I was having a discussion with one of the guys at work at the moment about how little it would take to tip someone over the edge these days. We're facing a whole bunch of bullshit at work that is frustrating us to hell, because it soaks up a ton of time and money and it's not productive. And there's nothing we can do to stop it. Then, today I saw this article about how a government official was stalked over a water bill. The matter's in trial at the moment. FOCUS: Have you ever seen anybody just completely lose their shit? Was that person you? Was it funny? Scary? Explain. EDIT (Frylock): Changed focus.
I was going with my friend to a Boston Pizza and we were waiting to be seated. Out in the area where you just walk into the place was an ATM machine, and it was currently out of order. This guy walks in, and he looks mildly upset. He then asks us if the ATM is working. We say we have no idea because we hadn't even looked at it. He tries it, and it doesn't work. He then asks us if we know where another machine is, and we say we don't because we weren't even from the city. He proceeds to yell "FUCKING FUCK I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL SOMEONE" and then swiftly kicks the ATM machine and punches a wall near the machine. For good measure, he also goes and punches the glass of one of those claw machines then leaves and attempts to slam the door but fails miserably. The whole time this is going on me and my friend are trying to not burst out laughing because we don't want to get our asses beat.
A buddy of mine who had some really severe problems with drugs and alcohol ended up with some really severe paranoid delusions that people in law school were trying to ruin him by creating fake dating profiles and all sort of other stuff (which of course there was no real evidence of). Eventually he thought that his laptop had been stolen and there was evidence in his e-mails that he'd bought pot and Adderall and he was going to go turn himself in to the police (can you imagine how that would go? I think they'd tell you to go away, they don't care), but his girlfriend at the time convinced him to go to the hospital instead. Visiting someone in the pysch ER when they're having full-on schizophrenic delusions is pretty disturbing. I've had to deal with a grandparent with dementia, but seeing a guy in his 20s lose all touch with reality is a whole different experience.
There was this guy we partied with for the sheer amusement that he was completely off his shit and my friends egged him on like none other. I could never be actual friends with him. We called him Relish and this guy did the weirdest, most off-the-wall acts of random insanity you could imagine. When he was a bouncer and a girl fight broke out on the dancefloor, he got excited and ran as fast as he could through the crowd, clothelining every single person that stood in his path. It was fucking HORRIBLE. However, one time stood out waaaay more than that: When we were at the beach, we were walking towards our cars when my friend Roachie threw a water bottle with piss in in on Relish (they were pretty fucking cruel in a guy-way to him). He knew what is was, freaked, then fell into the sand so picture all this sand stuck to him showing you how much piss was on his body. He hit the fucking roof. In possibly the weirdest display I've ever seen, he goes track star back towards Lake Erie. Running by some random teenage kid lying on his air mattress, he grabs the mattress and flips the wet kid off into the sand and takes off running down the beach, swinging it around his head like a morning star mace. "Now there's something you don't see everyday. I don't think he's coming back." I said. Relish had his own ride, so we thought fuck him and decided to leave after 10 minutes. Just when we were getting into our cars, we look up to see Relish running back down the beach and going back up the other way with the air matress still in hand, four cops trying unsuccessfully to catch him. He was a cross country running champ, and he could probably do that all night without getting within tazer range. It was the last we saw of him for two months.