Managing anger

ALLTHE RAGE DESTRUCTION THERAPY IS INCREASING IN POPULARITY, BUT IS UNLEASHING YOUR ANGER AS HEALTHY AS IT SOUNDS? WORDS DILVIN YASA

Watching people smashing up things with a baseball bat is routine for K Mohamed.

The co-owner of Smash Splash has seen it all. “We’ve had divorce parties, buck’s nights, people wanting to vent work or exam-related stress, and one case where a wouldbe bride came in her wedding gown and destroyed her dress with her bridesmaids,” K says.

Whether customers are in the Smash room, the Splash room or even the Crash room, the one thing each person has in common is that “they all come out looking and feeling lighter. Their shoulders aren’t as slumped, their footsteps aren’t as heavy. They look like different people”.

Smash Splash is one of a number of “rage rooms” that have opened around the country, a new form of destruction therapy that is increasing in popularity, along with the likes of heavy metal yoga, online scream clubs and creating aggressive music playlists for workout motivation. New techniques rooted in the idea that venting — if you use your anger correctly — can expel negative emotions and make way for the positive.

The benefits

Although anger is often viewed through a negative lens, its presence is important information we need to tap into, psychologist Dr Amanda Ferguson says. “The body keeps a score. If we listen to our emotions, a feeling of anger is telling you something is wrong — either internally or externally — and provided you use that anger constructively, you can use it to motivate or mobilise in a way that can lead to positive change,” Dr Ferguson says. “Repressed anger doesn’t eventually go away, it grows over time, often leading to a wide range of health issues.”

Sigmund Freud wrote, “Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways”. Of course, recent studies also back up the idea that acknowledging and releasing anger in a positive way can help improve our health. One study, by Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, found it not only reduced stress on the heart, but helped manage pain, while another by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that repressing anger could be linked to anxiety and depression.

So is it simply a matter of picking up a sledgehammer and letting loose in order to feel better? Not quite.

Your anger expression plan

Australian Psychological Society president Tamara Cavenett says while venting has its place, what works for one person doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to work for others.

“I would encourage people to closely examine their responses to these activities,” Tamara says.

“If it’s making you feel better, helping you to problem-solve or accept something you cannot change then it might certainly be a useful tool, but what you have to be careful of is that it’s not increasing your anger

“Repressed anger doesn’t eventually go away, it grows over time.”

— Dr Amanda Ferguson

or keeping you trapped in an angry state.

“Check in with yourself and if you’re unsure whether your anger is positive or negative, a good way of arriving at your answer is by asking yourself, ‘Would a reasonable person be responding to this scenario the way you have been, and if they did react the way you just did, would you admire them for how they’ve conducted themselves’.”

If anger has become an issue in your life, consider speaking to your GP about a referral to a counsellor or psyc hologist who specialises in anger management exploration and techniques.

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