Why "Bottled up" Temper is Always Harmful.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 14 August 1914, Page 2

Why "Bottled up" Temper is Always Harmful.

The destructiveness of an explosion •is in direct proportion to the amount of force exerted against the expansion which it produces. This analogy holds true to a very great extent in the matter of temper. Anger is an emotion ; that is to Bay, it is a definite physiological state, induced by a condition of the mind. The balance of the body is so delicately adjusted that at a time when there is no unusual excitement in the mind, the impulses and the organism accommodate themselves to each other. But if either be over-stimulated at the cost of the other, trouble is bound to ensue. The power of a machine—to give a simple illustration —is adjusted to a certain load, and If that load be lessened or increased a great strain is put on the machine ; as, for example, the ■'■'racing"- of a steamship's screw Wilt-,i ni'i1 .stern is pitched out of water, and the necessity for changing an automobile to a low-speed clutch gear when going up a hill. . When, as the result of anger, the energy of the human machine is increased, it follows that the load must: be increased in order to keep the balance level. That rage increases energy is well known, for people will perform feats of strength in a fit of fury which they never would dream of doing in quieter moods; and there is always a strong desire to express that "violence of passion by some violence of movement or action. If that action be roughly and rudely prevented by a sort of policeman "of the will called " Keeping^-Your-Temper," there is immediate resistance, and the body suffers. The punishment usually takee the form of extreme fatigue. "Nothing is so tiring," it is said, as "losing your temper." But fatigue, it must not be forgotten, is only a natural condition when it is the result of a long series of fatiguing acts ; when it follows as a result of a fit of rage it is Nature's means of trying to recover from the shock that the restraining of the temper has caused. Think for a moment what a strain it must be which is capable in,a couple of moments of causing tiredness to a man or woman who is competent to resist the fatigue-producing forces of a day's labour ! Certain unconscious warnings, known as inhibitions, act largely as the safety-valves in the exercise of human strength, and anger supersedes these inhibitions ; in short, it Bits on the safety valve. That is why an angry man seems stronger during his rage than at any other time. He isn't really stronger, of course, but the checks to the full exercise of ,his> strength are removed. Of course, if temper be left unrestrained, and the character of the action be one of muscular exertion, fatigue will also set in, but this is a purely physical "tiredness and is instantly recognised as not bemg comparable to the nervous exhaustion of losing one's temper and yet "holding in." Whenever muscles are excited, a poison is freed more rapidly than the body can absorb it. An angry man will clench his fist, will grit his teeth, will arch his back and bring the whole muscular frame oi his body tense. Muscles are energyproducers, and this tension sets free the fatigue poisons. It is this that makes bad-tempered people yellow and jaundiced, the frequent constrictions caused by the psychic states preventing the free action oi the ducts. The same factor makes some men grow red and others pale when angry ; both arc due to constrictions taking place at different point 3in the blood system. It's a good thing not to lose your temper oftener than you need, but when you do, don't bottle it up.