Pedal to the metal: What are the factors that lead to road rage?

Nisha was driving back home after dropping her husband to the airport after a long tough day at work. She was anxious to reach to her children who were calling continuously. She is the head of human resource at a reputed multinational company. In her thoughts she jumped the lights and collided with a brand new Audi. The Audi owner could not take the shock. He jumped out of the car yelled at her and physically assaulted her by slapping her repeatedly. Nisha also reciprocated by pulling him by his collar. A number of people witnessed the scene, however it looked as if they are enjoying the show. No one intervened. The traffic jam due to the same was just a cherry on top.

Why a sudden blast? What made us go beyond our senses and react so violently?

It’s more than just accumulated frustrations, anxiety, anger, ignorance. What is it that forces us to have no respect for rules, women safety. What is that irks the ego ? Is it about power and control?

Anger has its types:

Sometimes there are serious issues in handling anger, some people actually suffer with IED. Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) involves repeated episodes of impulsive, aggressive, violent behavior or angry verbal outbursts in which you react grossly out of proportion to the situation. Road rage, domestic abuse, throwing or breaking objects, or other temper tantrums may be signs of intermittent explosive disorder, but mostly people are skill deficit for anger management.

Self-importance and over-sensitivity for self: People who are oversensitive about themselves have more anger issues. They think they deserve the tbest treatment. They are over sensitive and since they pay attention on self-importance everyone else according to them deserves punishment.

Ego: plays a key role to be the biggest block in accepting mistakes. People with a big ego refuse to accept the mistakes that they make and they keep blaming others for the same. They argue with others, which turns into physical abuse. This is just not limited to men, women also are big players with ego.

Power: People who are positioned well in organizations, politics or society have this in their subconscious mind that they have the power to break rules or they can escape from any situation. They do forget that on the road they are just passengers like others.

Power back up: Kins of powerful people take rules and legislation for granted and enjoy performing road rage to show power to their peers and to empower their own ego.

Winning all the battles issues:Some people completely ignore the consequences to win any battle. It makes them incompetent to analyze and visualize the end result.

Lack of empathy: They just can’t put themselves in another’s shoes and keep fighting.They don’t understand the problems that others might be facing. They are capable enough to break rules in emergency situations.

Ignoring consequences: At the time of anger they tend to make wrong choices and forget the consequences.

Emotional disturbance: Life-events sometimes make us behave differently. An over occupied mind and multiple tasks at hand tend to make you overlook rules. Accumulated frustration leads to road rage. The adrenal flush generated through sudden calls, emergency at home make people unaware of the environment.

Holding patience for a long: In very few cases people who have been involved in road rage cases accepted that they usually keep their patience and behave as responsible citizens. However accumulated anger, or irritation caused by someone else forces them to reciprocate with anger outbursts.

We all need to understand that while travelling on road we all are equal. We should always behave in a social manner, which brings peace and harmony on the road. Every one’s life is full of disturbances and we need to understand that venting the same out on road doesn’t help the situation in any way.