It can be very frustrating when things don’t go our way; it can even make us angry. Some people feel that the best way to handle such situations is to vent that anger at the person they feel is responsible for the problem. For example: a friend of mine spent a few days in a hospital recently getting a medical issue taken care of. The issue was successfully dealt with, and he was due to be discharged on a Friday afternoon. The only thing between my friend and his discharge was that a specialist doctor (whom he had been regularly seeing) needed to accept him as a patient and sign off on the fact that he was well enough to go home. At 4:55 that afternoon, my friend was informed by a nurse that this doctor would not accept him as a patient because on a previous occasion, my friend had lost his temper and vented his anger at him. This doctor now considered my friend a difficult patient and wanted nothing to do with him. As a result, my friend spent the rest of the weekend in the hospital waiting for another doctor to accept him as a patient. The lesson here is that while venting your frustration at someone may give you a euphoric sense of satisfaction at the time, it can come back to haunt and often will.

One Sentence Wisdom

• “Venting every feeling isn’t mature. Learning to deal with uncomfortable and unpleasant feelings is an important aspect of maturity.” — Laura Schlessinger
• “Too quickly, venting can turn into dumping garbage on the people around us.” — Michelle Gielan

If you know of someone who you think would enjoy reading my Reminder, please forward it to them. Also, feel free to use this content in your own publications—newsletters, blogs, etc.