Why Is It So Hard For Smart People To Be Happy?

“A smart person knows about everything except what can benefit them. A happy person knows exactly what is best for them.” ​

Intelligence can sometimes cause many problems and not always does it make life easier for a person. Here are 13 reasons why it is so hard for many people with high intelligence to find happiness:

1. Smart people have excessively high standards.
Having high standards is not bad at all. This will allow you not to stray from the path to happiness and success. However, having high standards all the time can be a problem.

​Smart people, as a rule, know what they want from life, and refuse to be content with less than that. Moreover, their high standards apply to all spheres of life: work, relationships, life goals.
In fact, such high demands can be very difficult to satisfy. Therefore, smart people are constantly haunted by a feeling of disappointment in their own achievements or in work that does not allow them to move forward and be happy. Their excessive demands on themselves can also have a significant impact on their relationships with others.

​​2. Smart people are often unable to accept things as they are, and instead focus on what ideally they should be
If you experience a state of happiness, then your mind is usually completely in the present. Your attention in this case is fully tuned to what is happening to you now. For people with high IQ this can be a challenge.

3. Smart people do not know how to get satisfaction from the current moment, because they are constantly trying to find some meaning
In a very intelligent person, knowledge prevails over awareness. Their mind is not able to get satisfaction from the current moment: they add or subtract from it, refine or reformulate, understand or interpret, mentally wander somewhere far away. The mind in smart people tries to “edit” the current moment and find meaning in it, because this moment alone is not enough.
This dissatisfaction pushes the mind to a desperate work that would allow it to get all the accumulated information and memories, which would give it the opportunity to make this moment “even better”.
And during this process, the mind behaves impatiently, frantically or bewildered, because its discoveries turn out to be insufficient or it does not manage to find anything at all. And since its current resources are not enough, it begins to work even more: read, write, search the Internet and just think.

4. Happiness is a mind that is calmed down; intelligence is a mind that refuses to calm down
For a happy mind, what is is enough. Such a person does not seek to change the present; they simply accept it and act on the basis of circumstances. Too smart a person, on the contrary, is not easy to please, so they will never be able to understand why a happy mind is so pleased and will blame them for laziness.​

5. Most intelligent people are constantly obsessed with something
Highly intelligent individuals have a tendency to constantly analyze and research everything to the point of exhaustion. To make any decision, they need to weigh the pros and cons. This tendency often leads them to depression.
Moreover, the answers they receive to their tormenting questions may not only be unpleasant and disappointing, but they can have a destructive effect on the thinkers themselves.

​“The ability to observe without evaluation is the highest form of intelligence ,”
- Jeddu Krishnamurti.

6. If the result of an action is worse than expected, smart people feel deep disappointment
Actions do not always allow you to get the same programmed result: smart people too believe in the power of their intelligence and its ability to predict the consequences of their actions.

7. Constant and ruthless self-criticism
Most intelligent people have a fairly low self-esteem, and the reason for this lies in the constant criticisms directed towards themselves.
They are not able to accept their shortcomings, as they believe that they must meet the highest standards. That is why they are often in a gloomy state of mind.

8. They seek a deeper meaning
Most intelligent people can distinguish good from bad, and at the same time they are not able to accept negative human qualities or are too strict about them. Awareness of the harsh truth hurts them and suppresses them, since most of smart people, first of all, look inside themselves.
They cannot live without constant reflection and evaluation of the results obtained - this is their second nature. Highly intelligent people have a questioning mind that constantly asks questions and makes them feel anxious.
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9. Few people truly understand them
Communication is the greatest source of happiness. We always try to share our happiness, anxieties and feelings with others, which makes it easier for us to deal with them.
Even the most intelligent person needs someone with whom they could share their concerns, thereby relieving the burden. But it is very difficult for a highly intellectual person to find anybody who would have the same depth as himself.

​10. High intelligence often leads to psychological problems
People with high IQ suffer from a special type of disorder that causes them to constantly analyze and ask questions. And this way usually does not bring them either happiness or psychological health.
The human mind is very complex and not fully understood. Excessive analysis and a constant sense of isolation is something that often accompanies intelligent people throughout their lives.

“The happiness in smart people is the rarest thing I've ever seen. ”
- Ernest Hemingway.

11. Happiness is daily hard work for them
Smart people shouldn’t abandon the society of other people too easily. It is for this reason that many smart and sensitive people feel so miserable.
It is quite natural that most intellectual personalities have some kind of quirks and strange hobbies. But this is not a reason to completely stop communicating with people who are not distinguished by the same insight and sensitivity.

​12. Smart people can be awkward in society
Ordinary people often take advantage of the fact that intellectuals are not fit for life in society. Therefore, intellectuals often find themselves under fire of critical remarks and people of the average mind.

13. Smart people often fear that they may lose their abilities
Ironical ridicule and sarcastic attacks by other people usually take them by surprise. Subsequent analysis of their own behavior only enhances their sadness.
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“All people who have reached perfection in philosophy, poetry, art, and politics — even Socrates and Plato — possessed a melancholic trait and state of mind; in some, melancholy even passed into the stage of a disease. ”
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Many smart people do not achieve great career success and may even be subordinate to people who are less educated and intelligent than them. Some intellectuals, especially creative personalities, even break down under the pressure of circumstances and other people or become victims of manipulation.

“I'm so smart that sometimes I don’t understand a single word from what I say,” 
- Oscar Wilde.