Stress and Depression Can Shrink the Brain: Can Anxiety Make You Less Intelligent?

I recently read that in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Gravity and all of people's BS winds you down and inward, literally. You want to open your mind and let ALL of the stress go, because you have a choice. Can do anything in your imagination when you don't have all of the stress and doubt and weights on your mind. Extension and expansion, find your full dexterity. Mind and body are one. Smile, you're alive.

However, if stress and depression can shrink the brain, then I'm in great jeopardy of having my brain fall out of my nose or ears. I think I should start putting in ear plugs while in the shower. I wouldn't want to lose my brain down the drain!

Everyone gets depressed once in their life and everyone deals with stress. The effects are transitive. Stress and depression usually leave after a while. When they leave, so does the inattention and "stupid" side effects. Basically, the communication centers and finer thinking centers, that had been limited by stress and mental instability, are unclouded by the leaving of the problem. There may be lingering effects on the memory center (the hippo-campus) if the problem was big enough. In people with PTSD, (which would be from extreme stress and usually accompanies bad depression among other things) the hippo-campus was atrophied, while everything else was fine. That means only memory would be permanently affected. Affected emotions would restore with the elimination of whatever was impairing the communication and emotion areas of the brain. (That would mostly be frontal lobe)

I guess because I have been a lifelong depressive I've met many, many people who are living with lifelong low grade depression punctuated by periods of more severe depression. But I really loved reading your opinion that "....depression usually leave after a while." Oh how I wish!!!!

I mean the kind not linked to any lifelong problems. I should have stated that better. I had a year of melancholic depression episodes due to some problems working out life, but it went away when I worked out my issues. I'm used to hearing about that impermanent depressions. I don't think recurring depression is very common in my school. We have mostly Aspergers syndrome problems. I only know one person with lifelong manic depression. She's usually very optimistic, but some days she's inconsolable. It's sad. I'm sorry.

My niece has been diagnosed with Aspergers and she's in her `40's! She married into the family and we always thought there was something strange about her. We actually thought that she didn't like us. After she was diagnosed, she took a 35% leap for the better and now we enjoy her very much! It pays to be cognizant of what 'MAY' be a problem for someone else. It can save us and them of not maximizing our friendships.

You're a smart girl and sound like you are aware of your surroundings! ; }

Thanks. That's great that they finally diagnosed your niece. I'm sure she's also happier with things.

If you're stressed, you might not have been so intelligent to begian with...
Some genuses may have had mental illnesses but they could have been calm...

That is utterly absurd. Some of the most stressful jobs are held by some of the most intelligent people in the world. I really fail to see the correlation here. Just another money wasting study.

I mean it can cause you to not always think straight, but I don't think it makes you dumber. Some of the world's greatest minds have and have had anxiety/paranoia as part of an illness, mental or otherwise.

The liberals are a prime example.

Who said Liberals are stressed? They mostly mooch off of others anyway. They're just stupid from the get-go.

It can certainly make you less inclined to make good decisions.

omg now i know why i feel like im getting slower and more stupid....im such a stressed out worry wart and ive been like that since i was a child

In a way, Yes, because one's thoughts are primarily clustered around the situation causing the anxiety. That makes it difficult to concentrate on, or appreciate other things.

So that's why some people I work with are airheads!!

Intel makes you anxious.

Anxiety is the killer of thought

Then why do a lot of people work best under pressure? Seems like the exact opposite of what it should be.

But we should have 100% proof by the time this year is over given the grief and anxiety being dished out by this current outfit in DC.

No, absolutely NOT!! Stress and depression impact judgement, lack of concentration and memory loss, but not intelligence.

I believe it.
Stress, anxiety, pressure, it all has such a negative effect on the brain, which of course effects the body. It might not make your intelligence drop significantly but I would believe since a persons mind is stressing about a certain thing, their mental thoughts would become different, making them seem less intelligent.
Not necessarily making one stupid. Just distant from their natural state of thought or mentality.

Many geniuses were stressed out to say the least.

...... phew, I sure hope not .... the Doc can see from ear-to-ear as it is, I can't afford any more lost marbles < s >

you are dumber if you only have it anxiety is a bad thing to have

But I'm a little anxious about answering this question... damn I think my brain just shrunk, now I'm depressed and I feel stupid. Maybe I should have picked "yes" damn it, I just don't know...

You become scatterbrained .

hope not

When I am under a lot of anxiety and sometimes when I get really down in the dumps, I notice a big change in my mental abilities. I note that whenever I have issues with people who are attacking me, shouting at me, bullying me, I become confused, forgetful, clumsy and it takes me a longer time to count my change in shops etc.

No, it makes you wiser at the end.

My God people now we know why politican's seem so stupid!

Religion often causes depression,, Maybe that is why studies prove Religion shrinks the brain,,

Researchers at Duke University have identified greater atrophy in the hippocampuses of people who identify with a particular religion.

A study published in PLoS ONE by Amy Owen and her colleagues at Duke University showed greater atrophy in the hippocampus of people who identify with a specific religion,

It can depend on the situation. Sometimes depression enables you to think more and see things more clearly, other times it stops you from being able to think

From what I've been going through the last three years, how I've felt and performed even, yeah I can believe it. But that doesn't mean it has to stay that way. There's a lot we don't know about the brain. Our knowledge is always growing. We might even one day be able to reactivate dead areas of the brain. probably not any time soon, but its possible.

A lot of great minds have had mental illness. And to be more apt, a lot of great "Thinkers" have. Abraham Lincoln, Wolfgang Mozart, Isaac Newton, Albert Camus, Friedrich Nietzsche. . . in fact a lot of great minds have this in common.

"Severe depression and chronic stress can shrink the brain by blocking the formation of new nerve connections."

Who are we to say that the intelligence they gained was wrought with depression through their entire lives? The fact of the matter is, we don't know a lot about the brain. They have been doing studies every day for years, by my knowledge, starting as far back as 4000 B.C when the Sumerians noted euphoric effects from the poppy plant. We're still learning and delving deeper.

From the studies they're talking about they are actually showing physical changes in size of the brain as well as dormancy showing up.

"Turning on GATA1 reduced activity of the genes and triggered the loss of brain connections . . . when GATA1 was switched on, the rodents showed signs of depression"

So. . . Intelligence? I would say definite possibility.

Stress has always been the big cause to heart attacks and strokes.

No. It may make one seem less intelligent on a given day due to lack of focus, in the work place, for instance. People who are tired, depressed, anxious and emotional will seem at a loss because they aren't communicating properly. A little R&R; and they will recover from that. Normally you cannot recover from stupid.

A tough day at work, laying off people will kill my brain for the next day.