Loud music is blaring. Glass and debris are flying everywhere – vases, bottles and appliances, smashed to bits. It may sound like chaos – and it is. But it’s also therapy.
“Rage rooms” are spreading across the world, with more than 60 now in the U.S., including two recently opened locations in the Tennessee Valley.
The venues let customers pay a fee and, after suiting up in hard hats, gloves, safety goggles and booties, Hulk-smash breakables in a controlled environment, leaving what looks like a scene from a robbery in their wake. Tennessee’s Cleveland Rage Room, for example, located in the Colony Square shopping center off of Keith Street, lets customers warp washing machines, demolish DVD players, pulverize plates and crack computers.
While the specifics of each location may differ, the goal of rage rooms is the same: to provide a safe space to let loose and de-stress.
According to Dr. William Hillner, a clinical psychologist in the Chattanooga area who’s been practicing for over 40 years, we’re all more angry and stressed than we used to be – which is not surprising, given the last couple of years. According to the American Psychological Association, two in three adults say that they have experienced increased stress throughout the pandemic.