Rage and state of berserkers. Category: altered states of consciousness.

Bouts of rage are a manifestation of an extreme form of human anger, literally bursting from the inside. Attacks of rage are marked by a destructive flow of energy, and negative emotions are characterized by a shutdown of the ability to analyze one’s actions. Unreasonable and sudden attacks cause bewilderment among others, as well as anxiety among the individual himself. To cope with your emotions, you should find out their cause, as well as master effective techniques for relieving aggressiveness.

Causes of rage attacks

There are no people who never get angry and always maintain a balanced state. Anything can get you out of a rut: an unfair boss, traffic jams, bad weather, children's pranks, etc. However, rage and anger are one thing, and uncontrollable sudden attacks of rage and anger are another thing entirely.

Anger and rage usually pass without serious destructive consequences for a person, but if during sudden attacks of rage a person is able to cause pain and suffering to loved ones or those around him, then this already indicates a lack of control over his emotions. In principle, a violent manifestation of anger is considered a normal reaction of the human psyche to an external stimulus. It is much more difficult to deal with uncontrolled manifestations of aggression.

An attack of rage refers to both an emotional and physiological state. It manifests itself in increased heart rate, redness or pallor of the skin. This happens because the body receives a huge amount of energy that needs to be put somewhere.

There is an opinion that holding back negative emotions is harmful. This is not so and scientists have proven it. The release of negative emotions in the form of anger and anger towards the immediate environment is akin to a drug that gives great pleasure to the aggressor. Frequent breakdowns of a person with loved ones make him want to do this all the time. Over time, the person himself no longer notices that he is unconsciously provoking situations in which he falls into an attack. Ordinary people, noticing such a feature, begin to avoid such a person, and he, in turn, finds a society of the same unbalanced people who love outbursts of anger.

Managing anger when someone disrupts our plans

In these situations we do not get what we want, and yet they do not fall into any of the other three categories. Here are some examples.

1. It seems to you that someone is preventing you from achieving your goal (putting a spoke in your wheels).
2. You don't get what you want (you feel disappointed).
3. Others violate your boundaries by touching your things or dancing with your partner, clinging too closely to him. The latter provokes anger similar to the anger of animals when a stranger invades their territory.

What does it look like in life

Let's say your neighbor parks right in front of your garage. You can leave, but you will have to spend more time and effort on it than usual, and you’re already late! The first desire is to kick the offender’s car in the wheel, and when he gets out, tell him everything you think about him.

Taking out the anger seems like a good solution in this case. But, unfortunately, this will not lead to anything good. Most likely, you will hear from your neighbor something like: “I left the car for two minutes, and you threw a tantrum!” or “Who gave you the right to talk to me in that tone?!” As a result, you will have one more ill-wisher.

When you are angry, you have an unfulfilled desire. If you realize exactly what you want and convey it to your opponent instead of anger, you will achieve much better results in the long run.

Ilse Sand

What to do

If you understand that anger is associated with the fact that someone is violating your plans, try to express your emotions not in the form of a reproach, but in the form of a wish. You can say to your neighbor, for example, the following: “If it’s not difficult for you, please drive the car literally a couple of meters to the left. Then it will be easier for me to leave.”

Most likely, such a polite request will be fulfilled and will not turn into a smoldering conflict. Instead of an opponent, you will get a person who has already collaborated with you once - and with a high probability will continue to cooperate.

The tips listed are just a few of the secrets of anger management. In her book, Compass of Emotions: How to Understand Your Feelings, Ilse Sand explains how to recognize your true feelings and explain them tactfully but clearly to others. This will help you cope not only with anger, but also with other negative emotions: envy, resentment, shame - and squeeze positive opportunities out of them.

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Attack of rage and anger

Negative emotions manifest themselves in the form of a destructive reaction to an obstacle (external or internal). At the same time, an obstacle often infuriates a person, and the rage itself is accompanied by an incredible desire to destroy this obstacle. An obstacle can be both inanimate and animate. The emergence of rage is associated with the appearance of anger, which angers the individual. Attempts to cope with it remain unsuccessful and anger develops into rage.

Rage occurs when a situation develops that is not satisfactory and gives the feeling that it is possible to cope with it. It grows to a certain point - a turning point, after which there is either a decline in the intensity of feelings until calm, or a sharp jump upward, which manifests itself in the form of attacks. A common, common expression is choked with anger. This is the starting point for the onset of rage.

This condition is marked by compression of the nerves and shortness of breath. Negative emotions are always accompanied by a desire for physical activity: fight, jump, run, crush, break, clench your hands into fists.

Attacks are marked by specific facial expressions:

- drooping, knitted eyebrows;

- widened eyes, focusing attention on the object of aggression;

- formation of horizontal folds on the bridge of the nose;

- expansion of the wings of the nose due to air flows and tension;

- open mouth at height when inhaling, bare teeth.

Attacks of rage have many similarities with hysteria. They are united, for example, by the fact that these extreme forms of expression of emotions, introducing the human psyche into a dangerous state, do not have organic changes.

Prolonged hysteria and fits of rage cause serious harm to health. This could be loss of consciousness, stroke, shock, heart attack, paralysis of the arms, temporary deafness, blindness.

Anger management when we get defensive

This is also a common situation: there are times when we need to be alone. This happens when internal resources are depleted and a person needs a break to gather his strength again. Offers of care or help at such moments are not always welcome. Unconsciously defending ourselves from “invasion,” we push away loved ones.

What does it look like in life

For the past three months, Nina has been desperately working hard at work, hoping for a promotion. But for some reason, management chose another employee. Nina returns home. She feels exhausted and empty, and doesn’t quite understand what to do next.

Nina’s husband Sergei also comes home. He smiles and brings groceries into the kitchen, but Nina has neither the desire nor the strength to communicate with him. She silently begins to prepare dinner.

At this moment, Sergei tries to hug her playfully and Nina feels irritation flare up in her. She abruptly shakes off his hand and wants to say: “Don’t touch me! Better go peel the potatoes!”

Most likely, these words will offend Sergei with all the ensuing consequences for family relationships. In the morning, Nina will wake up with the sad thought that she is neither appreciated at work nor understood at home.

What to do

Again, understand that the anger that Nina experiences in response to the touch is secondary. It is not Sergei who causes her irritation: it is associated with a completely normal desire to be alone for some time.

And the smartest thing to do would be to say it out loud. For example, like this: “I don’t feel like talking right now, let me be alone.” Or in other words: “Sorry, you have nothing to do with it. I need to think a little, okay? When he lets go, I’ll tell you about it.”

Yes, in such cases it can be difficult to pull yourself together and formulate your feelings so as not to offend a loved one. If you notice that you cannot cope with anger and are pushing away loved ones whose help you still need, it is worth discussing this situation with a psychotherapist.

We cannot waste our lives suffering because we push away those we need so much.

Ilse Sand

Attacks of rage in men and women

A hormonal storm in a man’s body can provoke the manifestation of negative emotions. Excess testosterone makes a man more aggressive. This behavior is attributed to a hereditary factor that modern men inherited from the Middle Ages, when they had to defend their territory. An unreasonable outbreak of aggression in men is considered a mental problem.

Treatment and prevention of rage attacks include social and medical components. The first is associated with the competent behavior of others who witnessed the onset of this state. The second is related to contacting specialists in medical institutions.

The cause of uncontrolled violent behavior in the female half of humanity, as well as in the male half, is various physiological deviations and somatic diseases. For example, brain injuries and tumors, metabolic disorders can very well become the starting point for attacks. Post-traumatic stress disorder, if left untreated, can easily provoke the same result. However, knowing about the physiological predisposition of the female body to deviant behavior, it is possible to prevent the manifestations of this condition in women and, if possible, even take preventive measures.

Balm for Anger

Given the results of this research on the anatomy of anger, Zillmann sees two main ways to intervene. The first way to curb anger is to grasp the thoughts that trigger the anger and question them, since it is this initial assessment of the interaction that reinforces and maintains the first outburst of anger, and subsequent new assessments fan the flames. The timing matters: the earlier in the anger development cycle you do this, the greater the effect you can achieve. In fact, the development of anger can be completely stopped if calming information arrives before the person begins to act out of anger.

The role of insight in controlling anger is illustrated by another of Zillmann's experiments, in which a rude assistant abused and infuriated volunteer participants who were "riding" an exercise bike. When the volunteers had the opportunity to pay the rude experimenter back in kind (again by giving him a bad rating, which they thought would be used in their hiring consideration), they did so with malicious glee. But in one version of the experiment, another assistant walked in just as the volunteers were already annoyed and just before they had a chance to retaliate; she told the daring experimenter that he was being asked to use the telephone downstairs in the lobby. As he left, he made a snide remark to her as well. But she accepted him with full understanding, explaining to the others after he left that he was under terrible pressure and upset about the upcoming oral exams for a degree. After this, when the angry volunteers had the opportunity to get even with the rude man, they did not do it; instead, they expressed sympathy for his situation.

Such mitigating information allows for a reappraisal of the anger-provoking events. But there is a special “window of opportunity” for this control of anger. Zillmann found that it worked excellently in moderate degrees of irritation; when the rage reaches a high level in its build-up, it has no meaning due to what he calls “cognitive failure,” in other words, people become unable to think sensibly. When people were no longer conscious of rage, they brushed aside the mitigating information with the words: “Well, this is too much!” or resorted to “the crudest expressions available in the native language,” as Zillmann delicately put it.

Child's rage attacks

The physiological basis of emotions that tonic an individual’s activity is mainly the process of excitation, while the basis of such negative emotions as fear are the processes of inhibition. In childhood, excitement has an advantage over inhibition, thereby determining the child’s emotional increased excitability.

A child in preschool age fully transmits the mood of those around him; the child is able to cry, but within a few minutes laugh. For children, rapid changes in emotions are a normal reaction. It is important for parents to remember this and not to panic in vain. Gradually, over the years, a balance of nervous processes develops, and feelings become stable and moderate. Parents should take into account that the child always tries to copy adults. And if he notices that with the help of hysteria and attacks it is possible to achieve his goals, then he will constantly use it.

How to deal with rage attacks in children? Do not create situations that are traumatic for the child’s psyche, do not have offensive, hurtful conversations in front of the baby. If there is a threat of negative emotions, smooth out difficult moments and distract the child with other topics.

If a child has frequent hysteria, which arose due to the influence of the school group, it is necessary to go to school without hesitation and find out what the reason is.

If attacks of hysteria pose a threat to the child’s health, then the issue of termination of stay in the educational institution or this class should be decided.

How to become a berserker in real life. Evgeny Zaitsev

You must get used to patience. All training may take you years. The main thing in learning is to get used to the fact that some things will happen very slowly. You must get used to enduring not only long periods of waiting, you must be able to not get irritated in any situation. Patience must be learned before anything else. Then it will be too late. Now you do not yet automatically come to YaB and will not be able to do much harm. Previously, the master put his student in various situations, simultaneously testing his endurance and ability to fight. Often after these checks, the student began to hate his master and tried to attack him. Subsequently, hatred and the desire to win pushed the student to the initial stages. The ensuing skirmishes taught the student to humble himself outwardly, taught him to lie low, waiting for the right moment, and at the same time made him devoted to his master. After some time, the student finally began to understand that the master was his friend, not his enemy.

Cultured and calm parents

All adults know how easily children can make even the calmest parents lose their temper in just a few minutes. Kids are demanding, but teenagers do whatever they want. And while in the West families try not to yell at children, not everyone manages to follow this unspoken law. But the total control that parents try to maintain in life does not contribute to creating a healthy atmosphere in the family.

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In other cultures, the younger generation does not seek complete control - adults only guide children, helping them to draw their own conclusions. For example, in Japan no one scolds quarreling children. Instead, they are allowed to figure things out for themselves, which allows them to learn how to build social relationships early.

Calm

One day, when I was thirteen years old, I ran out of the house in a fit of anger, vowing never to return there again. As I remember now, it was a beautiful summer day, and I went quite far, wandering through the delightful narrow streets, until I felt that the silence and beauty gradually tempered my anger and brought peace to my soul. A few hours later I returned home, regretting my stupid action and moved almost to tears. Since then, whenever I have an attack of anger, I try to deal with it in a similar way whenever possible and believe that this is the best method of treatment.

This story follows the theme of one of the first scientific studies of anger, conducted in 1899. It still serves as a model for the second method of calming anger, when, in order to cool passions in a physiological sense, the adrenaline rush is waited out in an environment where additional mechanisms for inciting rage are most likely not to appear. For example, if a dispute arises, this means that you need to stop communicating with that person for a while. During a period of cooling of passions, an angry person can slow down the increase in hostility by trying to find a way to distract himself or have fun. Entertainment, according to Zillmann, is a powerful mood changer, and this is quite natural, since it is difficult to be irritated when you are having a good time. The trick is to first cool down the anger to the point where the person is able to cheer up.

Zillmann's analysis of how anger increases and calms down explains many of Diane Theis's findings about the strategies people say they use to manage their anger. According to one fairly effective strategy, you need to move away from everyone and everything and calm down in complete solitude. Many men interpret this as advice to go for a drive—a revelation that makes life difficult for other drivers (and, Theis told me, prompted her to be more vigilant behind the wheel). A safer alternative would probably be to go for a long walk. Vigorous exercise also helps a lot against anger. Various relaxation methods, for example, deep breathing and muscle relaxation, are no less effective, probably because they change the physiology of the body, transferring it from a state of high arousal in moments of anger to a state of reduced arousal, and perhaps also distract from anything that caused anger. The mechanism of calming through active exercise appears to be the same: after high physiological activation during exercise, the body returns to a low activation level as soon as you stop it.

However, not a single method of calming down will work if at this time you go through thoughts that provoke anger in your head one after another, because each such thought in itself is a small trigger for the sequential inclusion of irritations. The good thing about entertainment is that it breaks this chain of annoying thoughts. In studying the strategies many people use to cope with anger, Tice found that having a variety of activities generally helps control anger. Thus, television, cinema, reading and similar means do not allow you to endlessly dwell on annoying thoughts that deprive you of your peace of mind. However, according to Theis, such pleasures as shopping and delicious food have no tangible effect, since there is nothing to stop you from continuing to mentally resent and be indignant as you cruise through the supermarket or put a piece of chocolate cake in your mouth.

Added to these strategies are several techniques developed by Redford Williams, a psychiatrist at Duke University who is finding ways to help abusive and angry people at high risk for heart disease manage their irritability. In particular, he advises them to use self-awareness to spot cynical or hostile thoughts as they arise and write them down in a notebook. Angry thoughts captured in this way can be questioned and re-evaluated, although Zillmann believes this method works better in a situation where irritation has not yet turned into rage.

Aggression is “inherited”

For thousands of years, people have lived by the principle of “kill or die,” so it is not surprising that aggression is programmed into our genetic code. Worse, in some cases we completely lose self-control, which in criminal law is called a state of passion. This term is usually applied to people who are genetically predisposed to anger. They often try to remain calm, but they lack effective areas of the brain responsible for regulating emotions.

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The MAOA gene, which plays a role in emotion regulation, has the greatest influence on anger. Those who do not have it as strongly are more likely to express their negative emotions. And in those subjects in whom it is more pronounced, a calm and reasonable character is observed.

Declension of the noun rage