Well, how often have you seen a tantrum in a two year old or teenager and it's explained away as 'terrible two's' or 'stroppy teenage years'? But, I think Dan Seigel's hand-held model of the brain helps us to understand it a bit better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD-lfP1FBFk

The truth is that we all probably have experiences of flipping our lids, both in ourselves and others and we'll know how hard it can be to calm down for a while. Some may be much more volatile and reactive than others, but when the lid flips it's hard to maintain a more rational view of reality, life starts to look either black or white rather than the myriad shades of grey. It's hard to see a bigger picture, and to be empathic both with ourselves and with others. Emotions become highly charged and clear thinking can go out the window.

Maybe, at least in ourselves, the first step is to recognise it is happening and what triggers it. This is where Moodscope might help. Then we may be able to take some preventive action or apply some management tactics to get that lid back down again.

As for the two year olds, well, their lids are not developed properly yet, and the teenagers, the rest of their brains are developing faster than their lids so things are a bit out of balance for a while. That's what the scientists say anyway.