On Friday I was listening to a local show on public radio about stress and its relationship to aggressive driving. It got me thinking about the connections between stress and aggression in other areas of life.
What does stress do? It activates us. If you have a deadline for a talk, paper, or project, that stress gets you going. A month prior, you may not have had the motivation to work on the project. But when its due tomorrow, you concentrate and activate. So, stress activates.
But what happens when we are in stress overload. We activate, but not productively. We may tend to activate by showing irritation, frustration, anger, rage. This kind of activation is not goal directed but reactionary.
Why is this interesting? Well, the more we help others practice mindful living, the more likely they will have control over their reactions to overwhelming stress.
Musings on Faith and Psychology 
Our church recently participated in an event at a local high school and had pamphlets available on a number of issues. The person working the table was shocked to see that the number one brochure selected was on stress. One person actually became visably stressed just looking at the pamphlet.