Okay, maybe I'm missing something, but this seems absolutely ridiculous, and typical of the way our society approaches behavior issues. It seems there's an official psychiatric name for losing your temper and throwing a fit. It's called "intermittent explosive disorder", and (how's this for a waste of study funding) "a new study suggests it is far more common than they realized, affecting up to 16 million Americans." Wow, it took a scientific study to discover that 16 million Americans are prone to temper tantrums. An Associated Press article by Lindsey Tanner at Livescience.com delves into the particulars, and comes up with some real gems. Road rage, broken objects and spousal abuse can all be blamed on this "disorder", although, according to the article not always. Sometimes, apparently, it's just a bad temper that breaks things and abuses people. Parents of teenagers won't be shocked to hear that this condition often first shows up in adolescence, age 14 on average. Most of us also won't be surprised to learn it's pretty common:
About 5 percent to 7 percent of the nationally representative sample had had the disorder, which would equal up to 16 million Americans. That is higher than better-known mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Coccaro said.
The average number of lifetime attacks per person was 43, resulting in $1,359 in property damage per person. About 4 percent had suffered recent attacks.
Too funny. Losing your temper is now called "suffering an attack". I thought it was committing an attack. The article goes on to describe reasons and treatment options, as explained by study co-author Dr. Emil Coccaro:
Coccaro said the disorder involves inadequate production or functioning of serotonin, a mood-regulating and behavior-inhibiting brain chemical. Treatment with antidepressants, including those that target serotonin receptors in the brain, is often helpful, along with behavior therapy akin to anger management, Coccaro said.
Most sufferers in the study had other emotional disorders or drug or alcohol problems and had gotten treatment for them, but only 28 percent had ever received treatment for anger.
"This is a well-designed, large-scale, face-to-face study with interesting and useful results,'' said Dr. David Fassler, a psychiatry professor at the University of Vermont. The findings also confirm that for most people, the difficulties associated with the disorder begin during childhood or adolescence, and they often have a profound and ongoing impact on the person's life.''
Here we go. According to Coccaro, the problem is chemical imbalance (I'm guessing he's not overly fond of the word sin), so the answer is two-fold--the ubiquitous anti-depressant steps forward, as does (here's my favorite part) anger management therapy. The doctor says that the disorder begins in childhood or adolescence and-- hold onto your hat--often has a profound impact on a person's life! Translation from a layman's point of view: The kid was never taught self-control, and now it's a problem. The anger management classes are going to try to remedy the lack of proper childhood instruction and failure to nip the temper tantrums in the bud. This was an incredible waste of research dollars that could have been spent on something useful, instead of giving people another excuse for bad behavior. "I couldn't help smashing your car with a sledgehammer. I have a disorder." I'm not saying that there's no possibility of any physical reason for some people to have temper issues, but come on, seven percent of the population has "intermittent explosive disorder"? Psychobabble.
