The William James zone is the positive feedback loop of mental and physical anger responses which keep you a person even after the conflict has been addressed or resolved. I find myself in the WJZ sometimes when I remember or anticipate something which made/would make me angry, even when no conflict is presently occurring. This happens primarily when I don’t have a ready distraction from the upsetting thought, e.g. when I’m in the shower or waiting to fall asleep. Other than simply waiting for it to pass, how can I get out of the WJZ or avoid entering it?
So far, the only mitigating factor I’ve found is my overall physical and mental state. Being hungry, tired, or stressed makes it easier to fall into the anger cycle and harder to get out. Therefore, taking care of myself in general helps to prevent it, but it’s not always possible to remedy those problems after the cycle has already started.
Maybe the thing to do is direct the physiological arousal to another end? You’re all revved up, so go get some exercise, or something?
That’s a good suggestion. I’ve definitely noticed that when I leave the house grouchy to ride my bike somewhere, I often feel better by the time I arrive. (Unless the grouchiness is about where I’m going, of course.) Unfortunately, it wouldn’t help in the example cases given, where adding physical activity isn’t really feasible.
Heh, I was kind of waiting for someone to say that. I have a hard enough time getting physically aroused starting from neutral; I don’t think starting from angry would work at all. Frankly, I’m also a little creeped out by the idea of being physically aroused while very upset. It’s an association I don’t especially want to have.
(Also, I don’t have enough focus to have a good orgasm and stand upright at the same time, which rules the shower out for safety reasons. :P)
Yeah, that is definitely the kind of thing that doesn’t work for everyone.
More abstractly, though, the idea would be to deliberately induce misattribution of arousal—not necessarily to something sexual, just something that isn’t angering.
(I’d expect that “make-up sex” would be related to this psychological quirk.)
Oh, weird. That’s interesting, thank you. I’ll think about other ways I could direct that energy—although I’m not yet sure that that alone would discourage the bad mood.
Maybe you won’t be able to avert the “bad mood” itself, but you might also be able to displace your anger to a different target if you would prefer not to be angry at someone or something in particular. “Eat shotgun shells, demon scum!”
Maybe the thing to do is direct the physiological arousal to another end? You’re all revved up, so go get some exercise, or something?
That’s a good suggestion. I’ve definitely noticed that when I leave the house grouchy to ride my bike somewhere, I often feel better by the time I arrive. (Unless the grouchiness is about where I’m going, of course.) Unfortunately, it wouldn’t help in the example cases given, where adding physical activity isn’t really feasible.
Note that these, in particular, are usually situations in which you have quite a bit of privacy…
Heh, I was kind of waiting for someone to say that. I have a hard enough time getting physically aroused starting from neutral; I don’t think starting from angry would work at all. Frankly, I’m also a little creeped out by the idea of being physically aroused while very upset. It’s an association I don’t especially want to have.
(Also, I don’t have enough focus to have a good orgasm and stand upright at the same time, which rules the shower out for safety reasons. :P)
Yeah, that is definitely the kind of thing that doesn’t work for everyone.
More abstractly, though, the idea would be to deliberately induce misattribution of arousal—not necessarily to something sexual, just something that isn’t angering.
(I’d expect that “make-up sex” would be related to this psychological quirk.)
Oh, weird. That’s interesting, thank you. I’ll think about other ways I could direct that energy—although I’m not yet sure that that alone would discourage the bad mood.
Maybe you won’t be able to avert the “bad mood” itself, but you might also be able to displace your anger to a different target if you would prefer not to be angry at someone or something in particular. “Eat shotgun shells, demon scum!”
Haha. Yes, but any time that kind of distraction is available, so would various other nonviolent things. :)