Stress Relief: People Are Paying Money to Smash Stuff to Pieces — Would You?
I had a friend growing up who would smash stuff whenever they got stressed or angry: windows, sculptures, electronics — you name it. Their parents were well off, so the items would always be replaced within 48 hours, with the same amount of fuss that goes into replacing an ink cartridge in a printer. When witnessing these outbursts, my first thought was always, Um, have you guys thought about therapy? And my second was, What a luxury it is to be able to smash stuff without having to wonder how you’ll live without it. And now, thanks to the latest trend in stress relief, folks can do just that.
Over the weekend, the New York Times enlightened us all to the magic that is anger rooms. That would be rooms that are filled with stuff for you to smash — for a price. While there are anger rooms in cities across the world now (none in Philly yet, though), the smashing room that seems to have kicked the trend off is Anger Room in Dallas, where you pay $25 for five minutes of uninterrupted smashing in a room stocked with sledgehammers, baseball bats and so on. As their website says, “Anger Room LLC is a company started back in 2008, established to provide an alternative to seeing a ‘head doctor’ or talking it out when you’re having a bad day.”
You can even pick your playlist to smash to and they also do custom rooms, which can run you up to $500. Oh, and when it comes to what types of smashable items are in the room, they tell the Times that folks will find printers, vases, clocks, and “We’ve gone through at least three of the male mannequins that we have to dress up as Donald Trump.”
You’re right: It doesn’t exactly sound healthy —and a clinical psychologist told the Times that it’s probably not the most effective form of therapy, saying, “Although it’s appealing to think that expressing anger can reduce stress, there is not much evidence of that. On the contrary, the types of physiological and immune responses that occur during anger can actually be harmful for health.” Still, it does sound sort of satisfying, right?
So our question to you: If Philly had an anger room, would you pay to smash stuff to smithereens?
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