Imagine for a moment that you are walking down the street, and turn into an alley when suddenly you are attacked by a group of five or six people. What is your instinct? I expect that for most of you reading this it is a sudden overwhelming fear that you cannot control. For others, it may be something more in the neighborhood of an all-consuming rage, and as you fight for your life you find the adrenaline combined with your anger has given you more strength than you could possibly know what to do with. This is normal enough, but what happens when the stakes are lowered?
Of course, if you are being mugged then anger is natural, and possibly even advised. But what about small stressors? Finals. Homecoming. Grocery shopping. How do we deal with these things? If the answer is still an uncontrollable anger, there may be a problem. When we lose control of our emotions we are essentially offering that control to the world around us. This has the potential to be an issue when someone or something makes the conscious decision to exploit that emotional instability in you. Of course, there are ways to protect yourself, though.
There are of course stereotypes about anger management, but the classics became that way for a reason. Extract yourself from the situation. Take slow deep breaths. I have even been told that counting to ten is effective for some people. If I may be indulged to offer advice, I keep a playlist of soft and calming music on my phone for just these situations. As I personally have Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) there are times when I will completely lose control from stress and frustration out of the slightest and most insignificant of causes. Naturally, I have developed a great number of coping mechanisms.
Find your passions in life. Now I confess this may actually be the reason that some of you are feeling as stressed as you are right now. Allow me to approach it another way. What is it that you love to do? I don’t care if it is cool, I don’t care if it is mainstream, I don’t care if it is popular. What makes you feel the most like you? If you are lucky enough to have found a simple solution to this question you have found your outlet. If not, start simple and don’t be afraid to experiment. Draw. Dance. Sing. “Even if you have no place to do it but your own living room.”
I hope that this may be useful to someone. Do not give in to the rage. That is the point where you are your most vulnerable and the easiest to be taken advantage of by the more sinister of the people in the world. Accept that there are things in life that cannot be controlled and move on! Find peace and clarity in the things that you can control. Find happiness in what you know to be true.
