I don't know why, but I was able to recognize the non-words instantly (with one exception) even though I didn't know the meaning of every single "real" one. (Peristeronic, etc.)
I am quite neurotic. But if this is indeed true (and there are some indications that I am more creative than other people), then I think I would rationally prefer to stay more creative even if neurotic.
Some people think high intelligence is a burden (together with the above, it may also be the realism of skeptical thinking that makes people a little depressed). But I believe, even assuming it carries this burden, it is still a wonderful gift worth accepting.
There are some key insights that open up that path. The biggest one is that any thought that you experience in your mind is it's own thing (thought, distinct from concepts, which are much more subtle and ephemeral).
The reason is that for the mind to experience and process thoughts, the thought itself is carried by emotional streams. There is a wide-spread tendency in people with high intelligence to fool themselves into thinking they have high emotional intelligence, or don't need it.
These emotional carrier waves on which thought rides on have an affect on your ability to think on things, or decide on an action. One common neuroticism is when the thoughts start looping on each other. On the surface, those loops appear to chain rationally and logically, one to the next, but if you were to pull your awareness from the thought and go deeper into the emotion, you'll see it is actually the emotions in control.
Suppressing the emotions and awareness of the emotions will actually backfire on you. You get more stupid when you do. You cannot separate thought from emotions. (As I mentioned before: concepts and abstractions are more subtle, so it's possible to flash through them without a thought-stream).
You can't separate thoughts from the emotions on which thoughts rides upon. A lot of intelligent people with poor emotional intelligence will trick themselves into thinking they can. It does not help that accusing someone of being emotional has been weaponized.
Example: Most programming language / OS / design flame-wars are really people being moved by powerful emotions rather than a rational discussion, though the participants often trick themselves into thinking they are being rational.
tl;dr emotional intelligence will supercharge your existing intellectual prowess.
Perhaps a remnant of my spelling-bee days.