How much does AUDHD impact intelligence? Can it be measured?

💬 general discussion

I'm not sure where else to post but here. Intelligence, what is it exactly? How do we measure it? Is it the sum of all moving parts or is it specifically certain areas? Given what subreddit we are in i'd imagine there's plenty of very very clever people here but yet with absolutely shot short-term memory, but does that make us entirely unintelligent? Or someone very socially intelligent but horrible at school and academics. Is intelligence understanding and describing your own limits well and doing the best with it (Reddit likes to talk a lot about that Dunning-Krueger thingy whenever people talk about intelligence)? Is it adapting to situations and being flexible? Does that mean a person that is genious at math but also very inflexible at adapting, does that mean he/she's dumb?

Can we measure intelligence as a whole or is it better to separate it into categories like social intelligence, memory, emotional intelligence, generally artistic, good at logic etc.... But then what's the point of IQ tests? Since as far as i have gathered it seems they are a overall score, a sum of the whole; which means that all these shitty areas are going to drag the rest (mostly normal level) areas down. As such i've never done a IQ test because i'm really afraid i'll end up with like 80 given my shot short-term memory and various others very very typical AUDHD thingsies. It'd end up feeling like a judge of character if you told other people, since people do not treat who they deem "dumb" very well; be it socially dumb or bad at logics and maths. Who's to say they'll treat you even worse if somehow it slips out that your IQ is 80...

What gave me the thought to write about this? I saw some post about billionaires and their eugenics revival shenanigans. It scares me a lot because i am just normally normal in terms of intelligence (aside from the typical gaping voids in certain areas from AUDHD) -- with a diagnosis who's not to say anyone with this diagnosis (aside from the chosen few, the desired among the undesirables, in some fancy university and "valuable jobs") won't be the first to go into the "McDonalds "I'm loving it!" McFreedom" concentration camps for being "life unworthy of living" (which is a discussion in itself).... Ain't that scary? (Ever heard about that billionaire wanting to turn homeless people into biofuel?). Why do powerful assholes deem themselves sufficient enough to deem others lives worthy or unworthy to live? That's up to the individual herself to judge, for only they know their own life best to judge it sufficiently.

Anyway, billionaires and other powerful people are scary.

Posted Jan 31, 2026, 1:31 PM UTC

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