It’s a tough task to leash anger
Anger is a natural emotion, so is teen outrage. Experts say a short fuse is often triggered by raging hormones, and stress adds fuel to fire. And though one realises the need to keep anger in check, it proves tough to rein it in.
Manasvani Markanday and Priyanka both admit that they explode often. While Manasvani isn’t too happy with the career choice her parents decided on for her, peer pressure often leaves Priyanka agitated.
“I wanted to be a fashion designer, but I am studying to be an engineer. That’s what my parents want me to be. It means a lot of studies. I have a tight schedule. After school, I go for coaching and on return, I have to get cracking on my studies,” says 18-year-old Manasvani, a student of Sadhu Vaswani International School.
“Healthy competition is always good, but honestly, I don’t bother about others as long as I am on the right track. But when comparison is drawn with others, it gets really annoying,” says Priyanka, whose friends are pretty wary of her anger bouts.
But is it possible to respond to anger, rather than react to it? When 17-year-old Lavanya’s brother didn’t let her watch her favourite TV show, she was enraged. “I was angry that I hit my hand on the floor and ended up with a fractured hand,” says the St. Mary’s student.
But Lavanya learnt her lesson from the incident. “I realised that anything I did in anger always ended up in my loss. Since then, I have learnt to be calm and to take it easy,” she says.
“Last year, when I scored poor marks in Math in spite of working hard, I got really angry and argued with my teacher,” says Abhishekh, a 17-year-old student.
“Today’s generation is exceptionally angry. Being a part of it, I can tell you that this could be because we as a generation are extremely impatient,” adds Abhishekh. “Only recently, an old man banged his scooter against a car in which two young boys were sitting. These boys didn’t care about the age of the man and started fighting with him. They didn’t seem to understand that it was a mistake and showed no regard for his age,” he narrates.
Drink a glass of water and count till 10 — this is what Lavanya does now when she notices her anger levels rising. “As a psychology student I feel we should try to get group counseling which would help boost our morale. and make our lives tension-free,” she suggests.
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