Can You Really Go Blind From Rage?

The science behind the phenomenon of losing vision from anger explained.

One time, when I was in the third or fourth grade, my little sister and I were waiting at the school bus stop on a street corner with a group of neighborhood kids. As we waited for the bright yellow bus to round the corner onto our street, an older boy who was a few grades above me took his backpack and shoved my sister to the ground. Then he laughed. The kids got very quiet and quickly stepped back, waiting to see how this confrontation would unfold.

It has been over 30 years since this scuffle transpired, and so I can’t tell you with certainty if the reason why I don’t remember my little sister falling to the ground and crying is because of the passing of time or because of what happened next.

I picked up the boy’s backpack and swung it around my head in a circle like a lasso, aimed, and nailed him right in the face. He grabbed his face and shrieked just as the bus came rumbling toward our stop. By the time the doors opened, the kids were all laughing at this boy who had just got his butt whopped by a girl. The bus driver, however, wasn’t impressed, and I ended up in trouble.

Later that night at home, after my mother lit into me with a stern lecture on how to handle my emotions and better ways to deal with bullies, my sister told me that she was upset that I didn’t help her up from the ground.