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Football Star Uses New Acupressure Technique to Calm his Road Rage -- No Drugs Needed

For some people, road rage is more than just bad behavior; it’s a psychiatric condition, according to researchers from Harvard Medical School and Chicago University. If someone has more than three explosive outbursts in their lifetime, threatening physical harm or causing damage to property, they may be diagnosed with Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED).

But there are alternatives to using prescription drugs like antidepressants or mood stabilizers, to combat road rage. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a do-it-yourself acupressure technique used by many to calm themselves in traffic and avert angry, destructive outbursts. It involves fingertip tapping on select acupressure points while focusing on the disturbance in question. This adaptation of acupressure claims an 80% success rate in calming the body and mind’s anger response.

Seth Joyner, former Arizona Cardinals linebacker and three time Pro-Bowler, learned EFT to enhance his sports performance but uses it regularly in daily life. When using EFT as a stress reliever he found it helped him control road rage. Says Joyner, “Anger management really has more to do with your reaction to a situation than what someone else does." He no longer gets angry when someone cuts him off in traffic; instead he taps.

"You naturally get upset when that happens, but now I start tapping right away," he said. "It calms you right away and makes you realize you're in control of your emotions, of how you act and react in certain situations."

Road rage is a term used to describe drivers’ behaviors when they lose their temper in traffic. They may yell at other drivers, speed, tailgate and maneuver their vehicle dangerously. Not every road rager becomes violent, or has IED, but most drivers have experienced anger and impatience when driving in congested traffic.

Drivers who do EFT while they are stuck in traffic consistently report that their impatience and anger fades, and they find themselves calmly thinking of other things.

While medical research justifies medicating angry people, little is being done to address anger problems at their root. EFT is a notable exception. According to the EFT theory, unresolved negative emotions, trauma and a severely disrupted energy meridian system (or chi) is at the root of this intense anger. This simple acupressure technique quickly brings the energy meridians into balance, neutralizes negative emotions and calms explosive behavior. With a little practice, EFT can be safely administered while driving, making it a useful road rage antidote.

“We don’t claim that EFT is a cure-all, but when used correctly, we do get an 80% success rate, even with rage issues,” says Gary Craig, the EFT Founder. “There are no known side-effects with EFT and angry people are able to find true peace, rather than a simple tranquilizing of their emotions. I believe that, left unchecked, these unresolved emotions will manifest into illness.”

The American Heart Association links heart disease with anger in several medical studies. In fact people with high anger scores are three times more likely to suffer a heart attack than people with low anger scores. What is particularly disturbing is that excessive anger proved to be more of a heart health risk than common risk factors of smoking, obesity or diabetes.

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