Be Excellent To Each Other

OK, so I'm guessing everyone has had these?

Stupid urges that would lead to your death?

Jumping off a bridge or a cliff, sticking something in a power socket?

Where do they come from? Why do we have them? And why don't we follow through on them?

Is it some sort of Evolutionary test?

If you can't resist you're taken out of the gene pool?

How are these urges different to someone who hears voices in his head urging him to go on a rampage and kill people?

Malc

I've heard a friend describe these urges, except he called them 'Dark Thoughts'. I personally don't get the self-destructive ones, but I do sometimes get flashes of horrible thoughts and images about how situations could have gone worse. Like seeing someone absent-mindedly wandering towards a busy road and stopping at the last minute, but imagining what would have happened they hadn't stopped.

As for why... I guess it's a defence mechanism. It's your brain reminding you of the dangers around you.

I do visualise a lot of fucked up shit, head on crashes (normally when motorbikes are approaching) and I always imagine trains tearing the car apart when I drive over level crossings.

When I'm high up (hills, tops of buildings etc) I get the feeling of being pulled towards the edge.

And I think Grim...s mentioned something I think about too, where you feel like winging expensive possessions off stuff.

Humans are weird.

I think fun fucked up stuff too though.

I've got urges.

The other day I was thinking about grabbing the gun out of the poliemans holster as he stood in front of me in the queue at Subway. No idea why, and I certainly wasnt going to do it, but I couldn't stop thinking about it.

I blame it all on computer games.

And mind bending chemicals.

Edgar Allan Poe called it "The Imp of the Perverse"

Yes. I regularly have stupid ideas/urges.

Including:
-head on crashes with oncoming traffic
-falling in front of trains or buses
-attacking people

The urge can be strong but the mind always says 'yes, and that moment of curiosity will be followed by an eternity of regret'.

Doing something stupid because you want to see what happens is something you're meant to grow out of.

The only one I can think of is when I used to drive to and from work along the M5, the urge to pull the wheel hard right while doing 95 often popped into my head. However, I was in worcestershire, so I'm not sure that qualifies as a "stupid" urge.

I get these mad urges quite frequently. One of the most powerful I had was also the dumbest.

I was in Kentucky in 1999 at this http://www.knobcreekrange.com/events/featured-events/machine-gun-shoot and had a shuddering desire to run across the front of the range where there were about 40 tripod mounted machine guns firing up a canyon. There was everything from a brass hand cranked civil war gatling gun to a mini-gun. Nuts, I know

Clashes with the cottage! Maybe next year

There was a great Dan Clowes strip about this, where he talked about the urge to grab a cop's gun and shoot him with it, or to kill yourself and then (as a ghost) watch everyone feel really sorry that they hadn't been nicer to you, etc etc. I can't remember the exact wording of the ending but it was something along the lines of don't be such a fucking idiot.

EDIT: God bless the internet. Here's the first page and here's the all-important cop killing page:

I'm a regular on these. Walking in front of buses. Pushing other people into traffic. Randomly laying into people. Having other people start on me so I have an excuse. Jumping off things. Probably most regular is the one where I pick someone up and drop them on their head.

I get these too. Recently(ish) I was thinking a lot about about my wife dying too. As you may have seen.

Also, as Z mentioned, I constantly want to sling my stuff of bridges or in front of a train

Hmm, I've never had any where I want hurt anyone else.

Common girls

/edit sorry, its urges that get you killed, isn't it?

Common girls from Manchester.

Quick session at the bookies on the slots.

More so if I'm under pressure at work.

As with all gambling its up and down, very down of late

Are you secretly Reggie Perrin?

...Sorry, was miles away.