supposedly less severe with older drug users. and you snooze you lose in activity doesn t boost intelligence we need to feed our brains with information without input our brains wither. the stress can also take its toll a cocktail of the stress hormones adrenaline and cords old can leave us feeling anxious and tense and during tests can even cause blackouts. but that s not all someone going through financial difficulty could also see it negatively affecting their intelligence according to researchers economic hardship can result in brain capacity poverty related troubles use up so much mental energy that less is available for other purposes it can translate to as many as 10 i.q. points. though that s not inevitable amazingly if financial problems go away