How Do You Deal With Frustration?5

by Eric “Butter” Levy

I am gonna go on a limb here, and say that most of you out there consider yourselves at least above average when it comes to creativity and individuality. Something tells me that if that was not the case, you would not be here on the SG blog reading this. I would surmise, then, that frustration is something we all encounter almost on our day to day lives; kinda like a test of our greatness, if you will. We overcome this hurdle, only to find it once again a few steps further down the road, improved and ready to hinder us once more.

By definition, frustration is the response we have to the direct opposition of our will. In layman terms, we get frustrated when we don’t have our way; understanding “our way” as the careful laid out plan we managed to concoct by focusing our perception and energy at one specific moment.

Big, ostentatious words aside, we understand that frustration is something we must learn to deal with. It is one of the burdens of growing up, of becoming your own person, and one of the most defining -and oftentimes, detrimental as well- building blocks of our life.

How do you handle frustration? I guess it is different for everyone out there, inasmuch as we all deal with grieving in our own way. Hell, the day my dad passed away, after dealing with Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes and a general loss of motor coordination and equilibrium, I went out with my friends and had dinner and if my memory serves me right, a beer. My (younger) sister stayed home and cried out, while my mother didn’t give a flying frak.

Granted, you need to extrapolate all that with other important facts like my family’s dysfunction, background, and all inter-relationships each interloper had to one another, but I think I have managed to make my point here…

We all handle things differently. I’m sure any psychologist reading this might point out some previously observed and studied thread on the reactions people have to frustration, as that is their game field… no?
I just want to know how YOU overcome frustration. How you work it into something usable, how you achieve much needed catharsis and move on?

Remember that scene in American Beauty, when Annette Bening’s character -Carolyn- goes to the shooting range and fires away, releasing all that pent up, frustration fueled rage? That is one of the ways I achieve my desired catharsis. Big deal, you might say… and I agree, but cue in the cultural clash and things might be colored in a whole different shade.

Not many people down here own firearms: they are expensive to get -legally at least! Hunting is not an activity that is widely practiced and gun shops are few, and far from one another. Other than that, it is my own personal view that it’s too hot and humid down here, and that makes people lazy enough to avoid them venturing into the rainforest to hunt, when they can get their food at the local supermarket. On that same note, Shooting ranges are practically non-existent.

Other than running with the local gangs, and participating in clandestine, western style gunfights that would make the ones on any Spaghetti Western jealous… the only other option available is taking a quick detour on your way home, and find your nearest arcade -almost as scarce as the gun shops themselves- and take your pick of undead or dinosaur to blast away.

With the advent of gaming consoles, arcades took a heavy hit, and other than the now retro fighting games, most arcades don’t carry much of a variety and you are lucky if that beat up, smelly Jurassic Park unit is up and working that day.

So, what do you say eh? What is your preferred method of dealing with frustration? Leave us a comment and tell us your point of view… I bet there are some of us out there that are looking for new ways to cope with shitty situations, and would appreciate the feedback.

Hey, I know I will.