"road rage" symptom of "intermittent explosive disorder" which afflicts 16 million americans

Oh god, the Americans, they just medicalise everything, don't they?

"I suffer from Intermittent Explosive Disorder. BACK THE FUCK OFF!"

yah those fucking americans! what are they thinking!??! (arn't you american???)

I know it sounds like Intermittent Explosove Diahorreah :/

Surely chucking a tanty is just er... chucking a tanty? For which, Remy OTMFM.

(I am being nice to Kate now, but I think its pretty funny that she lets everyone assume she is an actual Britisher)

UNTRUE

So what exactly is the difference between those two things? I mean, Jesus, I'd hate to see the kind of bad behavior that doesn't have any cognitive science involved -- it would have to be some kind of pure free-floating evil.

Right at the point where the whole thing's over and then the kid feels a sudden need to defend his mother's honor.

"why the fuck are you warning me now?"

xpost well for sure that would be awesome, I rather wish people would carry their I-already-now-more-than-experts stuff to their natural conclusions

MANUAL: First, plug the television's power cord into a wall outlet.
OWNER OF NEW TV: These fuckers think they know everything, I'm plugging the cord into this delicious cheese sandwich

Plus there's something deeper here, including (a) the fact that it doesn't seem so newsworthy to discover that there are cognitive and biological process involved in sudden rage, EXCEPT for the fact that (b) we're all familiar and uncomfortable with the way that pointing out those cognitive and biological processes is the precursor to things like blunt marketing attempts at medicating them and attempts to use them as mitigating circumstances in criminal trials and so on.

my bad then, but upthread it really looks like a lot of armchair science

have pity. we are the victims here, people.
so, what medication can i take for being a hothead then?!?
Surely chucking a tanty is just er... chucking a tanty? For which, Remy OTMFM.
medical defence of assholism, c/d

Any of you remember the 80s trend of freeway shootings that the media overpublicized for a while in a "That's the wacky U.S. for ya!" kinda way, which only escalated random freeway shootings?

Or was this just an L.A. thing?

I had a tortured sentence trying to draw this connection but was afraid of getting called insane!

so, what medication can i take for being a hothead then?!? = joke about how every diagnosable problem is a new and exciting pharmaceutical-sales market

Surely chucking a tanty is just er... chucking a tanty? = question about whether understanding the cognitive/biological basis of being an asshole in any way changes the fact that it's still being-an-asshole

medical defence of assholism, c/d = ditto above (and there's whatever slight chance this argument will soon enough be had again when someone kills someone in the heat of the moment and then pleads not guilty by reason of Intermittent Explosive Disorder)

Go figure.

I do actually know novelists who make a living off what they do. Of course, they live in China, where apparently you can live for a month on the money it takes your average writer to get drunk for one afternoon. Or Brighton, where you can't, but it's cheaper to stay drunken for longer.

I do think that the expectation of a book-deal is crippling to a writer. Both HSA and his mum seem to take this attitude. Both of them very much by rights (DNA and otherwise) should write books, but HSA always claims that he won't do it without an accepted pitch and an advance, because he doesn't want to waste the investment of his time. (And he gets cross at me for not doing anything with the novels I've written.) Novel-writing requires a great deal of up-front investment, both in time and in experience. The people I know who have been successful at it are the ones who have hung around for years on the dole finishing their novels at their leisure. Journalists seem to be so busy pitching that they don't have the time to sit down and write something for the pure pleasure of doing it.

The journalists I've always liked the best were the ones that dragged their own lives into it. Which is, technically, very bad journalism. But these journalists are better at dragging their own lives into their fiction. Perhaps.

HSA's mum was 2 hours late picking HSA up to go off to Wiltshire, so at last, finally, I get to go shopping. Hurrah!

-- Super-Kate (masonicboo...), April 29th, 2004.

There was an abandonned country club near the house that I grew up in, as well. That was cool - especially the drained swimming pool.

-- Lapdog Shoesnog (masonicboo...), April 30th, 2005.

I don't think the study itself is bunk so much as the way it will presumably be used to excuse assholes who can't control their tempers. Like that study last year that said that slightly overweight people live longer. Well goddamn, get me some donuts.

haha

i don't know if peoples' reactions are anti-science, or more a reaction to a longstanding american tendency to over-medicate or to come up with pills for things that don't strike most folks as needing medication. then there's also (justified) cynicism of the medical establishment -- and, by extension, pharmaceutical companies -- to make money off of all of this.

have pity. we are the victims here, people.

Well I think that was a partial joke that had nothing to do with the 'science' of the study. Sometimes you have to either joke about it a little, or curl up in a corner and cry. There is no solution. We have over 20,000 murders in the USA every year. You walk down the street, and make eye contact with a brother or sister that you don't know, and sometimes you do get a "what the fuck are you looking at!?" Being angry, or hard, or on gaurd, is just about more socially acceptable now than it is to be polite. Posting the capsule summary of the study was just an excuse for bringing up the topic.

You really are a cunt, Ethan.

Motorcycle road rage.

Dude got off his cycle at a light and started smashing his helmet into my passenger window.

What happened after you ran him over?

Was it Joe The Plumber? Will you tell him John McCain is looking for him?

I called 911 and filed a report. No running dude over.

He looked like Joe the Dot-Com Exec more than Joe the Plumber. White, 40-45, tiny spectacles. Prob biking 'cause of mid-life crisis, etc.

What'd you do to piss him off?

that really sucks, by the way

I dunno what I did to piss him off, honestly. He probably thought I cut him off, but I didn't even notice him in traffic until he started pulling in front of me no matter which lane I'd change to.

get his plates?

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1318/1454031202_59a042826c_o.jpg
SUP

I did get his plates, yea. The cop ID'd him and said he was just gonna give him a phone call and tell the dude to be more polite in the future.

"intermittent explosive disorder" really sounds like it should be describing flatulence