Hi CandyCanes,

When a person with a high IQ has a brain injury they do not merely become a person with a lower IQ. They become a person with a high IQ with a brain injury. This is not the same thing at all. The brain is very complicated and does many things that are not tested by IQ tests.

I believe that it is harder to get a computer to recognize images than it is to get it to solve IQ tests. The things tested in IQ tests only test part of what the brain actually does, and possibly not the functions that an injured brain will find most taxing.

I have had a brain injury. I also had one in childhood. I believe that I made a complete recovery from my childhood injury and my adult IQ turned out just fine. A child's brain is more plastic and possibly can recover better from an injury.

That is not to say that hitting children around the head is a good idea. It isn't. However, your IQ is just fine and what you use brain for will make more difference to you in the future than if your IQ were a couple of percentage points higher.

If you check out this website you willl find that people with post-concussion symptoms complain more of headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, intolerance of bright light and loud noises, rather than the inability to do IQ tests. I have had many of these post-concussional symptoms but my IQ score is still just fine - definitely not the thing that concerns me the most.

You basically don't have any symptoms, you are just wondering whether you might have been smarter than you are. Most of us wish that we were smarter, but in the end you have to settle for what you have, being a product of inheritance and environment. Your childhood may not have been ideal but you probably inherited being quite smart, so swings and roundabouts.

You are right to consider that you may be a bit of a hyperchondriac. Something that you might want to consider also is whether you feel upset about being slapping around the head all those years. You may be feeling upset at perhaps not having the upbringing that you would have wished for. That may have more to do with your feelings about being slapped around the head than any intellectual impairment.

You can stop worrying about the past now. That part of your life is over. Brain injuries do have a cummulative effect but, whether you have had them in the past or not, you should try to avoid head injury in the future. That is always good advice.

Nevertheless, it sounds like your brain is in pretty good shape. You just need to do your best to keep it that way and be happy.

Good luck.
Concussed Scientist