WHY WE'RE SO. DAMN. MAD.
Prevention US|August 2023
Majorly pissed-off, low-key resentful, or extra short-fused lately? Of course you are, and no, it's not just you! But while anger is not a comfortable feeling-and coping with it unwisely can harm your health-it can spark positive change. HERE'S HOW TO PUT IT TO HEALTHY USE.
STEPHANIE DOLGOFF
WHY WE'RE SO. DAMN. MAD.

If you met me, say, fumbling with the scanner at the Stop & Shop self-checkout, you'd think, "What a nice, slightly inept middle-aged lady." But that's only because smoke doesn't literally come out of people's ears when they're angry. If it did, all the Stop & Shop shoppers would be evacuated and I'd be left sitting with my family-size box of Triscuits and my dog toys soaked in flame-retardant foam.

For the record, I am a nice lady, and one who is privileged to have a lot less to be mad about than many women. I'm employed, healthy, and educated, and there are people who have my back. I am also white, which means, among other things, that I'm spared being labeled an "angry Black woman" based on my merely showing up and having an opinion.

And yet, like everyone I know (and, judging by social media, almost everyone I don't know), I am far more rageful than ever before. Cultural extremism, inequities in our justice system, the attacks on LGBTQ+ people, and the revocation of our control over our bodies top my greatest-hits list of infuriating things. While those are macro issues, on a personal level "women are angry because they're feeling taken advantage of, stressed out, and exhausted," says Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger. "Even before the pandemic, women were much more stressed than men."

EMOTIONS ON STEROIDS

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