WHY WE'RE SO. DAMN. MAD.

Majorly pissed-off, low-key resentful, or extra short-fused lately? Of course you are, and no, it's not just you! But while anger is not a comfortable feeling-and coping with it unwisely can harm your health-it can spark positive change. HERE'S HOW TO PUT IT TO HEALTHY USE.

-  STEPHANIE DOLGOFF

If you met me, say, fumbling with the scanner at the Stop & Shop self-checkout, you'd think, "What a nice, slightly inept middle-aged lady." But that's only because smoke doesn't literally come out of people's ears when they're angry. If it did, all the Stop & Shop shoppers would be evacuated and I'd be left sitting with my family-size box of Triscuits and my dog toys soaked in flame-retardant foam.

For the record, I am a nice lady, and one who is privileged to have a lot less to be mad about than many women. I'm employed, healthy, and educated, and there are people who have my back. I am also white, which means, among other things, that I'm spared being labeled an "angry Black woman" based on my merely showing up and having an opinion.

And yet, like everyone I know (and, judging by social media, almost everyone I don't know), I am far more rageful than ever before. Cultural extremism, inequities in our justice system, the attacks on LGBTQ+ people, and the revocation of our control over our bodies top my greatest-hits list of infuriating things. While those are macro issues, on a personal level "women are angry because they're feeling taken advantage of, stressed out, and exhausted," says Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger. "Even before the pandemic, women were much more stressed than men."

EMOTIONS ON STEROIDS