The human mind is said to be the most complicated kilo of matter. Uncountable thoughts are residing in there, each beholding the power to create or destroy anything.
The way a person thinks and adapts to a situation according to the capacity of his mind defines his intelligence. Does that mean one who thinks more, has a higher intelligence? We will analyze it here.
Meaning of Overthinking and Its Relation to Intelligence
Overthinking is considered to be a state of mind in which one goes through a rush of thoughts. It means, not being able to stop thinking when you want to or when you can’t at a drop of hat stop thinking or at least finish a sentence and stop.
This happens because an excess of thoughts is crowding your mind at the same time.
It is extremely damaging to your intelligence because it bogs down your transitions and increases tunnel vision. However, this does not mean that you should reduce thinking because that can also be damaging as you will not be able to reinforce a subset of processes that can be useful in a particular situation.
Sleep Being Disrupted
When a person has an extreme volume of thought at a moment, he often manifests a high pressure on his mind. This may draw the person into a state of anxiousness and disrupt the sleep cycle of the person.
A loss of sleep because of thinking consistently will lead to fatigue, both physically and mentally. The logical consistency breaks down as a result of an improper sleep schedule so developing a rationale seems difficult.
The person will no longer be able to adapt to his surroundings and interfere with problem-solving skills. This makes us believe that the person is experiencing a reduced intelligence and all of that has its roots in excess thinking.
Productivity Lynched
Intelligence is directly or indirectly, based on the fact that we think. If someone thinks excessively, it may interfere with production. Any work requires full concentration and focus for it to be done rightly.
If one keeps thinking about stuff unrelated to their work while doing the work simultaneously, it may block the person's ability to get their work done effectively.
This may lead us into believing that the person is not intelligent because sooner or later, a person’s work and productivity display their intelligence. We as humans tend to believe what we see and derive a person’s capability from what we see.
Increases Probability of Getting a Mental Illness
Pondering over your shortcomings, problems, mistakes, and what may or may not happen continuously can leave you stranded and exposed to mental sickness. Poor mental health grabs one by the core and leaves their soul despondent. Soon, its impact begins to be seen on physical health too.
As your mental health declines, your body focuses all your energy on surviving, and making through any inconvenience becomes an uphill task because all your energy is focused on surviving rather than on the problem. This makes you seem unintelligent because of not being able to cope with problems effectively.
Does Overthinking Reduce Intelligence?
A person's intelligence is judged based on the number of ridges and grooves in their brain. The more ridges and grooves a person has in their brain, the more intelligent he is considered to be.
Thinking excessively does not have any impact on the ridges and grooves so it does not reduce intelligence. However, a person might seem unintelligent if their ability to think properly is hampered.
Even if one thinks too much, they will be fine as long as their thoughts remain consistent. What some people consider excess thinking is not truly thinking at all. It is like when you are asleep and dreaming and you have multiple dreams at the same time and none of it makes any sense at all.
You get lost and distracted, unable to focus on anything. It is just like daydreaming.
It can thus be concluded that overthinking does not itself reduce intelligence but the condition underlying this thinking, if not corrected is likely to reduce intelligence. The underlying condition can be treated by taking therapy sessions or having medicines prescribed by a doctor.
A Contrary Perspective
Some people also say that overthinking is a sign of being intelligent. It is believed that people who overthink can be smarter and more creative. This is because they imagine every possible angle of a situation and come up with solutions for each of those outcomes reducing the risk factor.
What must be counted in here is the fact that this might not lead to verbal intelligence though which is a huge factor in determining whether a person is really intelligent or not.
The bottom line is that overthinking to a point of extreme stress would not do you any good.
Written by - Prachi Madnani
Edited by – Gunjan Nagpal
0 Comments