In the rage room reduce any stress

Smash furniture and smash crockery in the Munich rage room serve to reduce stress

04/11/2015

The boss comes to the office five minutes before closing time and urgently needs an analysis. Later on the way home traffic jam. Home does not get better. The children are whining and the lawn still has to be mowed. Such days are known to many and the feeling of being on the verge of disengagement, too. Of course, you control yourself as far as possible and swallows anger and anger down. It is better, however, to deal with the negative feelings, instead of displacing them. In it, the experts agree. An alternative offers since the beginning of March, a so-called rage room in Munich. Here you can smash dishes and destroy furniture - completely legal. The whole thing should serve to reduce stress and even make happy, says the rage-operator Hartmut Mersch.

The rage room should serve the relaxation
Unhappily hit furniture, fling cups and plates through the air and crush glasses - that's the standard program in the rage room. Within 30 minutes, customers are allowed to smash all the furniture and inventory in the room. For this they get a baseball bat and a sledgehammer as an aid. The organizer claims that deliberately destroying objects serves to reduce stress, relaxation and even fun. „You will definitely come out with a smiling face, with a sense of happiness“, so Mersch.

Normally you would not want to smash TVs, sofas or chairs. Therefore, it feels strange to hold the baseball bat in your hand. „The inhibition threshold falls after a few strokes“, Mersch explains. Whether it really is fun to let his anger and his anger in this way, is still questionable. Even experts see such outbursts critical. „The inhibition threshold means that you have social skills, that you have learned to appreciate things“, reported the Lübeck psychologist Laszlo A. Pota to the news agency. „Overcoming and destroying things that others have created is crossing the border to oneself, but also to others.“

No respect for other people's furniture in the rage room?
But organizer Mersch is convinced of his concept. The fact that the objects that are destroyed in the rage room have been valued by others and possibly had an important meaning does not seem to matter. Most of the furniture and crockery comes from housing resolutions, such as deaths.

Asked whether others would be happy about the furnishing, Martina Kreis of the Inner Mission Munich beckons. „There is an incredible offer“, said the head of the company Diakonia Secondhand in Munich to the news agency. „Oak rustic can be smashed quietly, we also bring to disposal.“ No one wants to have discarded bulky waste. „Even people on a budget should be able to buy a piece of furniture that is really beautiful.“

According to Mersch, his customers are quickly in a state of intoxication smashing the furniture. „You definitely have an adrenaline payout. I would compare it to other crazy things like bungee jumping or parachuting“, so the rage-room owner. „You are really in a state of intoxication and then have a feeling of happiness.“ His customers pay 139 euros. „Everyone knows it, because the copier hangs, paper jam. And then you can finally clean up the whole thing, in a different way.“ Exploitation included. „On average, the room is devastated in 30 minutes and you even at the end.“

Rage room for aggression reduction especially for women?
According to Mersch, a striking number of women would be among his customers. This seems to be the case in other dreams. So offers the „Rage Room“ in Budapest even called their own package „Angry Housewife“ (angry housewife) for just under 15 euros, in which the ladies uninhibitedly throw porcelain through the air - as in the movie.

Whether that actually serves the stress reduction, is still questionable. „The old catharsis hypothesis, which says that people can reduce aggression by living out aggression, has not been true for a long time“, the anger researcher Andreas Zick from the University of Bielefeld told the news agency to consider. „Violence is always a sign of helplessness“, explains also Pota, who works a lot with violent young people. „Anger and anger make you ill, cause stress.“ People who felt good after the slam might do that again and again - not just in the rage room. Pota advises not to swallow anger and anger, but to look for the causes and find solutions.

Special offers in the rage room for couples
In addition to the Stadard program, Mersch also offers special packages such as bachelor parties or the first date. The latter seems particularly absurd. Instead of romantic dinner prefer furniture and Geschirrzerdeppern? On the website of the rage room it says: „Food, candlelight, romantic music, baseball bats - on your first date, after your short candlelight dinner, the romance takes a break and you get started.“ The organizer believes that joint destruction connects. „In extreme situations, it is proven that one ranschmeißt there rather to each other.“ That is also more creative than the date at the Italian.

Once the furniture has been smashed and the dishes broken, the real work of Mersch and his team begins. It takes more than two hours to restore the space for the next customer. (Ag)