Cognitive deficits and severe mental illness

firemonkey · #1 24th October 2015, 21:07

I think with people with severe mental illness although they may be smart, as in doing well on an IQ test, there can be areas of cognitive difficulty.
I score well on IQ tests but years ago did a test mentioned on schizophrenia.com by the site admin (long since unavailable) and scored below average for executive functioning. I recently did another online test done by a university professor and scored low on decision making(1/6), mental speed(1/6), and visual memory (2/6) .
I struggle to use my intelligence effectively in real life situations.

Positive symptoms of psychosis attract the most attention as they can be dramatic in presentation but it is the cognitive and negative symptoms that are the most disabling in terms of a person's overall functioning.

I wonder if anyone else here has cognitive deficits in relation to their mental illness or are you all bona fide geniuses ?

tryinghard · #2 24th October 2015, 21:40

^^I am also hopelessly face blind....interesting...

I'm not really surprised that intellectual difficulties are seen among people with mental illness. With schizophrenia do you think it is because there can be cognitive disorganisation involved? Do you find it very difficult to focus for example?

I think with me I know I am held back by a lack of clarity. I think that I experience a low lying but chronic distress that is manageable emotionally but does introduce 'noise' into every day life that makes it very difficult to go forth with a clear mind and concentrate fully. I'm sure it does reduce my natural intellect, and definitely has a negative impact on me creatively.

firemonkey · #3 24th October 2015, 22:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by tryinghard

^^I am also hopelessly face blind....interesting...

I'm not really surprised that intellectual difficulties are seen among people with mental illness. With schizophrenia do you think it is because there can be cognitive disorganisation involved? Do you find it very difficult to focus for example?

^I actually have paranoid PD. Schizophrenia and schizoaffective were ex diagnoses of them. Schizophrenia.com is for those who have either experienced psychosis or schizophrenia/schizoaffective . I think you make a good point about cognitive disorganisation. I vary in my ability to gather my thoughts. It can be hard to think straight at times. Anxiety can also affect things or is it that not being able to think straight raises my anxiety? It's hard to tell which comes first.

^^ I scored 1/6 for hand-eye coordination.