# Are people with certain mental impairments superhumanly strong? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 26, 2001, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859 "2001-07-26T16:00:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2001, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859/1 "2001-07-26T16:00:13Z")
Most of you have probably heard this this stated as fact at one time or another. People say not to pick on the kids getting off of the short bus, not because it is cruel, but because some of them have the strength of a chimp when threatened and can easily overpower you. I know enough about human physiology to know that this is not true just because someone has impaired cognitive skills caused by congenital brain damage or related developmental problems. However, I am not sure if some conditions like Down Syndrome do, in fact, cause the person to be unusually strong. Does anyone have the Straight Dope? ---
**Author:** ![Kamandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5daacb/32.png) [@Kamandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamandi)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2001, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859/2 "2001-07-26T16:43:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shagnasty \* > **However, I am not sure if some conditions like Down Syndrome do, in fact, cause the person to be unusually strong.** If that were true, wouldn’t all the Olympic weightlifters have such a condition? By the way, it’s _Down’s_ Syndrome. ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2001, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859/3 "2001-07-26T17:15:58Z")
For what it’s worth, my uncle worked in a mental institution for some time as an intern and he occasionally has some interesting stories. Two that come to mind are about tempter tantrums, one from a kid (12 years old?) and another from an old man (70ish) (separate incidents). He said it took 4 other men to help restrain the old man–I’d guess I’d go nuts if someone strange was trying to give me a spinal tap, too. The kid was worse from what I gathered. Keep in mind, my uncle at the time was about 6’6" and not lightly built. I don’t think the strength is “supernatural” or anything like that. Probably a wag, but I think it’s just that the little subconscious flag in your head that goes up when you’re exerting yourself too much telling you to stop, doesn’t necessarily go up when you’re in a state of hysteria like that. ---
**Author:** ![DoperChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@DoperChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoperChic)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2001, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859/4 "2001-07-26T17:40:26Z")
My friend is mildly mentally retarded (sp?). She has the mental ability (reading, mathematics, etc. ) of maybe a 3rd grader. In spite of her lack of book smarts, Erin seems to have an uncanny photographic memory. Whenever I go to an unfamiliar area, I take Erin with me. No matter how many turns we may take, or how far away form home we get, Erin can always get us back home. Weird, but helpful. ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2001, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859/5 "2001-07-27T03:04:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kamandi \* > \*\*By the way, it’s _Down’s_ Syndrome. \*\* There are some people who call it Down’s Syndrome, but Down Syndrome is a lot more common. I think it may be one of those British vs. U.S. things, but I’m not sure. One of the characteristics of people with Down Syndrome is poor muscle tone, so I doubt that they have any kind of superhuman strength. I don’t know about people with other mental disabilities, but they often have poor health because of the same condition that lead to their mental impairment, so I’m sure that superhuman strength among them is either rare or non-existent. ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2001, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859/6 "2001-07-27T05:06:37Z")
A friend has a prenatal cocaine exposed son. He doesn’t have superhuman strength, but does seem to have more than kids his age. In his case it stems from having abnormal pain receptors. Straining muscles just doesn’t hurt him. At age 7 he had the V shaped upper body of an adult and obvious muscle definition from helping his Dad, who was a lowbed truck driver. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2001, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859/7 "2001-07-27T07:06:02Z")
I think people with mental problems displaying great feats of strength are in the same boat as those occasional regular people who pick up tractor tires or cars (not over their heads or anything) to save people they care for trapped underneath. One of those emotional situations that cause the brain to churn out some seriously high electric pulses to the muscles or brain juices that result in seemingly super-human strength. Alas, there’s nothing magical about it. Our bodies are quite capable of these rare occurances… just for some reason we can’t seem to get ourselves to perform at such high intentsities in a normal state of mind. It seems to take some kind of “short-circuiting” of the mind (for lack of a better description) to get our bodies to do such things. People with mental conditions sometimes have such wiring anaomalies in the head. (you can tell I’m no doctor, right?:D) A classic example are manic-depressives… in the “manic” state that is. An aunt of mine is manic-depressive. Once many years ago she went off her medication and started to get dangerous. She was tricked somehow into going up to the hospital, but as soon as she recognized one of her doctors walking by she clued in and went totally ape-shit. I was told it took five big guards or whatever you call them to pin her down; and at least one of them ended up being thrown across the room. She was 5’2" and almost 40 years old. While such things happen from time to time, I think there are really quite rare. Most such people who are prone to such violence are probably already institutionalized or on some sort of therapy, so your chances of running into one are slim. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2001, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859/8 "2001-07-27T07:30:21Z")
Both Down’s and Down Syndrome are in use. There’s a general trend now to use the possessive if the syndrome is named after someone who had it, and not to use it if the syndrome is named after someone who discovered or described it. DS falls under the second category. But the possessive form was well-established before the distinction was first proposed, so both forms will probably stick around for a while. Dr. Down was not exactly a pleasant person, among other things he had some bizarre ideas about race and therefore called the syndrome _Mongoloidism_. As has already been mentioned, DS isn’t just about mental impairment (in fact I believe it’s possible for a person with DS to have a low-normal IQ), but includes a long list of health problems. Those of us over 30 or so grew up in a world almost without adults with DS - the reason being that these health problems almost always killed off DS patients in childhood. Not everyone with DS has every health problem on the list, but low muscle tone (hypotonia) is common to all to the best of my knowledge. So no, someone with DS is not going to have “superhuman strength”. He or she may, however, hurt someone, including himself, unintentionally, or accidentally destroy something, because he doesn’t fully understand the consequences of his actions. Many people with mental impairments also have poor impulse control. A tantrum is generally no big deal when a two-year-old has it, but when a twenty-two-year-old throws a tantrum, well… And the less said about the idiots **Shagnasty** describes, the better, yes? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2001, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859/9 "2001-07-27T23:57:25Z")
I’ve been around literally hundreds of mentally retarded/disabled adults and kids in my life. IANAD, but I’ve seen trending here that does support the O.P. to a degree, and nobody’s really touched upon it yet. It’s called Posturing. There are those for whom rhythms of muscle spasm and contraction is a way of life. Over time, those muscle bunches- having spent hours each day being “worked” unconsciously- develop at a greater rate than one might think otherwise likely. Most mentally disabled adults are not involved in jobs that are purely physically demanding, there’s usually a level of danger involved in a physical task that would preclude the involvement of an impaired adult. So, no muscular development to speak of from a career. This is, of course, a total WAG but I feel that posturing plays a big role in the development of the musculature mentioned in the O.P. From personal experience, I can tell you that a gentleman we had to TRY to restrain during a raging temper tantrum was no more than…5 foot 6? Perhaps, 220? But, I was vainly trying to keep him from kicking my head in long enough to hold a leg or two, and those legs were pure muscle. It was simply incredible. He was an institutionalized adult with no job to speak of. And, he was a rippled bundle of strength. It took 4 of us, before he could be given a tranquilizer and walked around. Very frightening evening for me. Of course, I had to put him into my documentary the following year. When not enraged, he was a totally affectionate man. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2001, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-with-certain-mental-impairments-superhumanly-strong/73859/10 "2001-07-28T01:35:28Z")
Several athletes I know who weightlift in Special Olympics spend quite a bit of time training, and many of them have Down’s.