The Art of Destructive Therapy
“Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.” Adam Savage
When we first began our Destructive Therapy project we received a lot of questions concerning its value. “Why Destructive Therapy”, “you are doing what” and our favorite, “are you guys ok?” But these were questions that we knew were coming, and the goal now is to explain our method and why Destructive Therapy is relevant to not only our lives as high school students, but also our society.
Throughout high school, students especially Advanced Placement Students have had to travel down a difficult path between academics and personal lives. Although we understood the challenges that we signed up for, the last four years has been filled with large amounts of uncertainty, difficulty, and stress. In these moments as all humans do we begin to search for outlets to lessen the burden. Some turn to sports and extracurricular activities, some to art and other creative endeavors, others such as my group start pushing the boundaries (by seeing how much noise we can make with dry ice before the neighbors start worrying.)
Before we begin we have to ask ourselves this, what is destructive therapy?
When you search Google for “Destructive Therapy” you find a handful of psychiatric journals on self-destruction, a few youtube videos and finally a few articles on what Destructive Therapy really is.
In Dallas Texas an “Anger Room” literally lets paying customers take their aggression and stress out on unsuspecting furnished rooms. Customers wield baseball bats for increments beginning at 5 mins and going through 25 mins.
This is destructive therapy at its core. The basic human need to de-stress and relax and take out any anger and aggression that they have on non-living objects.
And it isn’t surprising that these “Anger Rooms” exist. Work place stress in adults has increased and today’s teens find themselves busier than ever with the ever increasing demand and workload to satisfy college requirements.
These stressful situations and environments can have numerous harmful effects. In adults increased stress levels can cause hypertension, increased blood-pressure, and wide variety of other serious health issues. In teens the effects are also profound. Teens suffering from chronic stress can lead to loss of sleep, irritability, and in some more extreme cases panic and anxiety disorders.
And from our own endeavors and experiences with stress Destructive Therapy was born. In its simplest form, Destructive Therapy is a tool in which people destroy items, such as fruit, to relieve stress.
The second question for destructive therapy and its relevance has to be judged on why it is needed?
Just look around. Students around the world deal with high levels of stress on a daily basis. In moderation, scientists have agreed that stress is healthy. It drives action and causes us to make decisions in a timely matter. But the levels of stress that drives students in their quest for college acceptances is anything but healthy.
Which is why the Destructive Therapy Group, underneath the stress of their own challenges, endeavors, and goals, embarked upon the destruction of fruit.
