Aggressive Driving/Road Rage

                       ROAD RAGE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Aggressive Driving/Road rage encompasses much more than just what a dictionary can provide. Road rage, also called intermittent explosive disorder, is a term used to refer to violent incidents resulting from stress caused by accidents or incidents on roadways. It is often a natural extension of aggressive driving.

I have worked as a professional driver since 1976 with over 4 million km driven in Calgary! I have driven in the most challenging weather conditions and have seen motor vehicle road rage and collision occurring several times throughout my life. As a supervisor for a company of 700 taxies based in Calgary. I was responsible for gathering and collecting information in view of preparing reports requiring detailed information on vehicle road rage and collisions.

A 1995 study performed by the Road Safety Unit of the Automobile Association of Great Britain found that 90 percent of the drivers surveyed had experienced “road rage” incidents during the preceding 12 months. In this study, 60 percent of drivers admitted to losing their tempers behind the wheel during the previous year, and one percent claimed they had been physically assaulted by another motorist.

Here are some really simple, yet effective anger management techniques for managing road rage

Road rage 

is particularly insidious expression of anger which most of us have no doubt experienced in one form or another. Effective anger management techniques for managing road rage particularly important because if you do a lot of commuting, you’re going to experience traffic … and it’s typically in traffic that you’re going to encounter some type of experience which can trigger your anger. Left unchecked, that anger can quickly manifest as road rage.

How to manage Road Rage

These five power tools are a strategy to transform the triggered anger, that gets evoked within you, to be a portal for a profound awakening. As with other challenges we face, this too can inspire significant insight into what beckons our attention and calls us into our higher ground. On the heels of every misstep we may take lies a road of discovery that can be both enlightening and healing.

I use the word “power” because often intensified anger and hostile outbursts originate from a sense of powerlessness or disempowerment. This method will give you your power back, in a way that is both constructive and lasting.

1): THE POWER TOOL OF COMMITMENT

With this first tool you take full responsibility for the behavior that you want to change and you make a conscious decision to do so. This is based on a keen awareness that “this behavior does not serve me:”

It compromises my physical health.
It is life threatening for myself and for everyone on the road.
It is disruptive to and stressful on the passengers in my vehicle.
It is not good for the emotional development of my children who may be driving in the car with me.

2): THE POWER TOOL OF SUPPORT

With this second tool, you call in the courage to ask for and receive support. There are so many effective techniques to deal with anger and stress management: You can easily Google a plethora of information. Here are a handful of possible methods to explore and experience:

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing)
EFT (Emotional Freedom and Tapping Technique)
Hypnotherapy & Guided Visualization
Bio Feedback
Insight oriented Psychotherapy

3): THE POWER TOOL OF PERSPECTIVE

Here lies the realization that:

A): What’s happening on the road for you is “not about them.”

This understanding requires you to develop insight into the underlying cause of what is really triggering you. Whether you are explosive in a car or behind closed doors… “Hysterical is Historical.” When we overreact to a current situation it is usually about something un-finished or un-healed from our past that we are projecting onto the present circumstance. Review what carries a charge for you on the road… (i.e.: “He cut me off.”). Trace it to a feeling state: (i.e.: “I feel disrespected.”). Then trace it to what it may remind you of in your past (i.e.: “There was never room for me in family. I felt ignored and invisible”). Gaining clearer perspective allows you to diffuse the situation at hand. It also places your focus into finally attending to past-internalized hurts that have influenced your behavior and blocked you from feeling optimal emotional balance and joy for far too long.

B): What’s happening on the road for them is “not about you.”

This focuses on the importance of depersonalizing whatever circumstances you may encounter on the road. Your fellow drivers are not doing anything “to” you. If they are driving too fast, too slow, or cutting you off… it’s about whatever is going on inside of them. We are all responsible for the kind of energy we choose to put out there in the world. Imagine what it would be like if you replaced your defensive posture and judgment of them with compassion and good will.

4): THE POWER TOOL OF PREPARATION:

You can have all the insight in the world, but having an action plan with new behaviors and coping strategies, is what will ultimately insure a different outcome. Here you are creating and practicing new ways of perceiving, interpreting and reacting to the situation.

5): THE POWER TOOL OF PRACTICE & PATIENCE

As with any transformational process, expect both progress and setbacks. Growth is a “three step forward, one step back experience.” The great news is that we can learn from both.

Studies have shown that it takes three weeks to break an old habit and to create new neuro-pathways to the brain, and at least 40 days to alter the subconscious mind.

Celebrate the progress and learn from inevitable times when you may return to old ways of thinking or behaving. They are simply there to remind you, again, what does not work for you, reinforcing the new commitment you have made to yourself.

Patience is a learned habit. It takes time, effort and commitment to build a new habit … and by applying these anger management techniques for managing road rage in a deliberate and consistent fashion, you will enhance your ability to better manage your anger in any situation, including managing your road rage.