Monday, June 12, 2006
IED
Intermittent Explosive Disorder is the latest buzzword in popular psychology. If you haven't heard of it yet, it refers to a condition in which you have outbursts of rage that you can't or won't control, triggered by a trivial slight or inconvenience. Road Rage is a good example. Someone cuts in front of you on the freeway, causing you to apply the brakes or swerve to avoid a collision. You become violently angry at the offending driver and chase after him. If you have a gun with you, you may shoot at him or his car. You may cut in front of him and try to run him off the road. You may deliberately drive your car into his.
I don't know whether I ever suffered from IED. I know that during my lifetime (I am now 83 years old) I did a lot of driving commuting to and from work. I used to be annoyed at drivers who did impolite things that caused me to apply the brakes or swerve to avoid a collision. My own experience is that the tendency to experience rage at such events decreases with age. I am no longer bothered by rude or bad drivers. I simply slow up, give them plenty of room, and am happy to see them go about their business of annoying other drivers. I am happy to stay far from them.
Is there some hormone, maybe testosterone, that prompts feelings of uncontrolled rage or fury? Perhaps we old geezers don't make as much of that hormone as we did when we were younger. I suppose you can advance a convincing argument, based on the evolution of the human species, for a hormone that encourages rage and fury in a young person and not in an old person. A young person is physically fit and strong and a tendency to be aggressive and pubnacious has a better chance to procreate than one who is reserved and unwilling to risk a fight. An old person, not as fit as a young one, has a better chance of surviving by staying out of fights than by starting them. I presume that at one time in our development even old men took part in procreation.
I don't know whether I ever suffered from IED. I know that during my lifetime (I am now 83 years old) I did a lot of driving commuting to and from work. I used to be annoyed at drivers who did impolite things that caused me to apply the brakes or swerve to avoid a collision. My own experience is that the tendency to experience rage at such events decreases with age. I am no longer bothered by rude or bad drivers. I simply slow up, give them plenty of room, and am happy to see them go about their business of annoying other drivers. I am happy to stay far from them.
Is there some hormone, maybe testosterone, that prompts feelings of uncontrolled rage or fury? Perhaps we old geezers don't make as much of that hormone as we did when we were younger. I suppose you can advance a convincing argument, based on the evolution of the human species, for a hormone that encourages rage and fury in a young person and not in an old person. A young person is physically fit and strong and a tendency to be aggressive and pubnacious has a better chance to procreate than one who is reserved and unwilling to risk a fight. An old person, not as fit as a young one, has a better chance of surviving by staying out of fights than by starting them. I presume that at one time in our development even old men took part in procreation.
