I’m driving towards a bike shop in Kenilworth to get my rear wheel fixed, when one my favourite dance anthems comes on the radio — Insomnia by Faithless.
The immediate reaction to hearing the opening bars of a tune like this is to hit the accelerator and go full throttle. It is easy to see how someone might overdo this even more when in a manic state, but I am rapidly held back.
This isn’t about being totally sensible — the emotion free driver will just carry on driving at the same speed regardless of what was on the radio. Rather, I am held back because my highly analytical nature tells me that driving too fast round corners is a recipe for disaster, especially on narrow country lanes. So just as I want to hit the accelerator pedal, my mind is coming back with calculations about fatalities on rural roads and I ease off.
As for the tune – well, Insomnia was certainly something I was afflicted with towards the end of last week, but today has just been drowsiness. Having said that, as I get round to uploading this (7:40pm), I’ve had my caffeine injection and I am feeling much more alert. I said in my earlier post that this post wasn’t making much sense, but I hope it does now get across the exact point it is trying to make – namely that the bipolar mind might well want to expose itself to taking more risks, but the analytical, Darwinian inspired statistical mind will always trump it with facts.
Oh well, at least next time I feel the need for speed I will be back on two wheels. Now if you want the facts for that, afaik, cycling is always more dangerous per mile than driving, but on average regular cyclists live 10 years longer than non-cyclists, because of the fitness gains. Then again, bipolar is supposed to take 10 years off your life too. I think there is some offsetting going on here Forget about CO2 offset, that’s my BP offset programme!