Anger can be a dangerous drug

Our society seems to be addicted to a drug — anger. Social media plays a part in this. What ends up on most of our feeds are stories and statements that are designed to elicit a response and the most powerful human emotion is anger. But social media isn’t the only culprit here. News programs, comedians, news sites, politicians, and more all add to our addiction.

Anger provides us with a warm feeling that let’s us know we are alive. The feeling of anger has the ability to cover other feelings — like pain and suffering. Anger gives us a boost of adrenaline. Anger can make us feel righteous. It can make us feel like we are fighting for truth and what is right, regardless of what that is. Anger gives us something basic to humanity — an enemy to scapegoat for whatever problem we observe or encounter. Anger is a form of deflection from dealing with our own problems and brokenness.

And anger is addicting.

That’s not a radical statement — I don’t think it is anyway. All I need to do is see what the latest angering thing is. This week it’s supposedly something about Big Bird promoting vaccinations or something like that. Don’t bother looking into it though — we’ll be onto the next rage soon enough.

Here’s a few ways to deal with anger:

1. Notice yourself getting angry. You have to pay attention to what’s going on inside of you. If you don’t, then anger will just blind you and you are more likely to say or do something that you will later regret. Anger doesn’t work well…