Mental Illness and how it pertains to racing.

Ok, first I would like to state the fact I am not a psychologist (A person who holds a doctorate in psychology) or a psychiatrist (A person who holds a medical degree along with a doctorate in psychology.). So anything stated from here on out is purely speculation based on my actual psychosis or from personal observation of other people with mental issues.

As a racer it has been posed to me that I must be “crazy” to drag race a motorcycle. (Which makes me speculate as to whether or not people would think this if I drag raced a car?) (Which also makes me question the roll cage rule a car has, I go just as fast and I don’t have to have one… but I digress.) (Sentences in parenthesis are possibly a form of schizophrenia, “voices in the head” thing.) I have also been told that I am “insane” to participate in such a sport.

Growing up, psychological assessments were never thrown around so flippantly. If you were in school and one of your classmates was bouncing off the walls, it was because he had been eating contraband candy bars he bought from the black market playground candy dealer. Back then you just called them “Hyper” or “Spaz” which was slang for spastic. I knew plenty of kids whom were “hyper”. Nowadays, we use the term ADD or ADHD. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a mental illness that has a name and a very detailed description, with no known cure other than prescribing a bunch of Ritalin. Ritalin is basically a drug that reduces the exuberance a child may exhibit.

I am glad this new term was not around when I was growing up. It was a lot more fun to say, “Dude you are such a spaz!” Than to try and say, “Dude are you Attention Deficit… “you get my point.

Another term that flys around quite a bit is OCD for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The term I was familiar with until this one came along was “Anal Retentive”. Basically, this mental issue encompasses ones desire to perform various rituals in order to get through their day. A thing like making sure the front door is locked before going to bed… 8 times. Brushing your teeth… 10 times per tooth after cleaning the toothbrush every 7th brush stroke. Making sure the lights are turned off in a room, by flicking the switch 12 times to make sure it stays in the off position.

The problem with people who are OCD is that they exhibit a huge amount of anxiety if they do not perform these rituals. This usually leads to the manufacturing of more rituals to make sure the other rituals are done. Ultimately, there are too many to remember and the result is a complete mental critical mass, a Chernobyl of the brain.

Bi-polar is one of my personal favorites. Do you realize someone came up with the term Bi-polar because it sounded better than Manic-Depressive?. Apparently, there is a stigma with the words manic and depressive being used to describe someone. That’s funny, because nobody seems to think there is a stigma when the word “Asshole” is used to describe a person with bi-polar tendencies.

A person with bi-polar disorder bounces off the walls, wants to be everyone’s friend, feels amplified exhilaration and likes to party until the world ends one minute. Then wants to be behind four walls, stay away from everyone they know, become insanely depressed and be the reason the world ends the next. They are like magnets with no control over their poles. The strange thing is bi-polar tendencies are very difficult to diagnose and multiple assessments are needed by many different people to determine whether or not someone has it.

CFS or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is another relatively new one that was popular in the mid 90’s. According to the CDC in Atlanta in 2006 it affects more women than men between the age of 40 and 50. In essence the description of the malady is one day your fine and you like to work and the next day your tired and do not ever go back to work.

In some psychological circles the shorter description of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is “Lazy”. I am guessing amongst the professional crowd there is a stigma associated with using this word to describe a patient also.

I think people afflicted with CFS did not want to be called lazy anymore so they formed a committee with a group of psychologists and came up with CFS. It was a win, win situation. The lazy people did not have to be called lazy anymore and the psychologists could charge for the treatment of laziness.

In practice this back fired for both parties.

For the psychologist a couch potato with CFS was too enraptured with Oprah, Ellen and Tyra Banks to come to their appointments. In a group of people with other mental disorders, the person with CFS ran in to the problem illustrated below:

Telling everyone you are ADD is kind of cool because you can blow it off as being interested in a lot of things and not being able to stay with one too long or you get bored. A person who is OCD can brush it off by saying they were just making sure all of the dishes were stacked in the same place they were an hour ago. Bi-polar is cool because your fun at least half of the time. But if you pull out the CFS card all of the other mentals look at each other then point at you and say “Lazy bum”.

This stopped CFS from becoming a “chic” mental illness.

Now I know after this huge education on the popular mental illnesses, you are wondering how it pertains to racing. I’ll show you…

I am having a great day; I am at the race track with Stephanie, all of my friends and fellow racers.  I love being with everyone. The weather is not as good as it could be but who cares I am racing. This is what it is all about.

They just called Street ET so I have to get ready; I grab my helmet and gloves off of the shelf in the trailer, the leather jacket off of the hook. I have to pump up the air pressure for the air shifter to 100 psi. I roll the bike out of the trailer, pull the fast idle, start it and wait until it gets to 160 degrees, turn off the fast idle and drive to the line.

In line before the burnout box I put on my safety kill tether. Then I drive to the water box.  I back in to it, spin the tire up to get it wet, roll forward, pop the clutch at 4k rpms while holding the front brake, rock the bike to the right, then to the left, then to the middle, pull the clutch, let off the brake, ease out the clutch and drive to the stage lights.

I pull down my visor, roll forward until the first beam is lit and wait for the other racer to light his first bulb, then roll the throttle to 5500 rpms and roll towards the second stage light.

Now I am waiting for the other guy to light up his second stage light. What is taking him so long? Is he an idiot or something? Is he going to eating lunch or what? What the hell?  Crap, do they just let anyone race? Let’s go already! Does he have a clue what he is doing? Finally! He staged, it’s about time.

 The lights are coming down 1, 2, 3, GO!

SH$%, DA^&, F$%^, I red lit! I hate this friggin sport. Why the hell is it so damn hot out anyway? I am sweating like a 12 year old at Neverland. What kind of fool would wear leathers in this heat? I am such an idiot; it was entirely my own fault for being impatient. It was not my fault, something must have been wrong with the staging lights. It was someone else’s fault.

Back at the trailer Stephanie comes up to me for consolation. I would like to be alone right now, I want to sit in the RV, I don’t feel like talking. Yes, I realize the light went red, thank you for pointing out the fact I screwed up. Are you against me now?

Does anyone have any Paxil or Zoloft? I am tired, I don’t feel like racing anymore.