Friday, August 12, 2011

Bipolar Disorder + Substance Abuse?

A while ago, I wrote about the purpose of depression in society.

However, I was thrown off by bipolar disorder.

If you subscribe to the thinking of Neil deGrasse Tyson, then you acknowledge that our society owes something to the crazies who were willing to be the first one to bungee jump off of a sky scraper while all of the sane people hid out and protected the gene pool.  Naturally, that sounds like something a manic person would do.

But you know something?

There are a whole lot of dysfunctional bipolar people out there who can't get the job done.

I read that about half of them are addicted to drugs or alcohol. 

That's right.  It's not enough that they drink socially or even drink heavily.  They are addicted to the shit.

However, you have a hard time getting them to take their damn medicine that supposedly makes them "better."  Many of them quit taking their meds and go back on the bottle.

I realized that there must be something deficient in bipolar medications that the brain needs.  Otherwise, bipolar medications would be a perfectly good substitute, right?  Hell, their brain should crave that stuff as if it were Meth if it filled the empty void.  Instead, they'll go off of their meds and go straight for the booze.

Then, I began to wonder:

What if bipolar disorder is actually an evolutionary response to alcohol?

Think about it:

For quite some time, people consumed copious amounts of alcohol. That stuff naturally slows your brain doooowwwwnnn.

Yes, imagine a society filled with boozed up zombies.  This is how it was during the middle ages because the water was not safe to drink.

What if bipolar people actually operate at "normal" speed while on booze?

What if the brain in some of these people "sped up" to compensate for the lack of functioning that one normally experiences with alcohol consumption?