Big Brother contestant Scott Long says that while outbursts are rewarded on reality television, they come with more consequence in the real world. "Anger definitely controls my life," he says. "It affects the way I work and walk through life. It affects everything." He describes his biggest trigger as being drivers who cut him off in traffic, those not paying attention, arrogant people and those that lack common courtesy.
"When someone's in the wrong in Scott's eye, they will definitely hear it," Scott's girlfriend, Tia, says.
Scott agrees. "When somebody crosses the line, I will make you fear me and your feelings will be very hurt," he says bluntly. "One time a city bus cut me off in Hollywood, and I basically pulled in front of the bus, got out of the car, and sucker punched the window. I scared the crap out of that person."
Tia says she will shut down in an argument with Scott, and he will not respect her space. "My biggest concern when Scott gets mad is his safety," she says.
Scott says it's the warrior mentality to want to win every argument.
[AD]"You've been listening to what we've been talking about so far with these guys?" Dr. Phil asks Scott, now on stage.
"Well, I'm not as crazy as some of you guys out there," Scott says. "That's for sure."
Tia says she pulls Scott away in certain situations where she fears for his safety. She says she'll grab his arm and say, "No."
"Like a dog," Scott adds.
"First off," Dr. Phil says responding to Scott's earlier comment, "[Lori and Bryan] aren't crazy " and neither are you."
He asks Scott about his track record with punching car windows.
"It's just a car window," Scott retorts. "It's not a human being."
[AD]"Have you ever had your ass whipped?" Dr. Phil asks frankly.
Scott says he once was thrown through a windshield by college football players. "It was humiliating, yeah," he admits.
He tells Scott that not everyone in the world has the same ability to control or not control themselves. "It can go bad on you in a fast hurry." He encourages him to not just pick his battles, but not pick them at all.
"If you walk away from a situation, [how will they] know what they just did?" Scott questions. "If you don't approach it, you're just bottling it in."
"Who put you in charge of educating the world?" Dr. Phil comments. "Who knows what happened to them? They could just be leaving the funeral home where their mother died. They could be late to work." Dr. Phil gives Scott several scenarios where empathy would be a better response than aggressiveness and anger. "You don't know who's on the other end of it."
"And I'm not a mind reader either," Scott says defiantly. "This is our warrior nature."
Dr. Phil is able to finally trump Scott's logic when he questions him on several bar fights he's engaged in.
[AD]"It was dumb," he's quick to admit. He adds he has a problem controlling in the moment of rage. "I don't know how to step back."
"There's a difference between assertiveness and aggressiveness," Dr. Phil explains to Scott, as well as Lori and Bryan. "Aggressiveness protects your rights, but it can hurt somebody else's rights. Assertiveness protects your rights, but it's not necessarily at the expense of someone else. There's a difference between them."