You know that feeling — the one where you just want to burst to explode to erupt like Mount Vesuvius the one caused by “Why can’t he/she just do what I asked for once?” or “How dare you say that to me?!” The one that sets your body on fire and puts it on automatic pilot hijacking your brain and your mouth so that — without you having to make it happen — a great roar pours out of you. That’s the feeling I’m talking about.
And you know when that feeling happens how hard it is to send it home. It doesn’t want to calm down. It wants to rant and rave and have its say. It doesn’t care who might get hurt in the crossfire. Nothing will stop it now that it’s unleashed.
And that is very unfortunate because it can cause so much damage. When children hear it (either addressed directly to them or to a spouse or someone else) the damage can have lifelong consequences. Although we all know this when we really really know it we can often find the strength to keep our mouths shut when that feeling courses through our veins.
So here’s what we need to know about the developmental effects of yelling:
