I heard the other day about a story of a road rage incident that I found very interesting, not because I am unaware of these incidents but because it involved a medic. Somehow one always imagines that someone in the medical profession to be above such things, after all when we go to see the Dr, they ask after us and not us them. But medics just like all of us suffer from emotions and stress, none of us are immune.
We are after all only human; we suffer the same feelings and thoughts, but express them differently. If feelings have not been allowed expression they seek an outlet in another way, for men this is often in anger. For women it is often about tears. Neither resolves the issue, we have to at some point learn to understand what we are feeling, and find a way of communicating that.
The road rage story must be very familiar to us all. This medic having been cut up on a country road, then chased the driver for several miles at breakneck speed. You may have done it, I confess whilst I have never chased anyone I have been chased and can vouch for the fact it is extremely frightening.
So what does road rage mean? Clearly it is easier for someone to chase down an unknown on the country roads rather than confront a known person. And that in my opinion is what this is all about. We call it displacement. The person who has done the cutting up has clearly triggered something in the drivers head. It could be something like ‘you will never do that to me again,’ or ‘this is (mine) my stretch of the road’. Whatever it is it is certainly not about the unknown person, but that the driver is venting his or her anger onto the world. They may well be very angry people at home too, or they may, like the medic have to always be on their best behaviour, and vent their frustration onto someone or something unknown. The point being that unless they learn to express what they feel in little amounts throughout their day and week and months, things build up until there is an almighty explosion. People behaving entirely uncharacteristically.
Anger, rage and hatred are all part of being human; they are emotions just as love and sadness, kindness and forgiveness. It is when they are not allowed to be expressed or expressed in a way that has no containment that it becomes dangerous. How often have I heard a mother say to a child ‘Don’t say you hate me’, whereas at that moment that is exactly what the child feels. But thinking something and doing something about it are two entirely different things. To think something does not mean you will act upon it.
Anger is nearly always about fear, and when we can recognise that and truly understand that, and find someone to help us work through it, then something can be let go of, and the road rager inside of us will slowly disappear.

