If tailgating, hand gestures or using profanity describes your driving behavior, you may have a full-blown case of road rage. Americans are taking their anger out on other drivers and in some cases, it's leading to violence.

There are two types of people; the person who becomes quiet and maybe says a few bad words behind the steering wheel, then there's the other person who allows their anger to become explosive and gets out of the car with a baseball bat and starts batting your car to bits.

The person who's going to get out of their car and use that type of explosive violence is probably someone with a predisposition to aggressive behaviour anyway.

Individuals don't compartmentalize their lives, so the explosive tempered individual is likely to carry that anger home and to work. Others of us make a choice when someone does something upsetting to us, to react lightly and let it go.

So how do you curb this sort of behaviour?

First and foremost, learn to identify what your trigger points are and try to develop techniques to deal with the potential negative effects. Are you the type of person who's going to be triggered off by this guy who cuts us off, and if you are, how are you going to behave.

Second, if your're worried about being late for something or you have a busy day ahead, you should think about that beforehand and get an earlier, more relaxed start, behind the wheel.

Thirdly, if someone cuts you off or gives you the finger, don't take it personally because that's where our anger really comes from, he said. Don't jump to the conclusion that someone has done something deliberately to hurt you; that way your mind will allow you to react differently or not at all.

But can you do this in the heat of the moment?

You have an instantaneous second of choice to make, you either make the choice to be angry or make the choice to let it go. Anger is something you choose to do. Anger is something you let happen. Most people think it's something that's beyond their control but it's not.

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