The best way normal people can understand this behavior is to remember back to the throes of adolescence when, in a fit of anger, we might have screamed at a parent those famous words "I hate you."
We didn't hate them at all...but when overrun by emotions and hormones, we said things we didn't mean.
Adolescents who experience this are so angry and frustrated with surging hormones and powerful emotions that their limbic systems simply overpower their cerebral cortex (and hence irrational emotion overpowers rational thought).
Take a grownup having a bipolar episode (they're quite similar to the adolescent fits) and add a large dollop of alcohol...and you get Mel Gibson.
I am in no way excusing what he did...he might have even killed someone, even himself.
What I am saying is that he needs to take responsibility for his actions and get immediate help. I can assure you he has been warned of this (by the police, his doctor, and family members).
He recently had an episode that require hospitalization.
Right before he went in, he stopped by a family celebration.
Everyone was on pins and needles the entire time he was there.
He came over to me, and one moment he was laughing and joking,and within a minute he was in tears crying about his business.
It is a horrible illness and when adding alcohol or other drugs very frightening and dangerous.
Well put - thanks for that. Also - I’m a big believer in drugs and exercise being proxies for one another. Interestingly I saw an old film clip of John Lennon where he made a similar comment. He said he preferred heroin to exercise or something like that. Not that I agree with that choice :) - but it again confirms my intuition that the two substitute one for another. I think this is information that is somewhat well known, but not nearly well known enough. It might be that drug seeking behavior is really just a perverted from of exercise seeking behavior.