Road Rage !
There you are, already late for that appointment and driving in and out of traffic getting more and more aggravated. You are sure that someone placed all of these idiots in front of you just to ruin this day that you have so looked forward to. It is the third interview for that awesome job and you just need to impress the CEO with this last interview. Tensions mount as you find yourself compulsively taking a finger and aiming at people who could be teachers, priests, or just really nice people. You don’t care who they are, they are just in your way and surely will be responsible for your being late (not acknowledging the fact that you overslept). You arrive to your interview just a shade past one minute late and find out that the CEO always gets in 15 minutes late and you wind up waiting for your interview to start.
So, what you have accomplished for the start of your day, and possibly your new career? Anxiety, anger, fear, doubt, and all of the accompanying physical consequences such as stomach acid, headache, and general feeling of yuck. It should interest you to know that you have drifted off into a psychiatric madness of sorts. “An association with psychiatric illness is implied from reports of such drivers being “mad”. Previous literature has demonstrated a link between road traffic accidents and mental illness.” So, were you temporarily insane? Did your personality change from being a reasonable, likeable, and peaceful person to a mad person that you don’t recognize?
The fact is that when you feel these emotions that are uncharacteristic of you, you are experiencing the fight or flight response of your brain. During stress, your nervous system changes, your heart is pumping due to the release of chemicals from the adrenal system, and neurons in your brain are sparking like an old radio dumped into the bathtub. This is what you experience when you build up anger and frustration as you can’t seem to get the world to respond in a fashion that accommodates your current situation. Yes, you kind of go nuts and it is not healthy mentally or physically. It is important to put things into perspective when you are under pressure and life is in your way. Think calmness, and trust in your talents to pull you through any situation. You are not the angry and bitter crazy driver, you are a wonderful person who will eventually get to that appointment and probably get that job.