Understanding the Dangers of Road Rage

One of the problems with seeing and hearing people beep their horn (angrily), swear, scream, bang their heads and arms around, etc. all of the time is that we become conditioned to the behavior as almost being a normal part of driving. When in essence, it's not; it is truly signs of someone who is not in control of their emotional responses for whatever reason.

If this person was almost hit by another car just minutes or seconds prior and they are in control, but shook up because of the fear or other emotions that go along with having a near miss, then they would pull over or wait till they get to a "safe" place, etc. and then process these strong emotions or exhale, or whatever they needed to do to cope. But with Road Rage's, their behavior is overzealous, pumped up, very immediate, very self serving, and on and on.

The nature of Road Rage is that every single action and innuendo is affecting these drivers negatively and sometimes just for good measure they will throw in 20 other nonrelated negative things that has affected them on this day. These facts alone put them into a very dangerous emotional space to be in, so why on earth, would you want to go and join them in this out of control, out of reality, anger and fear based place that they inhabit.

Most normal people when they are calm and cool would say "no, I don't want to join anyone there", but yet I see them gesture to each other through behavior of yelling, or fists, or hand and finger signals, dirty looks, etc. One of the insidious problems is that most drivers are not even aware how badly they look responding to Road Rage, and yet, they are dancing with these partners every step of the way. And the problem is if you poke a hornet's nest enough times you will get a reaction; maybe not the one you wanted but you will get a reaction none the less.

So, the next time you see someone "going off the wall" so to speak, in their vehicle, because you are taking 4 seconds too long to order your Big Mac, just leave them be to sit in their own emotional vacuum. When you are 2-5 years old and you keep throwing temper tantrums and people are totally bored of it; these temper tantrums lose steam as a pressure point. Of course, the majorities of "regular folks" who act like 2-5 year olds when behind the wheel are just semi dangerous and still should be avoided at all costs. The other minorities of Road Rage personalities are down right nuts and you should go the other way so fast to avoid them you get a speeding ticket!