Eggshell Therapy: High IQ

Last Updated on:

Founded by mental health consultant, philosophical consultant, and writer Imi Lo, Eggshell Therapy provides resources for people grappling with issues surrounding emotional intensity, high sensitivity, neurodivergence, and other traits associated with giftedness. This article will take a closer look at what IQ is, as well as exploring correlations between high IQ and an elevated risk of developing physical and mental health disorders.

IQ or “intelligence quotient” measures a person’s reasoning ability, gauging how well they use information and logic to answer questions or make predictions. Unlike the gimmicky “cognitive tests” seen online, IQ tests are structured, researched, clinical assessments conducted by a trained professional and backed up by research.

Mensa was founded in England in 1946 to provide people with a high IQ with a space to socialize, engage in interesting activities, and stretch themselves intellectually. With circa 18,000 members across the UK and Ireland, Mensa today operates across 100 countries, having amassed approximately 140,000 global members. Mensa members come from all walks of life, including individuals ranging in age from two to 102, and people working in virtually every profession. Those interested in joining Mensa can sit a preliminary test at the organization’s website, with candidates who score well invited to sit a Supervised IQ Test, giving them chance to qualify for Mensa membership.

Intelligence confers numerous advantages, enabling the individual to not only be more successful in the classroom but actually live a longer, healthier life, research suggests. Smart people are also less likely to experience negative life events such as the failure of a business or bankruptcy.

Nevertheless, there are some drawbacks to having a high IQ, a recent study led by Pitzer College researcher Ruth Karpinski suggests. The findings suggest that highly intelligent individuals are more likely to suffer from a range of psychological health issues, including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and ADHD. The research also covered asthma, allergies, and autoimmune disorders, suggesting a strong correlation between high IQ and these conditions too. The biggest difference between the “Mensa group” and the general population was observed in anxiety and mood disorders, with 20% of participants reporting that they had received a formal diagnosis for an anxiety disorder and 26.7% having been diagnosed with a mood disorder, a rate far higher than the general population, with national averages of around 10% for each.

To explain their findings, Karpinski and her team proposed the “hyper brain/hyper body theory,” suggesting that, for all its advantages, high intelligence incurs physiological and psychological “overexcitabilities” (OEs). The concept of OEs – an unusually intense reaction to an environment, threat, or insult – was first introduced in the 1960s by the Polish psychologist and psychiatrist Kazimierz Dabrowsi. OEs can be triggered by anything from a startling sound to an altercation with another person.

Physiological OEs arise from the body’s stress response. Psychological OEs include an increased tendency to ruminate and worry. According to the hyper brain/hyper body theory, both physiological OEs and psychological OEs are more common in people with a high IQ, with OEs interacting with each other in a “vicious cycle,” causing both physiological and psychological dysfunction. For example, a highly intelligent individual may overanalyze criticism from their boss, imagining a variety of negative outcomes that simply would not occur to a colleague with a lower IQ. This in turn may trigger the body’s stress response, making the individual feel even more anxious.

Eggshell Therapy helps gifted individuals to make sense of the experience of living with intensity, encouraging them to own their sensitivity, live authentically, and realize their true potential. Implementing non-pathologizing, holistic working practices, the organization celebrates intensity as a natural human expression. Eggshell Therapy helps individuals with a high IQ to move towards liberation and self-fulfillment by encouraging them to make lasting shifts to dispel their struggles and present themselves to the world as they truly are.