Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/26/rage-rooms-dont-work-study-reveals-best-anger-management-techniques.html
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This comes as absolutely no shock to anyone who understands the field. There is a difference between “having fun busting shit up,” which can, actually. be fun. If a bit dangerous. And turning down the physiologic anger response, which requires a totally different approach. As outlined in the article.
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I’ve wanted to try one of the rage rooms as it sounds like a brief, catharic release, but I never have because I’d be furious at myself for spending $50-$100 to smash a few pieces of junk.
I could buy a box of plates at WalMart and just break them into the garbage can for a quarter that.
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So, is big breathing the reason that a walk (an angry, stomping f’n walk) helps when I’m agitated? It doesn’t seem to turn down the heat or the heart rate, but it does keep me from saying mean things (that I don’t really mean) before I calm down.
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Getting air in and out seems to be the single best intervention for any feeling.
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“Rage rooms?” Of course they’re no good. Everyone knows that Angry Domes are the way of the future.
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I don’t deal with a lot of anger, unless I’m in denial, but I do grapple with anxiety and general angst.
Something that has worked for me over the decades has been karate, which involves a lot of hitting, but also baked in breath work and meditative aspects. If you’re sparring or hitting the bag and are too worked up, you become less effective. I think it’s part of the lesson that if you’re allowing anger or angst to guide you, you’re more likely to be ineffective at sparring, or if you’re careless while punching/kicking your feelings out on the bag, you will have a week or two of sore hands/feet to remind you of the benefits of moving with calmness. When we break boards and such, much of the work to put your hands through the lumber is not psyching yourself up, but staying relaxed.
Outside of class, when I’m stressed, the breathing and relaxation show up to help me, not so much the punchy kickiness.
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I find that counting backwards from 270, in multiples of 3, gives me enough time to forget why I was angry, and also how math works.
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Wow. On a good day, I might get past 260 doing that. Would have to dumb it way down for me. 
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Scrap metal yards are typically very noisy.
Even a municipal scrap metal collection site can be noisy.
If you happen to have a lot of low-value “shreddable tin” (thin steel) in any form (dead toaster oven, floor lamp covered in rust, garden tools ruined beyond redemption, basically anything that has metal in it, including car batteries and wire and window frames… please check with your local scrap metal site for their rules re accepting what you are bringing in), you can take your metal to such a place and fling stuff into the metal pile(s) in a very physical satisfyingly loud way.
Depending on how much material you bring in, and what kind, you might even get paid. Again, check with your scrapyard or municipality.
You get some real catharsis, you get paid, you declutter your own living space, and you are recycling a resource that was mined out and processed at great cost to our planet. Recycled metal is reincarnation. And conservation. And efficient.
I have been scrapping metal for 30+ years.
Bring the noise!
Resources:
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Excellent environmentally aware “when life gives you lemons” advice.
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