I often see winos shouting at nobody in particular. Are they shouting at hallucinations, or just shouting at the world in general? Is it even possible to ascertain this?
Is this behaviour a result of brain damage, or just how their brains react to alcohol? If it is brain damage, is it reversible?
Yeah, you’d think if you’re going to hallucinate an imaginary friend you’d make it someone you can get along with but all the psychotics seem to have the shits with whoever isn’t there. Mostly if you talk to them they think they are talking to someone.
Actually that’s a pretty crap answer. From my experience heavy drinkers can experience auditory hallucinations that make little sense and create great frustration. Little snippets are heard that are critical, or nonsensical, or alluring, or threatening. Because they are not often accompanied by visual hallucinations, the sufferer has the experience of being taunted by a disembodied voice and naturally starts arguing back.
Ya fashabalaa blrrrbrbr! Fackin’ blastarabalang. C’mere ya bashafashalabarrrrrrrala wait’ll I smashabrashabalabrrrbraaa, ye ballix.
Ah, that takes me back. One time, I was sitting in a bus station and a wino was carrying on an extended mumbled conversation with himself. Some big black guy lost patience and yelled “HEY! JUST SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!” The wino starting yelling at the black guy, with extreme anger but no increase in coherence, and kept yelling at the door long after the black guy had walked out.
In that particular case, at least, the angry shouting had a living catalyst.
That’s about it. Particularly the “C’mere ya …” now that you mention it. Mostly they are pretty scared by the voices and a fair amount of drunken criminality is caused by them. Just imagine hearing some disembodied voice telling you over and over for days on end to go and smash some windows. They end up doing it to shut them up.
WHAT?
Millennium hand and shrimp…
Been out on the lash with yojimbo again? 
With the risk of posting a MPSIMS post in GQ, I’ll venture the following:
A gentleman I once knew wandered the streets with about 20 plastic bags filled with god-knows what - anything he found. He would grumble a lot at nothing, and have very large shouting matches at walls and lampposts on occasion. I saw him everyday for several years, in roughly the same spot. I asked about and found out a little on him - he had, apparently, once been a top defence lawyer and one day in the midst of a high profile case he just lost his mind, and has wandered about the streets ever since mumbling to himself. It seems he is constantly arguing with himself, trying in vain to articulate the arguments from his last case in his head – over and over. His mind just got stuck in a loop and became obsessed with one single particular image or thought. I would postulate this to be a form of mental aberration.
In reflection, this doesn’t answer anything about your question, so I’ll shut up now.
And that’s me on a good night
Mental Health Professional Checking In:
Auditory hallucinations are a sign of either schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, I’m not sure which (hey, I’m not a psychiatrist; I just do the leg work). Anyhoo, many homeless alcoholics suffer auditory hallucinations because of the damage done to their brains because of alcohol abuse, and many who suffer auditory hallucinations become homeless alcoholics because they abuse alcohol to try to shut off the voices. It’s a vicious circle, so to speak.
Seriously, though. Imagine that hour after hour, day in and day out, you heard a disembodied voice screaming at you that it was going to rape your mother, or torture you, or kill you, or something equally horrible. It would suck. And eventualy you would either do what the voices tell you (break windows, do something worse, etc.) in an effort to shut them up, or you’d start shouting back at them.
Of course, nowadays we have medicines to treat mental illness, but there’s still that population of people who can’t or won’t take them.
Thanks, HeyHomie. So, if the wino were hearing voices because of the alcohol, and then they quit drinking, would they ever recover, or would the damage be permanent?
I’m not sure; I’ll have to ask one of the psychiatrists at my agency about that. Off hand I’d have to say that he/she probably would continue to hear voices, even if they stayed on the wagon, unless they got treatment (read: anti-psychotic medications).
Mental illness is sort-of like diabetes: once you have it, you’re never “cured.” A diabetic is never going to NOT have diabetes; he or she can only take medicine to control its symptoms. Same with most mental illnesses (schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder included); the disease will never go away, but you can take medicine to control its symptoms.
Maybe they have alot to say,and no-one inparticular to say it to,and the alchahol affects their inhibitions to the point that they think they are talking to some one who is hard of hearing.