You really should

Right now is a good time 😊

Do you want to be friends? 🪻

thanks for the reply

Wait a little bit to see if it gets debunked.

Honestly a pretty smart strategy. Wiser than most.

Even if the IQ tests you took were accurate (probably weren’t), they test a very specific type of problem solving intelligence. That type of intelligence may be required for abstract reasoning like physics and maths, but it’s not necessary for being a successful human.

There are many other types of intelligence that are not tested for in that test. Other types of intelligence that can have a much bigger impact on one’s success.

One example is physical or spatial intelligence. My brother for example is just good with his hands, taking things apart, putting them back together. He’s a mechanic now, but this trait was apparent before he could talk - he used a screwdriver to take apart a chair, and he would pull out drawers to use them as a ladder to get up on the kitchen counter.

Another type of intelligence is social or emotional intelligence. Some very high IQ individuals would test very very low if this one had a test. But this can have a bigger impact on your relationships, on your life, and even on your career than the IQ type of intelligence.

Artistic and creative intelligence, athletic intelligence. There are many other kinds. Some people are really good at gardening or farming.

You can read and write, which would make you a genius scholar a few hundred years ago. Don’t worry about a number on a test. Just like your grades in school they don’t matter. It absolutely does not indicate that you won’t mature or that you’re inferior to anybody.

I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m autistic and much older than you, so yeah, I do actually know what it’s like to have to come to terms with my own limitations. I know exactly what you mean about being angry and ashamed of those limitations. Every time I fail to extract myself from a situation and have a meltdown, screaming and hitting myself in the head - sometimes in public - and having to face that, what everyone saw, once I’m calm and quiet and lucid again. Every time I look gullible because I fall for some obvious bullshit (satire or parody news, for example). Knowing I could be more if I could just understand people, and get them to understand me.

That’s what I mean when I say IQ tests don’t really mean anything, they measure just a few aspects of intelligence and it doesn’t tell you anything meaningful about a whole person. My partner has been told by people she thought were friends that she’s dumb and she doesn’t bring anything to the table, and it destroyed her self esteem, but it was absolutely not true or fair and I’ve spent years undoing that damage. I was hoping you don’t suffer that too, that’s all.

I didn’t once say anything about trying your hardest, but if you really want to expand that last half of my last question into a whole point, then it should be this: you are perfectly capable of living a good life, being happy, and making others happy, regardless of a score on a test.

It’s like if you were blind and everyone who could see told you that vision doesn’t mean anything.

It’s more like if you were blind, tested your running speed, performed poorly, attribute all your problems to being a bad runner, then everyone tells you that running speed doesn’t mean anything.

I acknowledge that there’s things that are more difficult for you and that negatively affects your quality of life, but it doesn’t sound like those problems are the same ones that IQ tests are measuring. If you care to work on improving your situation, it’s important to know what the actual problems are before you can even start trying to address them.

Right on - are there any jobs you’d rather be doing? I’ve been thinking of retraining to become an animal handler, lately 😆 I think you might be able to do that with a low IQ! Maybe that’s more satisfying than flipping burgers… Though I got a craving for a whopper now.

I mean what’s your perception on how your world?

Googling Mensa: Mensa international:

This online test gives an indication of general cognitive abilities, represented by an IQ score of between 85 and 145, where 100 is the population average.

Did you take this test? If yes, how was your result below the lowest value?

Your responses suggest a higher score in language, is your 73 the average of all the test areas? Such as math, etc.

Thank you for sharing your story, it must be a difficult life. Life is hard with 120, I barely make it, I can not even imagine your case especially together with NPD.

I have seen your other AMA about NPD, and I can understand “trauma”. I “only” had really bad decades long depression and anxiety and have found way out of it with good therapy (which is rare).

Good luck to you, I hope you will have some luck further on.

… treat them like they’re anyone else.

FTFY

So I’m not necessarily someone with a lower IQ ( I think) but I have been going to therapy to help with my autism and ADHD. One thing that looking back really set my life back was not trying because I thought I would already fail. Once I lost confidence in myself it was pretty much all downhill from there.

What I’m trying to say is how you label yourself (in this case “I have low IQ”) might be limiting what you can achieve before you even try. Don’t view yourself through that one outlook. Don’t let it limit yourself. After I started doing poorly in school because of my ADHD I just pretty much gave up on trying a lot of things I wanted to try because it might be harder for me than the average person. You’re still young enough that you can achieve a lot! Make sure you explore your interests and don’t get discouraged from small failures!

Me too. Thanks for answering. I imagine that imagining so many possibilities and desiring them and striving for them is a common human experience.

You shouldn’t let that limit yourself. Contrary to popular belief, the brain is much more fluid and adaptable than previously thought. IQ tests give a single number to represent something as complex as human intelligence, and while psychometrics can provide some kind of quantitative insight into how our brains process, organize, and distill information, it is by no means wholly representative of intelligence.

You have the capability to learn and grow. Maybe it takes a tad bit longer, but with determination and willpower (something not measured with IQ tests), you can learn just about anything.

I have MUCH more respect and appreciation for those who work hard to achieve their goals than I do for those who are naturally talented but stay within their comfort zones. If you challenge and push yourself, I think you’d be surprised with how far you can end up going 🙂

Not to discount your struggles or anything, but…just so you know…IQ tests are biased against neurodivergent people. I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Level 1) last summer, and one of the tests in the battery they administered to me was an IQ test (WAIS).

About a month after the tests, I went back to get my results. The doctor went into lots of details, but a couple thay stood out were that I had autism and that they clocked my IQ at about 124. The IQ score shocked me as I was a member of American Mensa after scoring well into the 99th percentile on both of their intelligence tests. The doctor clarified that I shouldn’t hold any stock in IQ tests as an autistic person because they aren’t well designed for neurodivergent people since our strengths aren’t usually as balanced as they are for neurotypical people.

I thought I’d mention this since you have ADHD!

There’s a bunch of different ways to test IQ, and most if not all tests are known to be pretty flawed. The concept of intelligence being something that can be compared on a single numeric scale is in itself pretty much bullshit - there are different types of intelligence, and the tests tend to focus on random things like pattern matching.

A bunch of “high IQ” people are barely functional on a day to day basis. Basically low scores on an IQ test indicates that you lack the skills to do that exact test - I wouldn’t read too much into it.

Edit: Read another comment where you elaborate and don’t want to come across as dismissing your experience at all, I can see that it’s frustrating when people keep insisting it doesn’t matter. But having completed my PhD and having met a lot of people that would do incredibly well in IQ tests, I can safely say many of them too face significant challenges in lives deriving from their lack of situational awareness and understanding of for example social situations.