HEALTH GUIDE
“It’s out of your control,” said Reinhold, clinical director at Northern Lights Therapy. “The road is what it is. Slow down. Breathe. Just let people who want to drive like an idiot, drive like an idiot. Karma will get them at some point.” Her advice sounds almost too simple. But that deliberate act of breathing — plus a little musical therapy — can make the difference between a routine commute and a ruined day. She suggests playlists, podcasts, audiobooks or even guided relaxation tracks to reframe frustration. Reinhold also encourages drivers to plan their trips around heavy traffic when possible and give themselves extra time to avoid stress triggers. “Step back, take a moment, take a breath, whatever it takes,” Kym Rogers, owner of AZ KAR Traffic School in Tempe, told KJZZ last year in a conversation about record road rage across the Phoenix metro. “Yeah, our first reaction might be to get really upset, but if we just step back, I mean, what's it gonna hurt if somebody has got in their heads that they're going to go and be ahead of me, if I just hang back a little bit. What are we talking about, a second or two, if that. And believe me, by doing and having that more relaxed approach, you'd be amazed at how more relaxed you are.” When anger becomes a weapon Between mid-March and the end of May, Maricopa saw an eruption of road- rage violence unlike anything in recent memory. Commuters in the spring told InMaricopa they weren’t going to work for fear of stray bullets. A flurry of shootings along city streets and SR 347 left at least one driver wounded and several vehicles pockmarked with bullet holes. Three of those cases are in Pinal County Superior Court. Arizona mirrors a national trend. According to the Gun Violence Archive, road rage shootings have more than doubled since 2018, claiming roughly one life every 18 hours nationwide. And Arizona Department of Public Safety data show aggressive driving remains a leading factor in serious crashes across the state.
Don’t stress it How to avoid the harmful health effects of road rage Staff Report
I F YOU’VE EVER DRIVEN STATE ROUTE 347 AT RUSH HOUR, YOU KNOW THE LOOK . The clenched jaw. The thousand-yard stare. The driver beside you mouthing words you can’t print in a family-friendly magazine. Somewhere up ahead, a blinker blinks forever. Someone else decides a shoulder is a lane. It’s a test of sanity. Maricopa counselor Brianna Reinhold calls it “everyone’s favorite highway”—a line always delivered with a laugh and an eye roll. She says the 13-mile stretch that connects Maricopa to metro Phoenix is a breeding ground for stress.
InMaricopa.com | November 2025
November 2025 | InMaricopa.com
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