Dr. Ellen Weber, BrainBasedBusiness, asked what I think about Intermittent Explosive Disorder and why there is an increase in people who have it. I’m not a doctor, but IED appears 
to be people with tempers blowing their tops and breaking things. These "attacks are out of proportion to the social stressors triggering them," reports the Harvard Medical School, and "characterized by recurrent episodes of angry and potentially violent outbursts."
The Harvard study anticipated me, I'm afraid: "If people think these explosive outbursts are just bad behavior, they are not thinking of this problem as a serious biomedical problem that can be treated."
I don't think of it as a "biomedical problem" at all. I think it's more of an AEFLSC issue - Any Excuse For Losing Self-Control, then blaming it on some bogus genetic disorder. It’s bad behavior, pure and simple. The reason for the increase? So scientists who study it can get more funding, and so companies that make the so-called cure can sell more pills. There are few responsibilities these days that a handful of pills can't relieve.
John, I like your post and your sense of accountability for people and I agree that we control most of what we do, and the tone we use to communicate. Makes us think! Furthermore we can learn tactics for good tone... even when we feel frustrated, and I sure do at times when things go wrong.
One the other side of the issue... we also deal with cortisol hormones which race through our heads to trigger some of these reactions. When imbalance comes we can slip out of control in our outburst. It's rather complex even there -- because some people produce more cortisol than others by nature and they can be more prone to outbursts. Luckily, there are very keen ways to control even the hormone levels that take you through a day.... Ahhh... back to education of what WE can do, as being one answer (at least in part...:-) All to say I agree with you... and also see more brain based tactics we can learn to do well... What do you think?
Posted by: Ellen Weber | June 8, 2006 7:25 AM | Permalink to Comment