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Four reasons for blowing our tops
ARE people angier nowadays than thery've ever been? One man who would know is behavioural psychologist Duncan McKinnon.
We went to meet him to find out how he's trying to change the way we treat this most destructive of emootions.
WHEN businessman James Hudson ran over the traffic warden who had just given him a ticket in Northampton earlier this year, he provided the perfect anecdote about the malaise of our age – anger.
But why did this everyday incident leave one needing medical attention and the other with a criminal record?
Behavioural psychologist Duncan McKinnon has seen many such cases in his 12 years in the profession.
Currently working on a book on the subject of emotional abnormalities, including anger, he said: "I'm concerned with normal people who have behavioural problems such as stress, anxiety, depression and anger.
"We all get angry, but some people go over the top and get out of control.
"When this happens, it becomes a problem for society. I am not so much concerned with what made them angry as much as to why their reactions are so extreme."
After 15 years working in the Middle East, Duncan returned to his native North East England to retrain as a psychologist.
He initially started his new career with gerontology, the study of ageing, but his real interest lay in the study of abnormal behaviour.
The 64-year-old, originally from South Shields, but now living in Washington, explained: "About 10 years ago I started an organisation called Men Only Drop-In Service (Modis) in Washington.
"The press got hold of it and men started to come in and tell me about being beaten up by partners and even their own children."
He went on to set up Macks, a private practice offering on-site diagnoses and therapies for those with behavioural problems.
The revenue goes towards funding Modis, which is a free service for people who are unemployed or unable to pay for private care.
In this way, Modis becomes self-funding and receives no financial help from the Government or grants.
Having seen the aftermath of so much destructive anger over the years, he says there are four main reasons why people boil over in anger:
Learned behaviour, where a person is taught to react in a certain way as a protective mechanism.
Unlearned behaviour, where a child – for various reasons – has not developed properly and can only see things from their own point of view. When challenged, they can become violent.
Congenital, where controlling enzymes, such as serotonin, are not produced in sufficient quantities to calm a person down.
Clinical, where severe outbursts can be attributed to brain damage or conditions such as Alzheimer's, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or Asperger's and Down's syndromes.
Read the headlines every day and it's easy to think incidents such as road rage or random acts of drunken violence have become commonplace. But does Duncan think people are getting angrier?
"It's difficult to say. There are more statistics these days, but figures do seem to indicate there are more reports of anger-related incidents, particularly around the young, than there were 40 or 50 years ago. But is this just the media hyping things up?
"I do think there seems to be a very tight edge on violence and anger these days, particular amongst the young.
"One of the enzymes associated with anger is dopamine, the one that gives us the 'buzz' when we do something exciting.
"It's therefore quite possible for the young to become addicted to violence for the 'rush' it gives them."
He says anger isn't "curable" but can be managed through therapies such as the common Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
Duncan said: "You could consider CBT as a means of getting them to change from hitting to talking. Or to consider a less violent approach to their problems.
"This can be useful when dealing with grief, learned behaviours or even unlearned behaviours, but will have little or no impact on those with a congenital or clinical root cause.
"Accurate diagnosis is essential if an effective therapy is to be found."
While some GPs prescribe drugs to help people with anger problems, Duncan has started research on how the person's own body can help.
He said: "There doesn't seem to be enough work being done on getting the brain to produce its own enzymes, such as serotonin, which is known to affect our emotional behaviour.
"Diet is also very important – a lot of food which kids eat nowadays are carbohydrate, which offer healthy children energy.
"However, these days, kids don't play out as much as they used to, therefore they don't burn enough of it off and it gets stored as energy for future use.
"It's a bit like having a pool of gasoline and when someone pushes you, it's as if they are striking a match. Whoosh!"
Though hardly mainstream ideas, he hopes, in time, they will be picked up by more of those looking into the causes of anger.
"It's my hope that researchers with far better resources than I have would devote more time to examining the root causes of anger, and make accurate assessments of what's causing the outbursts in order to come to a useful diagnosis and prognosis.
"Anger may not be curable, but is treatable."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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