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Do we need to keep bloody, effing, swearing all the time?

The answer is yes. People need to be swearing all the time or regularly as swear words take us over the boundary into the naughty and help us express that energy and vent tension.

What does this actually reveal about the human mind as to why people swear all the time?

In a nutshell, swearing is a direct emotional release coming from our nervous system. And it specifically reflects stress intensity on how we’re actually feeling but secondary to this, it can lose its meaning or its purpose and a signal, a lack of control rather than a healthy expression as most people rant, rave and swear, clearly can be seen as out of control or not having good management ability over the way they’re feeling, such as frustration, vexation, anger or self-defence reactions to others.

Swearing within the use of language is the most immediate and it feels instinctive forms of human expression in the heat of the moment. It often appears in order of anger, frustration, shock, horror and even in humour and relief.

Unlike other forms of human expression and carefully chosen language, it can come on very fast, almost as if the words are carrying the energy or the tension or the weight of that feeling discharged out through the mouth from the mind, each swear word is a carrier of this energy. Like a little vehicle discharging the energy that comes so quick without thought or care and it does carry a certain weightage that ordinary, everyday words do not, and that alone indicates this expression is doing something much deeper.

I would say without question, even at the most basic level, swearing is specifically tied to emotions and how we feel and when sudden or intense occurrences appear, the mind doesn’t take the slow and steady route through selective language and conscious reasoning. Instead, it blasts out energy which happen to be words demonstrating a more reactive system as fired up. And these systems are closely linked to our survival and responses and therefore swearing in this sense is like a pressure valve or a little vehicle to carry out that charge. Some would say it’s a built-up tension in a quick and efficient way of firing it off and releasing those sparks or impulses that in themselves appear instantly and out of nowhere, which were the response of meeting that unmet expectation, dissatisfaction or disapproval, criticism and so on and we all do it. Some more than others. But we all do it!

A negative expression or in negative situations. The act of swearing appears to activate the body’s internal stress response and heart rate increases and triggering a small surge of adrenaline or accompanying chemicals and brain reactive electrical charges and this can create a temporary buffer or substitute to offset discomfort. Although it appears to be a habit and as some people say, he’s got a bad habit of swearing all the time, it’s actually a physical reaction tied specifically to the nervous system to discharge energy as I’ve outlined or it can also be used to appear a certain way egotistically, such as hey, look at me, don’t I sound witty or cool!

Even powerful and explosive surges of energy bordering on rage and possibly violence. The level, depth and sound and the ferocity of the swearing and threats accompanying statements of causing harm or doing such usually is enough for people to pay attention, show more respect, back off, withdraw or take back how they behaved if they contributed or caused the person to fire off in the first place.

As swearing is not confined to just one expression, it fires off in all different directions, but it always appears in most low-level situations to be unreasonable, unnecessary and demonstrates a person’s basically poor self-control or rough and ready nature and don’t care a toff how one sounds,

When swearing really does sound uncouth or bad? Is when a professional person, who holds a good strong position, articulate intelligence and has the ability to step in and out of arguing, debating or challenging others points of view for various reasons. TV, presentation, political, religious and so on. And then all of a sudden, in the middle of what they’re saying, they start swearing when it’s unnecessary.

Many professional high-ranking people do this and it never looks good. And they’re almost oblivious to how bad they sound. There’s nothing wrong with swearing in the right situation or the right context, but some people use it when they shouldn’t be using it and it makes them look just wrong and out of place. It brings into question their whole stance and position, because of the way it’s making them sound and I think everyone can relate to that.

Try doing it in front of a police officer. Not directly at the police officer, but in the presence and company of a police officer. When that police officer is conducting their investigation or duties, such as a stop and check or a vehicle stop and that the participant of say the car starts firing off, swears around a police officer, they will not allow it, will not accept it and warn them or advise them to tone it down, dial it in.

From a neurological point of view. Swearing is believed to involve areas of the brain which are different from the regular use of speech, while a structured language is processed in the outer layers of the mind or brain. Emotional vocalisations, which include the swearing, are connected to deeper, older and primitive regions of the brain. People who lose certain language abilities through injuries can sometimes still swear, especially those elderly people suffering from dementia. And if you know dementia, a lot of people who suffer it are pretty good at ranting and raving and swearing because swearing is coming from a different stored and accessed area and comes out differently from other language because at the end of the day, language is all expressions of energy.

If we look at psychologically, the swear or the swearing carries meanings beyond the word itself. And it always signals an intensity that goes above and beyond the situation that warrants it. Or the way the person is feeling and when someone swears, they are not just describing that situation, they are often emphasising how strongly they are feeling at that moment about that situation. So, a sentence with a swear word in it often lands or is heard or hits harder. Even if the underlying message is basically the same. That swear word, the impact of it is part of why swearing persists across all cultures, language structures and generations around the world.

It’s important to point out that there’s a big difference between conscious, deliberate swearing and just constant swearing. Repetitive, habitual, constant swearing, which could be considered a low-level use of language. And when used occasionally, it retains its force and its power and it specifically stands out. It marks a unique moment, as significant and supports what is being stated or said, but when it’s used all the time, it just becomes a background mess that irritates and annoys people, an emotional charge that accompanies the swear word, then weakens. And what was once or could have been a sharp expression that causes people to take notice when it’s needed becomes dull or weakened through unnecessary ridiculous repetition as we all know someone who swears all the time. It almost looks and sounds as if that person swearing all the time is demented and you often reflect on how they’re just not aware of how much swearing they’re doing and what that sounds like and they can’t see it. It’s a bit like people who’ve got extreme body odour that they don’t know they smell so bad.

If there was a real use for swearing which there is but it has got lost in every day mixed up language expression. But if there was a reason then it would be to carry the negative out of the system and in certain situations it can be appropriate and proportional and even useful as it releases tension and creates a specific emphasis and also adds authenticity to speech.

People pay attention and people show more respect back. But the problem arises when it becomes too automatic and too repetitive in other words, just dirty and habitual when every sentence just carries the same repetitive intensity and that the purpose or the meaning becomes lost. Theres no longer a distinction between what originally mattered and what no longer matters now. The person swearing is getting lost in their spoken mess.

For some habitual swearers from a behavioural perspective viewpoint, the habitual constant swearer can also reflect the underlying inner patterns of confusion, inability to deal with frustrations, putting up a defensive barrier around themselves. Because, to be honest, you tend to back off. You tend to keep vigilant on what they might say or do if you step on their toes. And it also can point to a tendency to react to very quickly rather than respond with self-control and awareness over what it is that’s making the person swear. It can signal that the nervous system is too frequently, too often in a heightened state where even small tiny little triggers fire that person off and overtime this can shape how others start to perceive that person and their personality and judgement often comes back on that person as negative as its their normal expression and that they’re easily agitated and their lack of control is weak.

When should swearing be used?

Swearing works best when it’s intentional, when there is purpose in the situational scenario and most people will agree with that when it specifically reflects a genuine moments rather than a habitual way of firing off. When it’s used very sparingly, it can highlight emotion and feelings or expression that the person needs to pay attention to without overwhelming it constantly. It can flatten communication and reduces clarity of what’s being expressed and just makes you look dim, so stop habitually swearing!

It’s important to realise that repeated habitual swearing will reinforce subconscious emotional patterns and if strong language is consistently, repetitively associated with frustration or irritation your mind will begin to link the two more tightly and over a period of time the threshold for those reactions will lower and situations that might once have passed without much effect or impact begin to trigger and fire off. Even stronger responses are needed and the subconscious mind will do this. Although this is not caused by swearing alone, but it will contribute to firing off certain needs to be developed in a negative way.

If swearing is used cautiously and sparingly, Very sparingly it sends out a clear signal and marks boundaries, expresses limits and releases a specific amount of negative feelings and it becomes a naturally accepted part of communication instead of it being like a constant background barking!

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