Posted by drummer (209.105.155.54) on May 11, 2000 at 17:07:25:
"What's wrong with that guy?"
That's what my 6-year-old daughter asked me and my wife yesterday. She was looking at a guy who was walking through the store. He was alone. He looked confused and perplexed. Every time he took 10 steps, he would turn around in a circle, then pat himself on the head, then take 10 more steps, pat, then move along and repeat the same process again and again and again. My daughter said, "he's weird."
I have just read that there is a chemical in the brain, that makes some people, dangle from ropes attached to cliffs, ride roller coasters that go upside down, and jump from perfectly good working airplanes, with a big, crumpled up bed-sheet attached to their backs. According to the article - these people can't help themselves. It's the chemical in their brains. The chemical in their brains is called Dopamine.
That's one hell of a freaking chemical!
My wife told my daughter, that the guy, who was spinning in circles, and patting himself on the head, every time he took 10 steps, was not weird. My wife told my daughter that he was just like me. Fairly normal. My wife said that the spinning-patting-circle-guy suffered from OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). My wife told my daughter that he couldn't help himself (kind of like my chronic Cluster Headaches and me). She said it was bad chemicals in his brain.
The next time someone asks me why I'm pacing, moaning, rocking, banging my head into the wall, and why my left eye is dripping water, and snot is pouring out of my left nostril or they say, "what's wrong with that guy?" – I'm going to smile and say this:
"I'm fairly normal, I can't help myself - it's the bad chemicals in my brain."