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You’re driving on the freeway and a reckless motorist cuts you

off. According to psychologists, you have three choices. You can

vent. (Scream, “You moron!”) You can turn your anger inside. (Tell

yourself, “It was my fault anyway.”) Or you can wait until your temper

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cools and reflect. (“Some people just don’t drive safely.”) You may

not choose the last option, but studies show that you’d be healthier if

you did.

The second choice, burying your anger, has negative effects.

For instance, a 1986 study found that people who regularly quashed

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their anger were more than twice likely to die in the next twelve years

as people who recognized and expressed angry feelings. Besides

causing physical ailments, suppressed anger can cause emotional

problems. If you feel resentful but don’t do anything about it, you’re

apt to take it out on an innocent party. In time, such displaced anger

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can wreak havoc on your relationships. And it can lead to depression.

What’s more, you let the real source of your anger off the hook.

“Anger is a typical response to a threat,” “Deny it and you give power

to the threat.”

The first choice, venting all the time, isn’t the answer either.

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Long-term studies at Duke University found that people who respond

to anger in a hostile manner and who see others’ motives as

unfriendly have an increased risk of heart disease. They suffer a

higher death rate in general.

So, are you damned if you do, damned if you don’t? Not really.

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The key lies in selecting what you will express anger about. “A lot of

us get aggravated by petty things like traffic, says Dr. Redford Smith,

a professor of Duck University. “If you go around looking for things to

screw up your life, you’ll find them.” Instead, recognize that annoying

things will happen. But try not to take them personally. In other

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words, always pick your battles.