Peter Moore: A shred of evidence for anger management

Isn’t life irritating? Why is it that Voyager 1, built in 1977, can send messages from outer space fifteen billion miles away, but my Wi-Fi won’t connect to the back room? Just when I try to ask a question about tickets I bought online I lose the signal.

Why does any IT system appear hell-bent on annoying me? Is it just me? Am I turning into Victor Meldrew? 

How should we deal with anger? I am tempted to throw my laptop or smartphone out of the window but that might prove rather expensive – which would make me even more annoyed. 

A recent study at the University of Nagoya in Japan (where else) has suggested a way to dissipate fury. They do not suggest throwing anything or even banging your head against the wall, tempting though both ideas may be. They suggest writing it all down and then immediately putting it through the shredder. Apparently, this “shreds” the anger although with my luck the shredder would probably jam making me even more angry. The research showed that it is vital to destroy the paper. People in the trial who did not shred the note stayed angry. It needed the shredder to clear the mood.

This is not a new idea. The Japanese have done something similar for centuries. They call it hakidashisara, although trying to pronounce this Japanese word would make me angry.  Hakidashisara meant that feelings of anger were written down, sealed in a small vessel and later destroyed. If I tried this idea I would probably inadvertently use one of my wife’s favourite vases and make her angry. 

There is no doubt that writing things down can be helpful. This is how my first published piece came about in the early 1980s. It was in a medical newspaper for GPs. We were building an extension onto the surgery and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. We were accused of breaking a covenant on the building which our solicitor had missed and then the builders went bust.

We were up to our maximum budget and were trying to work in a building on a rainy February where one wall had been replaced by polythene sheeting. One evening, I sat down and decided to write down everything that had gone wrong. It was cathartic but, when I finished I turned it into an article and sent it off to the GP newspaper. I saw this as the equivalent of putting in through the shredder but, to my surprise, I received a phone call. They were definitely going to publish but asked me whether I was prepared to write for them regularly. I had found a way of not only dealing with stress but also getting paid for it. 

When problems are overwhelming and everything seems infinite, sitting and writing it all down is helpful. Even if there is a long list eventually it will come to an end. Rather than throwing it away, it is useful to go through problems one by one.  Overall problems may seem infinite but individually they can be made finite and dealt with. Even when there is no clear solution seeing it written down might help keep things in perspective. 

I have another advantage. If I write everything down when I’m angry and forget to shred it, it would remain confidential as no one could read my handwriting. 

Undoubtedly writing everything down and shredding it is a far better way of dealing with stress than getting into a car with road rage or threatening to hit someone. 

Would the Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons or even TV’s Question Time be improved if everyone could write down their anger beforehand? Maybe if the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition just swapped notes and everyone went home it might improve things. 

I am lucky. When things annoy me I react by asking myself, “Can I make 650 words out of it for my column”? I am sure old copies of Torbay Weekly end up in the recycle bin which is the same as the shredder.