Читать книгу Managing Anger: Simple Steps to Dealing with Frustration and Threat - Gael Lindenfield, Gael Lindenfield - Страница 28

Anyone who has worked in a mental hospital and has laughed along at the hilarious antics and stories of a ‘high’ patient knows how just suddenly a word or look can turn this comic manic activity into uncontrollable and frightening fury. Mismanaged anger may not always directly cause manic states and illnesses, but I certainly think it can act as a trigger and inhibit recovery.

To understand how this can happen, just think of a time when you have been very angry but unable to express it. Quite probably, you may have found yourself rushing blindly around the house or office in a state of ‘furious’ activity. You might have found jobs for yourself and others to do that you have hardly noticed before. Your mind might have been racing from one thing to another as you gabbled away about cupboards that needed cleaning, minutes that needed writing, phone calls that must be made, holidays that still hadn’t been arranged, and so on. After a while your frustration and fury hopefully dissipated and your life resumed its normal pace.

But just imagine having such a well of pent-up rage that no amount of activity seems to shift it. Your body won’t stay still and your mind continues racing, so you may try to laugh and clown it away. The moment you meet any frustration or problem, you quickly switch into another activity or train of thought. You start jobs and conversations but rarely finish them, you are getting little sense of satisfaction, your frustration builds and, in desperation, you get even speedier. Eventually you, or the people around you, reach breaking point. If you reach breaking point first, you’re in a state of depression; if it is the others who can’t cope, your condition could be labelled manic and you could be deemed in need of the care and control of a psychiatric institution.

Mercifully, very few people reach this terrible state, but don’t too many of us still waste much energy and time by displacing lesser amounts of anger and frustration with chaotic, unfocused and unconstructive activity?