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Road Rage Now “Intermittent explosive disorder”
And no, they’re not talking about diarrhea, which is what I thought at first as well.
To you, that angry, horn-blasting tailgater is suffering from road rage. But doctors have another name for it — intermittent explosive disorder — and a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans.
“People think it’s bad behavior and that you just need an attitude adjustment, but what they don’t know … is that there’s a biology and cognitive science to this,” said Dr. Emil Coccaro, chairman of psychiatry at the University of Chicago’s medical school.
Talk about seeing through the lie, I mean this is just pure black comedy at this point - a farce of ridiculous proportions. And of course, once you have the disorder named and explained and studied, the next step is launching a chemical marketing campaign against it:
Coccaro said the disorder involves inadequate production or functioning of serotonin, a mood-regulating and behavior-inhibiting brain chemical. Treatment with antidepressants, including those that target serotonin receptors in the brain, is often helpful, along with behavior therapy akin to anger management, Coccaro said.
KABLAMMO! And there you have it. Also interesting to note is that the acronym of this new “disorder” is IED, the same as the one used for “improvised explosive device” in counter-terrorism lingo. The next logical step, once that subconscious connection has been created is to start suggesting that terrorists have this disorder and thus need to be medicated. Or, better yet, that widespread medication of this disorder will prevent terrorism (and spousal abuse, of course).
Courtesy of Kurt Nimmo, we have a link to a news article which comes crushingly close with another even more insidious semantic link:
Cleveland City Councilman Zach Reed wants to help curb crime and drugs, especially among teens in his community.
“These are modern-day terrorists,” Reed said.
He said there is little that separates the drug dealers and street criminals that keep citizens in his southeast Cleveland ward from leaving their homes and the terrorists who would look to attack our country.
Reed is urging council to fight violence the same way they would fight terrorism.
“Therefore, the time has come to make Ward 3 a police state and submit a true zero-tolerance policy,” Reed said.
God help us, I think my head is about to explode…
- ADD+ Anxiety Dysfunction Disorder
- The ecstasy of Rage
- On dating a woman wrapped in plastic
- False Messiahs
- What Road?
- Prev: Virtual Border Patrol
- Next: Bicycling Atomic Robot
June 7th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Explosive disorder is a positive trait for managers right?
I don’t see anyone making a pill to stop bosses from yelling at their workers.
(I just imagine same bosses are the ones driving on the shoulder of the road during rush hour here, obviously in a big hurry to get home because their TV watching pleasure somehow trumps yours and mine)
June 8th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Politicians casting citizens as terrorists?
WHO COULD HAVE FORSEEN THIS?!
June 8th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
I know, the very thought is entirely unimaginable and comes from WAY out in left field!
June 8th, 2006 at 3:54 pm
aldous huxley`s lecture at harvard in the early sixties suggested that a population that didn`t think would be a happier, more productive one. this slippery slope to mood altering pills for everything is, in my view, a direct outcome of that type of thinking.
June 8th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Like in David Cronenberg’s movie Scanners?
Well, I would definately like people seek medical treatment for explosive head syndrome. Heads exploding is a very common theme in today’s world, especially in horror films. Needless to say the human brain is very scary and we are surrounded by them like (I can’t think of a simile)– each one ready to explode on any given whim, impulse, or provacation. Now my brain is very hippy like but I am sure there are vicious repitillian undercurrents which could come flooding out if I was cut off riding a unicrorn on a silly, goofy, magical road somewhere.
June 8th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
simile; like lightbulbs floating in a swimming-pool.
June 8th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
all these drugs seem to be targeting the pineal. I’m not big into conspiracy but it would appear to be aimed at inhibiting people’s psycho/spiritual/chemical make up to make us zombies. If it sounds funny, I’m a little drunk.
June 8th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
I had intermittent explosive disorder once but it was after eating some a couple of bad tacos. I don’t think, however, we are talking about the same thing here.
June 9th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
daniel, i tend to agree with your supposition. the pineal gland and the amygdala are consciously stimulated centers in the brain that bring us into contact with the divine nature of our being. to repress that turns us into zombies…….or consumers. religion does the same thing though. government, science and religion are the hand-maidens of spiritual repression.
June 9th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Alistair,
I haven’t fact checked this but I am a medical professional and though I haven’t traversed the neuropathways of Anatomy and Physiology in some 9 years I am fairly certian that I recall that the amygdala is an unconsciously stimulated part of the brain whereas the pineal gland is not.
I am really going out on a limb now but I think that the amygdala is the part of the brain that responds to things like unpleasant odors and negative body language with it’s own negative response; things like tense shoulders, clenched hands, facial grimaces and the like. The amygdala is what makes us lean away unconsicously from people we don’t like.
Now that I may have embarrassed myself with this post I guess I can’t do much worse than to also say I think we have this part of the brain in common with fish. I better go google the endocrine system so I can see if I have to wish that Tim had a “modify post” option to his blog.
BTW, I agree with Daniels drunken supposition, too.