Dealing with Anger

R = Radio presenter C = Clip

P = Professor M = Man

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M: They put you in a queue for ages, listening to this terrible music. When you finally speak to someone, you’re so angry, you just want to shout ...

R: Anger. We all know the feeling. A report out last year shows that people are getting angrier. One in ten people say that they have trouble controlling their temper. Traffic jams, airports, call centres, computer crashes – they can all leave us feeling angry, and anger is difficult to control. Or is it? Professor Miller from The Metropolitan University is here to tell us about two very different therapies to help deal with stress. First of all, destruction therapy. What’s that about?

P: Well, basically, the idea is that a lot of people, when they get angry, they don’t know what to do with their anger – they don’t deal with it very well. They just keep it inside. But, if you don’t deal with your anger, sooner or later it will explode. So with destruction therapy, you use your anger to destroy something, but in a controlled way, and the idea is that if you do that, it helps you to feel better.

R: OK, I get angry a lot. Can destruction therapy help me?

P: Perhaps. We can try it. What we do is we take you to a place full of old cars. When we get there, I’ll give you a hammer, and you can use it to smash a car to pieces.

R: Really? Is it that simple? If I smash the car to pieces, will I feel better?

P: Yes, a little. But that’s only the beginning. Then, I’ll ask you to think about a situation in the past when you felt really angry. And when you think about that anger situation, you’ll hit the car much harder. And the therapy will be much more satisfying. When we finish the session, you’ll feel much better.

R: That’s amazing, and businesses are using this kind of therapy in Spain, is that right?

P: Yes, there are some old hotels in Spain. You can pay to go and destroy the hotel. So, some companies who feel that their workers are stressed, or they need to build a team, send their workers to destroy the hotel. And it’s a good way for them to get rid of that stress. It works.

R: That’s incredible. But there’s another idea I wanted to ask you about. People say that laughter is the best medicine. And nowadays, laughter therapy is used in hospitals to help people with pain.

P: That’s right.

R: So, how does that work?

P: Well, if people laugh about something, they feel better. On average, children laugh up to 400 times a day, but when we grow up, we only laugh about seventeen times a day. And it’s not enough, because when you laugh, your body produces chemicals – and these chemicals make you feel happier. And they also make you feel less pain. So, in Mexico, for example, they use laughter therapy in hospitals. A group of people go around the hospital, visiting the patients, and basically, they make them laugh, by telling them jokes, or doing something funny.

R: And does it really work? Do people feel better afterwards?

P: Absolutely! They feel better, and they don’t need medicine.

R: That’s brilliant. So, in Mexico, laughter really is the best medicine?

P: Yes, it looks like it. That’s right …