The horrors. The fear. The rats. The jitterbugs. No, we're not just listing words: these are all slang expressions (some super-outdated) that mean the same thing—delirium tremens.

When someone withdraws from alcohol addiction, they experience "delirium tremens" or "the DTs." Translated from the Latin, this condition means, "shaking delirium" or "trembling madness." It can last as long as three days, and can cause fevers, heart palpitations, seizures, and hallucinations.

Yeah, you read that right—hallucinations. Another expression for the DTs is "seeing pink elephants." Too bad Don doesn't see anything nearly as Dumbo- tastic as pink elephants.

Close Encounters of the Delirious Kind

Don first encounters the DTs at the alcoholic ward. The nurse Bim explains the condition vaguely when he first arrives, but Don witnesses it firsthand when a fellow ward-mate starts screaming bloody murder in the middle of night. As it turns out, he's hallucinating being attacked by small animals.

Ugh. Death by the cast of The Rescuers.

This could be Don's future if he's not careful—a future spent inside the walls of a hospital ward, driven insane by the DTs. It's terrifying. Even more terrifying, however, is the little DT preview he receives upon returning home.

Note: Given that the DTs occur when an alcoholic has no alcohol in his or her system, it doesn't make sense that Don experiences these withdrawal symptoms after drinking half a bottle of whiskey. Don't worry about that, however, and instead focus on the symbolic nature of this scene.

Trippy, Mane

In Don's DT-induced hallucination, he sees a mouse crawl out from a hole in the wall, which he seems to find a little cute (instead of finding the nearest pest control center). Suddenly, he hears a shriek from the window and sees a bat swoop into the room, flying towards the mouse and attacking it. Blood drips down the wall as Don screams like he's never screamed before.

Okay, so that's pretty metal, but what does it mean?

Well, one interpretation is that the mouse represents "Don the Writer" while the bat represents "Don the Drunk." In this reading, the bat killing the mouse represents Don's perception that his "Drunk" side has finally killed his "Writer" side.

The moral of this story is twofold: the delirium tremens are terrifying, and you should definitely get rid of any mice you find in your apartment—they you don't want an infestation of mice and bats.