I think intelligence is kind of like a fountain. All the water being sprayed in the air is how smart you are. As the water gets higher, the individual drops are further apart from each other and from the source of the water.<p>Intelligence is similar, the smarter you are, the later you are in the "stream" and further you are from either people earlier in the "stream" or others who are at the same stage.<p>I think a lot of what makes existential depression (at least, if you are referring to the Dabrowski theory) [1] is the lonliness of having such a unique way of thinking.<p>Ignorance is bliss and most people do not worry about the world depleting resources, EMP attacks, meteorites, shifts in political discourse or other threats to humanity from such a "meta-self-aware" level. They just live their lives.<p>For very smart people, continually worrying about large scale threats to humanity instead of your own small problems is both inevitable and makes you feel powerless.<p>It is like the Peter Principal for environment threat neutralization. You will keep thinking of higher order threats to protect against until you run out of locus of control.<p>The theory also suggests that this can be overcome by deliberately accepting our limited locus of control, through love and relationships, and through contribution.<p>[1]: <a href="http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/existential-depression-in-gifted-individual" rel="nofollow">http://sengifted.org/archives/articles/existential-depressio...</a>