The Pull: the urge to crash a car

So reading around on the intraweb bored at work ran across this. Really strange thing is I have had this feeling plenty of times. I absolutely love my car and would throw myself in front of it to keep it from getting wrecked, but I still have the feeling. I always thought I was crazy but it's a real thing!

http://jalopnik.com/have-you-ever-be...g-th-453479401

Have You Ever Been Haunted By The Thought Of Yanking The Wheel And Crashing While Driving? As a near-professional grade eavesdropper, I get to be privy to a lot of conversations. Just a few days ago I heard two people talking about how, when they're driving sometimes, they get these strange, persistent urges to just yank their steering wheel and crash their car, dramatically and disastrously. As I walked past, I allowed myself an indulgent moment of smugness. I rolled my eyes and thought about how those people were loons, not like me, so very sane and rational and free of any bad thoughts, habits, or qualities. That lasted about three steps, because I soon remembered, oh yeah, I've had that feeling, too. I'm no better than those pathetic bastards.
Actually, my incident was slightly different. I had been on a long, solitary road trip, and after about six or eight hours I was definitely getting a bit loopy. I remember hitting a bumpy patch of road, and momentarily feeling my Beetle's steering wheel bounce and move with the road surface. Doing about 70 or so, you could easily feel how almost any motion of the wheel had far more dramatic consequences (especially in such a light car), and, in that moment, the realization that it would only take one quick yank of my hand to send me into an uncontrollable spin.
It wasn't so much that I had an urge to do it, but more that I was now hyper aware that I could. I didn't want to die, of course, having so much to live for (freshly done laundry, 4 out of 6 punches on my Subway™ card) but it was still incredibly hard to just put the notion out of my mind and drive.
I haven't really felt anything like that since, but the feeling was strong enough that it came back to me when I rudely listened in on these people's conversation. And, if me and some random Los Angelenos have felt something like this, maybe it is, in fact, A Thing?
Turns out, it absolutely is a thing. Hell, there's even a Straight Dope forum page dedicated to the feeling. They even have a name for it there: "The Pull." One poster summed up the feeling quite well as
I've felt what you're talking about, but I would not call it an "almost overwhelming urge". More like a "terrifying realization that it would be so easy to do something horrible."
That's pretty close. In fact, even Edgar Allen Poe knew about this strange, destructive force, and called it (in a way that makes me think of that Disney gremlin) The Imp of The Perverse. Essentially, it's an urge to do the worst possible thing in a given situation just because you could.
Driving is likely the most consequence-laden situation any of us are in on a daily basis, and likely the only situation we're regularly in that involves decisions with life-or-death results. That's why I think it's a common playground for the Imp of the Perverse.
I really wanted to know how common this actually was, so I called up a psychologist, Rachel Toles. I asked her if she had patients that talked about the urge to deliberately crash while driving, and she said absolutely. She told me it stemmed from a "lack of ability to tolerate anxiety" and also from "feeling desparate or being out of control."
She told me these feelings could be categorized in several ways, but they all fall under the heading of "anxiety," which is the most commonly diagnosed condition by psychologists by far. And driving is a common situation because, of course, so many people drive, and it's relatively easy to get your hands on a car. As she told me:
"Getting your hands on a gun is a lot more difficult than driving."
And, it turns out she's absolutely right. I'm not a particularly anxious person, but if I've felt it, I bet other people have. Interestingly, I've never heard about anybody who's actually acted on these crazy urges, so our brains must be pretty good at eventually doing the right thing. Which is good, because nothing's worse than your own brain telling you to do something so crazy in your car, especially when it's not even as much fun as doing donuts in a parking lot. That's why aside from splitting restaurant checks and the occasional advice during a Trivial Pursuit game, I never even talk to my brain.
What I'm really curious about is if anyone has ever experienced this as well? And, has anyone ever acted on these urges, or known anyone who has?

Just because a forum exists for it and because many people are on board doesn't mean it's normal! But I have had the urge many times to ram my car into moron drivers

In fact I was 18 when I took my wrangler and rear-ended someone real hard. I couldn't take his stupidity and attempts to drive me off road any more. I love NYC, you can get away with anything

Also, certain people have a strange pull to water too. I have a buddy that can't be around large bodies of water because he kinda goes into a "trance." He almost gets hypnotized to jump in the water.. it's kinda scary when you see your buddy fall off a pier in Clearwater, Florida. He said that it felt like he was being pulled in.. Just thought it was weird and interesting.

Is this urge the same thing that people who succumb to road rage??

Originally Posted by Newman271

Also, certain people have a strange pull to water too. I have a buddy that can't be around large bodies of water because he kinda goes into a "trance." He almost gets hypnotized to jump in the water.. it's kinda scary when you see your buddy fall off a pier in Clearwater, Florida. He said that it felt like he was being pulled in.. Just thought it was weird and interesting.

Maybe he was a fish in his previous incarnation.

woody allen, in annie hall...listening to her brotherr played by christopher Walken.....

There does some to be a subtle sort of 'aw, F it' death wish lurking in the back of the mind now and then. The thought does cross my mind sometimes that jerking the wheel hard at the wrong moment (or right, depending on the POV) would be either suicide or murder/suicide and would be an easy thing to do, easy at least in the muscles involved, not easy in letting oneself do such a violent thing.

I hate to admit it, but I often have an inner struggle with the lazy part of me that wants to give up and blame others for my frustrations. Crashing the car in a fit of pique would fit in with that attitude.

I think this is a panic thing. Like people who are acrophobic who feel an urge to jump when near the edge of a tall structure.