Here are some possible examples of positive traits that may be associated with low (pre-clinical) levels of commonly diagnosed disorders, and the flip side costs that seem to go with these benefits.

Bipolar Disorder: euphoria, enthusiasm, confidence, feelings of invincibility, or enhanced charisma during manic episodes (flip side cost: overly optimistic or rash decision-making)

Paranoid Schizophrenia: noticing connections between things, or patterns that other people don’t generally notice (flip side cost: believing in false connections)

Depression: seeing certain aspects of the world more realistically, especially the dark side of things (flip side cost: less optimism)

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: a greater likelihood of detecting, pre-empting and avoiding dangerous situations (flip side cost: rumination on possible dangers that are unlikely to manifest, reduced ability to “live in the moment”)

Social Anxiety Disorder: a greater focus on potentially useful social information (flip side cost: avoidance of, or unpleasant stress during, social situations, and excessive social compliance)

OCD: increased carefulness or conscientiousness in certain domains, such as when reading a contract (flip side cost: excessive checking, doubting, or redoing)

Autism: perceiving useful or beautiful details that others miss (flip side cost: information overload, missing some details that matter to others)

Narcissistic Personality Disorder: appearing to some types of people as highly impressive, important, confident, or charismatic (flip side cost: appearing to other types of people as conceited, arrogant or self-aggrandizing)

Borderline Personality Disorder: greater reactivity to positive stimuli with intensely felt emotions (flip side cost: greater reactivity to negative stimuli with intensely felt emotions)