Keep calm and carry on!

Don’t let your mental equilibrium get disturbed by factors such as anxiety, demanding workloads, hectic lifestyles, family, social and financial responsibilities and unrealistic expectations of people
By Dr Prachi

A 16 -year-old boy Joginder Arora (name changed) from Amritsar was shot at after fight over parking. Raju, a bus driver, was hit by a hammer by a man in a BMW car for not giving way. A police constable was dragged for more than 50 metres and was killed by being crushed under the wheels of a car that he signalled to stop for crossing red light.
These are few examples of what is happening almost regularly in Delhi and are popularly referred to as road rage incidents and stress problems. In the past few years almost every day we get to hear about such incidents and the people on the roads in Delhi are so short-tempered that they don’t even hesitate to hit, punch or even kill someone on the pretext of some minor issues on the road, leave aside the regular abuses and arguments.
There are biological, psychological and social factors that influence behaviour such as rage. Biological factors play a role in human behavior. Some individuals are genetically predisposed to have aggressive tendencies. This aggressive behavior is usually channeled in socially acceptable ways. Some of the psychological factors that affect human behavior are the result of early attachment to parental figures and the resolution of conflict early in life.
Social factors are also important. For an individual to lose control and go into a rage, usually there is a combination of temperament, learned behavior and a high level of stress and frustration.
Rage is dangerous because as a person loses control, he can say things that he normally would suppress and even become violent. A moment of losing control can change one’s life forever. You can lose your job, your relationships, or can land up in jail. The consequences for the individual can also be financial loss and psychological injury. The consequences for the victim are usually worse and can include long-lasting psychological scars and/or physical trauma. If an individual has an episode of rage, he should seek psychological help. If this problem is not addressed with professional assistance, it may develop into a pattern of self-destruction.
Some people will not like the consequences of their behavior and for that reason will try to retract their actions by offering an apology. But, in fact, the behavior actually reflects who they really are and are expressing feelings that are usually suppressed. Others will sincerely regret what was said or done and will carry the guilt for some time. In both cases, the individual’s life will be changed after an episode of rage. Some people will learn and change their behavior; others will continue with their behavior especially if the consequences are benign. For those that have multiple episodes of rage, it will be more difficult to explain that they did not mean what was said or done.
Many situations and circumstances arise in everyday life that will anger, irritate and frustrate you, and often you will find it difficult controlling your emotions. When you feel overwhelmed by rage, your muscles tense, heart rate increases, breath becomes shorter and faster and temples start pounding.
There are definite triggers that may cause you to lose your temper – anxiety, demanding workloads, hectic lifestyles, family, social and financial responsibilities and unrealistic expectations of people. If someone constantly calls you names, bullies, torments or humiliates you, this is bound to cause a reaction.
Parents often lose their temper when their children disobey them, do badly at school, contend with large problems, or feel they have been taken advantage of. Some people have a shorter temper than others and often become easily provoked and enraged. It hampers your personal relationships with friends and family, leads to violence, creates trouble in your professional life and people fear your temperamental nature.
There are various solutions and coping mechanisms such as psychotherapy, anger management, communication skills training, or self-control training. These strategies will teach you to draw boundaries, take positive control of negative emotions and channel them more constructively.
By including relaxation techniques such as deep breathing exercises, visualization techniques, repeating positive affirmations, meditation or yoga into your lifestyle can make a significant difference in helping you to control your temper and remain calm.
Many aggressive children and adolescents have grown up in violent homes and neighborhoods, but some become violent for other reasons, as in the student shootings at Columbine High School and other schools. In particular, are there psychological or family variables that constrain children toward such a developmental pathway? Many analysts assume that demographic and socioeconomic factors account for most child aggression. Past studies on antecedents of aggression have reported that in general there is no single cause of aggression. Specifically, there are probably multiple pathways by which individuals become aggressive and or violent.
In summary, factors like harsh punishment, low self-esteem predict amount of aggression, but not as strongly as the other factors. Peer victimization, aggressive fantasy, gender, racial and ethnic group and socioeconomic status sensation seeking boys and older children are some of the factors responsible for uncontrolled anger.
When someone is under chronic stress, it begins to negatively affect his or her physical and mental health. The body’s stress response was not made to be continuously engaged. Many people encounter stress from multiple sources, including work, money, health, and relationship worries; and media overload.
With so many sources of stress, it is difficult to find time to relax and disengage. This is why stress is one of the biggest health issues facing people today. Stress can cause mental health problems, and make existing ailments worse. For example, if you often struggle to manage feelings of stress, you might develop a mental health problem like anxiety or depression. Mental health problems can cause stress.
Being under pressure is a normal part of life. It can be a useful drive that helps you take action, feel more energised and get results. But if you often become overwhelmed by stress, these feelings could start to be a problem for you.
Psychiatrists have an actual name for the kind of seething rage that goes beyond the speeding, tailgating, honking, or passing on the right that many aggressive drivers regularly do when they drive. People who experience road rage so violent that it leads to an assault against another driver, passenger, or car may be suffering from intermittent explosive disorder (IED), according to a report of the Archives of General Psychiatry. This disorder may affect up to 7 percent of the population, or about 16 million Americans over their lifetimes, according to the authors. This disease — the psychiatric disorder most closely linked to impulsive violence — usually begins in childhood or adolescence and includes repeated aggressive outbursts involving property destruction and/or injury over many years.
Treatment involves clinical interventions on people with the purpose of understanding, relieving and solving psychological disorders: emotional disorders, behavioral problems and personal worries and others. It is understood that every treatment or intervention involves some sort of interpersonal relationship and social situation. This type of aid may be named psychotherapy, behavior therapy or behavior modification, cognitive therapy (or cognitive-behavioral therapy), psychological counselling, or it may be recognized by other names depending on psychologist’s theoretical orientation or preference.

(The author is Clinical Psychologist, Sri Balajee Action Medical Institute, New Delhi