A recent Washington Post article cited research showing that the number of people who admit they feel “uncontrollable anger toward another driver" has doubled since 2005. U.S. News & World Report this winter reported on the phenomenon of "snow rage," a stress-driven epidemic that hit much of the country this year due to extremely cold and snowy weather.
There was a time when "all the rage" meant being up-to-date in fashion or knowing the latest dance step. Now, it can only refer to a raging anger bubbling just below the surface, waiting for someone to come along and do, or say, just the wrong thing to release it.
Why All the Anger?
Rage is a violent and uncontrollable anger that can be expressed in a variety of ways—bared teeth, yelling, or physically abusing someone, to name a few. It's mounting unhappiness and frustration that finally finds a release point and just lets go. When most people reach, and cross, that line, their rage has been building for some time and finally just can’t be restrained any longer.
Experiencing someone else's rage can be highly disturbing. When we're the target of such rage, or even just witnessing the person vent it, we can feel cowed and emotionally abused. We’re not quite sure how far they might go before they turn their rage down, or off.
Rage is often the polar opposite of depression in its expression, but its evolution stems from many of the same conditions: We feel helpless. Lost. Taken advantage of. We feel like we've come up short in comparison to others. We feel we haven’t been given what we deserve. We experience life as “not fair.”
The problem with extreme negative emotions like rage—and depression—is that they deplete us. They make us less able to cope with the ups and downs of everyday life. We can find ourselves walking around worrying about the next thing that might go wrong—that might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Rage is not a positive state for anyone—and the consequences can be long-standing if it isn’t diverted. Instead of allowing these emotions to build, and placing yourself in a potentially disastrous situation in which you've lost the ability to stay objective and balanced, take these four steps to deflate the rage balloon building inside you: