Letting Out the Anger

I watched a powerful Oprah episode this afternoon. Her guests were some very overweight teenagers that had gone through some kind of workshop with their parents. A couple lead the workshop and it was dealing with getting to the root of why the teens are overweight....what they are hungry for that keeps them eating and eating and eating...

It broke my heart. 

They asked them how many had ever seriously thought about, or attempted, suicide...and many raised their hands.

They showed clips of the teens at the workshop.  One by one the teens stood in the middle of the room with the leader and she had them to yell as loud as they could "I'M ANGRY AT____!"  Over and over the teens filled in the blank, yelling and crying.  The anger and hurt that came pouring out had me in tears within just a few minutes...it was difficult to watch.  

Eventually, the leader stepped aside and a parent stepped up.  Each of the teens continued their litany of things they were angry about until they fell into their parents' arms.  When Oprah interviewed some of them on the show, one girl said that experience changed her life.

We all hold things inside.  Sometimes really bad things.  The anger can make us sick...and poison our relationships.  It can also cause us to make bad decisions...like eating ourselves to obesity...and eventually to the grave.   

People just want to be heard.  

Not judged...

Not "fixed"...

Just heard...and loved.