Mental Health and Road Rage

When Emma Johnson of Sieben Polk Law Firm reached out to share her firm's article on mental health and road rage, it brought to mind a few road experiences with my own loved ones. While my experiences were different from those examined by Sieben Polk Law, the cautionary tale remains the same. Road rage triggers can exacerbate stress into an everyday driving experience, causing irreparable damage.

As a parent of an adult child with mental illness, I worry about how my daughter's mental state may affect others when she's behind the wheel. We do our due diligence and I do my parental nagging before my daughter starts her day. Did you get enough sleep? Have meds been taken? Are you feeling anxious? Yet the bigger worry is how other people's mental state and judgment might affect her. If she drives too slowly in an effort to be safe, will other drivers become impatient or might they assume she's drunk? If she's pulled over because the effectiveness of her medication is wearing off, will a police officer notice her medical bracelet and recognize that she's in distress? While the United States has made significant gains in understanding mental illness, we don't always lead with understanding that the person in front of us may be living with an invisible disease.

Please take a moment to to read "Understanding Road Rage: How To Manage Your Own Emotions on the Road and Deal With Others" linked here for your convenience. Mike Sieben and Michael Polk have an extensive background in personal injury and with helping asbestos victims (especially trade workers) in the Minnesota area find restoration from the harm of asbestos exposure.