The Outrage Meter

Moving from outraged to enraged to engaged.

Nearly every headline I read this week triggered my outrage meter. Cancelled all foreign aid... Cancelled cancer research support... Fired Inspectors General who monitor the government…Pardoned January 6 criminals.

As a psychologist, I understand what this does to my body; flooding it with adrenaline and cortisol, triggering the HPA axis in my brain, sending energy toward muscles in preparation for fight, and away from higher level cognitive functions that might inhibit me.

Outrage is appropriate, justified and understandable. It is also dangerous.

In 2009, Herbert Benson M.D., a cardiologist, wrote The Relaxation Response, to help us understand why some high-powered executives fell victims to early heart attacks, while others, equally ambitious, workaholic, and successful did not.

The difference was anger. Those who competed in their chosen fields with a hostile, paranoid “dog eat dog” frame, could be very successful on the surface. But their bodies bore the damage of that constant “fight or flight” hormone bath. Those without the underlying anger played the game just as hard, won just as often, but did so without the cardiac wear and tear that chewed their colleagues up before they were 50.

My favorite chapter in the book was titled:

It Doesn’t Matter If It’s True. It Only Matters if it’s Useful.

It is a primer on cognitive therapy, a short course on how rageful thoughts cause stress, and how changing the frame around a truth reduces stress, and releases energy for positive response even when the situation remains unchanged. Do you believe your boss is an underqualified idiot or can you see him as “in over his head” and afraid of failing in the eyes of his peers? The first thought makes you his trapped victim. The latter releases empathy, suggests options, and offers ideas for response. It gives you back your power.

We all have an outrage meter. It is part of the larger Emotional Response System, unique to each of us, that keeps our responses to the world in balance, under control, and most effective. Before this, I called my outrage meter my Mama Bear response, the uncontrolled rage I felt when someone threatened, shamed, or tried to harm one of my children. Outrage was the reflexive outside edge that flared instantly, then was reigned in, hopefully, by more adaptive skills before I responded.

But when the whole world and every headline trigger outrage, there is an additional danger. We can become numb, hopeless, and unable to mobilize, like prisoners of war subjected to a constant barrage of fear and torment. The Emotional Response System simply shuts down to preserve life.

An overworked outrage meter is not just a side effect of our “24/7 horrific news from everywhere” media, causing stress to be rampant in this decade, it is also a design feature of our politics. Flooding the zone with too much information to process, in language that heightens fear and fuels outrage, is deliberate and intentional. It has a goal: Overwhelm, exhaust, paralyze.

What can we do?

1. Recognize that Outrage is anger plus offense, shock, disbelief, and fear. The last four are not useful to effective response.

2. Anger is useful. Enraged can lead to Engaged, but only when it is focused, channeled and fully informed by intelligent thought. Be sure your frontal cortex is on board before you respond.

3. Become an expert in your own personal Emotional Response System and what it needs to stay in good shape. It responds best when it is in midrange, not flashing red with outrage. Rest, Refuse, Restore is my mantra for this. Rest your emotional brain with ordinary activities and constructive work. Refuse to be at the mercy of all the news, comments, and venting others need to do to survive. Set your own boundaries. And finally, know what Restores your soul: art, music, time with children, whatever fills that tank of positive energy you need to bring to this moment.

4. Choose your battle. Do what you are best at, fight what know well how to fight, or what most deeply offends your values and your sense of justice. Caring matters: it increases our endurance and sustains our spirits.

5. Balance bad news with good. This week it was Dan Rather’s Substack post on Lessons in Courage that worked for me, listing companies who refused to end their DEI policies, but instead affirmed them in response to the new administration. Find your good news feed.

Finally, monitor your outrage meter. Yes, it is all outrageous, that is the truth. But as Dr. Benson advised, find what is useful. Find the thoughts, the actions, the beliefs that activate hope, sustain action, and keep you healthy. That will allow you to accomplish the most. And that is a favor to us all.