I know what you mean there. I haven't been able to have a paying job for many years, and so many times I have come across the attitude from those who cannot work anymore that their life is over (even if they have enough money to get by).

It used to hurt me tremendosly. I thought if they had a working career of 25 years and mine was like... one year? and they said their lives had no meaning, what did that make my life?

People who are hurting often do not know when they hurt others. They don't realize that people will take to heart what they say because they feel they only say that about themselves and no one else can have the "same" problem.

I sort of understand both camps in this though. As I said, I understand the hurt.

But I also understand how losing IQ is crappy, for me it was like this, in school I didn't have many friends, I totally sucked at gym class, I couldn't focus on what I found boring but at least my teachers said I was very intelligent. So losing IQ was (falsely) a loss of the "only" thing I had.

That said, I have another friend who is pretty much as smart as I, but she basically doesn't score anything at IQ tests. She doesn't understand the point even, doesn't understand the questions. Still she is an awesome out of the box thinker and a good artist. She can discuss on my level and she is also fun talking to. She feels a little down though because she doesn't score well on IQ tests, deep down she thinks she's stupid. I think that is sad. Tests shouldn't be meant to put people down! But it is easy to believe a piece of paper knows more about you than you do yourself I guess...