite proud to have a “special” kid with a mental condition that meant she was smarter than other people.
Which is a huge part of the issue, ever since Asperger’s became popularized back in the day. People heard “mental deficiency that makes it ok to be an asshole, and it means you are smart, and generally functional”. I’ve known a few people that self diagnose because they want to be considered smart and didn’t like considering other people’s feelings. They mistake “incapable” for “not liking to” when it comes to accommodating others.
People who are neurodivergent can be smart, but the diagnosis is diluted by a lot of self-diagnosers or mental health professional shoppers. This leads to some bad outcomes, like a story where a company declared they wanted to exclusively hire autistic people because they wanted the smartest.