He was cursing at passing cars
Next to stories about fare beaters on the Light Rail and shoplifters at the Rite Aid, the most popular stories in The Jersey Journal about my fellow residents are those involving drunks making some sort of public display. Not a week goes by without the Jersey running two or three stories similar to the one I read today: "He was Cursing at Passing Cars." Except for the names, the stories are almost always the same: an intoxicated person starts shouting obscenities in public, the police ask the person to stop, the intoxicated person becomes belligerent, the police arrest the intoxicated person (usually after some form of resistance). Anyone who's ever seen the television show Cops knows the scenario. Unfortunately, these stories never mention what the drunks are actually yelling about. I'd be curious to know whether there were any common themes to these drunken tirades. Since this type of behavior occurs with such frequency, I wonder if there is some primal human need being expressed. What drives a drunken person into the streets? Is the abnormal behavior merely the result of alcohol addiction or does alcohol provide an outlet for emotions that can no longer be contained? I'm curious because my own experience with intoxication goes the other way: I go in. Instead of becoming more animated, like a cuttlefish, I assume the properties of the furniture.
posted by BayonneMike at 9:13 AM
12 Comments:
What an interesting thought... now you've got me wondering if there's any "drunk rant" trend. :-)
I dunno Mike, must be something in the booze. Perhaps a poll of the social offenders is in order. Perhaps they've all consumed a particular brand of beer.
More likely they are Catholics bursting at the seams. Guilt controls them during the sober hours. God invented whiskey to keep the Irish from controlling the world.
Angry, vocal drunks.
Quiet, stoic drunks.
Happy Drunks!
Drunks who lie!
Drunks you lay!
Who knows.
I would just ask him... " What is your problem?" Sometimes they just need to be heard and have their needs met. Maybe for him it would have been a nice hot bowl of New England Clam Chowder, or perhaps a soft bed with clean 440 count sheets. Most of these outbursts are just a cry for whatever you need. For want of a damn friend, you just take to the bottle and then to the streets.
..or maybe he was just drunk and mental.
Yeah, it's all mental illness. But I always wonder if there is anything underlying the illness, if it all comes down to a chemical imbalance in the brain. Maybe one day we'll know.
Well, here's one subject that apparently riles 'em up:
http://www.cantstopthebleeding.com/?p=9882
I firmly believe alcoholism is hereditary. I've lived it and observed it in other families first hand. Substance abuse can include a heck of a lot more than getting the odd drunk on. A person could be addicted to anything...
One site claims the gene is related to a receptor that allows for the movement of Gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) between nerve cells. GABA is the major inhibitory chemical in the central nervous system.
Others say claims of a genetic basis for alcoholism, a leading theorist argues, are not scientifically supportable and ignore the crucial link between personal values and self-destructive or antisocial behavior.
hmmm....prisoners of our own chemical imbalances.
I heard from a very reputable renowned author, speaker, and psychologist that ONE banana per day will boost the serotonin in the brain and stabilize the mood.
Don'r know which fruit is good for alcoholism. Grapes?
Re bananas: Doc says to Mom, you're not getting enough potassium, start eating bananas. She goes back in few weeks and he's perplexed at her blood work, now there's way too much potassium. Being a good German, she was eating 2 a day. Be careful with bananas.
Grapes of Wrath, perhaps?
Grapes of Gall...fermenting displeasure...
Old drunks seem to develop strawberry noses. yum!
Red-Faced Irish (my face turns bright red, especially my nose when I drink, drank, drunk) with a strawberry nose,
Fighting Irish with a cauliflower ear.
Stereo-types, while not always nice are certainly based in truth I've found.
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