Ignorance is bliss I suppose.
Depends on if you define “stupid” as being “unintelligent” but in my personal life I’ve noticed a bellcurve where the people most optimistic about life to be the dumbest and the smartest.
I don’t consider myself an incredibly intelligent person but what I’ve noticed is that the ones on the lower end of the scale don’t understand the consequences of a bad situation and the truly intelligent ones understand the best way to deal with issues is optimistic/realistic. Very situational.
I don’t think so, but maybe in the extremes. There’s some people with such low IQ they have difficulty following cooking instructions on a microwave meal. It might be possible to have such limited capacity that they’re immune to depression.
I felt like it might be offensive to include in the original post but I started wondering this as I was watching a lady take care of her little brother with special needs. Both in their 50s and recently lost their father. I could tell he understood that his dad had gone away and he was showing some distress but it made me wonder how well he understands the situation and if that affects their ability to process it emotionally.
All that to basically say I’m wondering if ignorance really is bliss
I think that question implies the misunderstanding of depression being sad or caused by a bad conclusion that’s been reached. Being depressed is a symptom of a chemical underdose of most commonly dopamine and seratonin, which robs synapses of signal integrity. The reason SSRI’s both work and take a while to improve the cycle of depression is that they “inhibit” the “reuptake” of these chemicals, resulting in more abundance and better signal transmission between neurons.
That all being said, no stress because too stupid may mean people who are depressed won’t know it unless they have a severe case. I imagine getting hurt is still pretty stressful for most stupid people though, so don’t bet on it.
Edit: Didn’t really properly talk about stress and depression. Abnormally high reuptake is largely triggered by stress. This occurs in both depressed and non-depressed people to varying degrees, but a slow recovery is specifically categorized as depression.
I know two very happy people who are very aware of the state of the world and also actively involved in decreasing world suck, but they’re managing to separate their own own life and the state of the world pretty well.
They’re both really fucking smart.
Depression is not this. It is far more complex.
No it actually is that.
Depression is not the same as Feeling depressed/ Feeling down. Depression is like a prolonged MDMA hangover (also caused by neurotransmitter depletion, namely serotonin).
I’ve never had depression or anything like that but as an ADHDer I feel intense solidarity with folks who have a medical condition caused by chemical imbalance that is not taken seriously because randoms without said condition muddy the waters by using it as a soapbox to talk about some bullshit societal/cultural thing they’re mad about at this moment.
Considering it as “too stupid” is kind of delightfully ironic.
To answer your question, no.
I posit that any person you’d imagine to be “too stupid to be depressed” is by another measure smarter than any depressed person on a degree of how to use their mental bandwidth.
Instead of my take on it, here’s an interesting study on the correlation
https://engl105sp2020.web.unc.edu/2020/02/is-there-a-link-between-intelligence-and-depression/
