Either stressed or offended, South Africans are kind of programmed every day with plenty opportunities to get angry. Anger is never without a reason, anybody can get angry as it’s increasingly quite easier to be annoyed. However, being angered for the right reason(s), with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way is difficult and have pioneered avoidable crisis.
As such crisis extends to the wellness of South Africans, bringing up health issues like high blood pressure, hypertension stroke and heart diseases, Pharma Dynamics (South Africa’s leading heart and stroke treatment provider) conducted a survey that sampled more than 1, 300 South Africans in order to fish-out the things that get South Africans annoyed.
According to Pharma Dynamic spokesperson, Mariska van Aswegen, “statistics show that about 130 heart attacks and 240 strokes occur daily in SA, which means that 10 people will suffer a stroke and five will have a heart attack every hour. We would like to call on all South Africans to have their blood pressure tested at least annually.”
She added that “with 6.3 million South Africans living with high blood pressure, SA has one of the highest rates of hypertension in the world. Many however remain unaware of their condition because high blood pressure usually has no symptoms. Hypertension is also a precursor and leading cause of other life-threatening conditions such as stroke and heart disease…”
Thus, the survey was commissioned with the intent of getting South Africans to be more serious about the healthiness of their hearts as studies have over the years have shown that there is a higher risk of having a heart attack following an outburst of anger.
The top 30 things that annoy South Africans as exposed, are as listed below.
- Taxi drivers
- Queue jumpers
- People who think rules don’t apply to them
- Bad manners
- Load-shedding
- Rudeness in general
- Having to go through lots of automated phone options and then being kept on hold
- Traffic jams
- Smoking around children
- Spitting in public
- Motorists and/or cyclists who jump red traffic lights
- Anti-social behaviour (when someone pays more attention to their electronic device(s) than to you)
- Back-stabbers
- Using cellphones while driving
- People eating loudly and sloppily
- Petrol price increase
- Laziness
- People who swear all the time
- People who can’t spell or use correct grammar
- Paying a fee for withdrawing money from an ATM
- Pop-up adverts on the internet
- Paying tax
- Office suck ups
- Paying for parking when you only intend to pop into the shops quick
- Drivers speeding through housing estates
- Your neighbour mowing the lawn or drilling at 7 am on a weekend
- Drivers ignoring zebra crossings
- Tardiness
- Tissues in the washing machine
- Buses or trains being cancelled
While the survey revealed that nearly a third of South Africans, easily vexed with motorists, partners and call centre agents, are most likely to vent their anger on motorists, twenty percent of the respondent experiences everyday-stress that increases in severity from daily irritations and frustrations. With 40 percent admitting that it usually causes them stress even after the incident is long past.
Van Aswegen stressed that stressful situations can cause your blood pressure to spike temporarily, while too much stress could lead to high blood pressure in the long-run.
So, if you’re tired, stressed or simply at the end of your tether, it doesn’t take much to make your blood boil.
See Also: Top 9 Most Awkward South African Health Issues
Try to take short breaks during times of the day that tend to be very stressful, identify what specifically makes you angry, avoid them if you can and think of possible solutions to totally eliminate them or at best keep them far from you.
Humour can also help to diffuse tension, you could also practice relaxation skills especially when your temper flares. Exercising is also a great way to help reduce stress and feelings of frustration.
Doing activities that can help you manage your stress and improve your health goes a long way to making a huge difference and in the long run help in lowering your blood pressure and keeping you in check. You will discover that getting angry over trivial things as the case maybe is not realy worth the after effect.
