Blowing your stack. Losing your cool. Hitting the roof. Going full-on Laura Dern in Enlightened. Having an explosive emotional reaction when we are under stress or overwhelmed is a terrible—yet very common—experience. Frustrated parents, overextended spouses, pressure-cooked professionals and highly sensitive people are all particularly vulnerable to spinning out of control in this way. And this particular brand of blind rage has a name: It’s called emotional flooding. And it’s a slippery slope. According to experts, the more stress we have in our lives, the easier and faster we tend to lose our sh#@.