Basket Case song meaning

This song is a vivid description of emotional instability. Its common knowledge that Armstrong was suffering from anxiety and panic disorders at the time when he wrote this song: "The only way I knew how to deal with it was to write a song about it". Everything in this song reflects mental unsteadiness: being overwhelmed ("Do you have the time to listen to me whine, about nothing and everything - all at once"), self-doubt and confusion ("Am I just paranoid? Am I just stoned?"), self-contradiction and inconsistency ("I went to a whore, he said my life's a bore, and quit my whining 'cause it's bringing her down'"). Behind the joke-like lyrics and the slightly comic mental institution video, lies an implication of great emotional pressure that damaged mental health is causing.

The song is also describing the relationship problems that emotional instability is initiating ("Do you have the time to listen to me whine..?") - mental disorders tend to be very consuming and your loved ones have to face tolerating your obsessiveness and your issues. That doesn't always work perfectly well.

Also, the line "I went to a whore, he said my life's a bore, and quit my whining 'cause it's bringing her down'" could be a description of problems with the choice of sexual preference - problems that cause more anxiety, hesitation and lack of confidence.