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Introduction to Anger Management

For more detailed information on handling Anger Management in Children/Young People please click here

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Introduction

Anger is evident in all our lives. We have all ‘lost it’ with relatives, acquaintances or work colleagues at some point in time. But, for most us, anger is equally good and bad — it is an indication to resolve any complications surrounding it, and it can also motivate us. We can all recall the time when a squabble cleared the air, or when we took positive action because of anger. Regrettably, this is not accurate for a considerable minority of us, anger spills over into our lives regularly, disrupting relationships and effort. At worst it can cause violence or physical abuse. In families, long-standing anger can also cause deep despondency and sometimes mental illness. While we hold on to anger for too long, or when it generates inappropriate belligerence, it becomes what we call an “anger problem". Many people are not fond of such labels, but we need to find a language to speak about what is a main social problem and is undoubtedly one of the causes of mental illness, crime, loss of productivity and unadorned unhappiness in the social order.

We are miles behind the pace in appreciating anger and the retorts that can be made to anger problem.

- Bereavement, loss, sadness and depression are all well understood (though often confused) - so as fear, anxiety and other anxiety disorders. The very last thing we require is to conceive a new mental illness called “anger disorder”; a however, what we do need is an accurate understanding of anger and how to act in response to anger problems.

- Interventions that are supportive to actual people may well turn a lot of lives around and avert mental illness, crime and family breakdown.

Anger Management

Everyone experiences anger, and everyone expresses it. It is an innate and healthy human emotion, when handled effectively. However, it can be a cause of various mental, physical, social, emotional, or legal problems when not managed efficiently. It is regularly a problem in one of these areas that gets a client to come for counselling, either on a voluntary or a directive basis. As a counsellor, there are abundant and wide-ranging options for intervention and there are several varied facets to think about prior to selecting a fitting intervention.

Defining Anger

All three of these components interact to generate a state of being angry. Dahlen and Deffenbacher (2001) also make out four related spheres of influence in which anger exists. First, in the experiential and emotional domain, anger is a state of feeling ranging in intensity from placid annoyance to rage or fury. Second, in the physiological domain, anger is linked with adrenal discharge, amplified muscle tension, and inauguration of the sympathetic nervous system. Third, in the cognitive domain, anger is linked to bias information processing. Fourth, in the behaviour domain, anger can be either functional (for example, being assertive or setting limits) or dysfunctional (for example, being aggressive, withdrawing, or even using alcohol and drugs) Rhoades offers additional methods to understanding anger.

- What is the source and expression of the anger? ls it deep and situation - specific, or prolonged and generalized?

- What is the magnitude of the anger?

- Does it simply and rapidly evolve into deep feelings of antipathy?

- ls it tied to intense aggression or explosiveness?

- Has it become overpowering?

- What is the anger concealing? is it a smoke screen for fear, being used as armour to keep other individuals at a distance so they are incapable of seeing one’s insecurities and weaknesses?

Increasing evidence associates anger with a variety of physical, mental and social problems.

Chronic and deep anger has been associated with Coronary Heart Disease, cancer, stroke, and common physical illnesses such as colds and flu, and enlarge poorer health; as well as augmented risk- taking, poor decision-making and drug abuse. Higher intensities of anger are linked to lower levels of social support and greater stress levels. Elevated levels of anger manifestation have also been linked with less recurrent usage of positive coping approaches, such as enthusiastically addressing problems.

Anger has also been associated with mental health problems such as depression and self-harm. Individuals refer to anger as more prospective to have an undesirable effect on social relationships than any other emotion. There is proof to advocate that societal modifications are causative to an escalation in emotional problems. Public surveying carried out indicates that a majority of the populace consider that people in general are getting angrier. Leading authors quoted in this chapter have examined life in 21st century Western society and indicated, in recent times, that we are getting angrier, and that despite decades of economic growth in the world, we are no happier.

Conversely, any deviations we are observing are improbable to be in the principal structure of our rudimentary emotions. Evolution is a sluggish process, speedy deviations are as an alternative occurring in our social habits, economic and political situations, and how they sway our thinking, senses and behaviour.

Anger Problems

Anger on its own is not the problem. It is one of the most dominant and vital tools. It is essential to our survival as people and communities. Many people will experience periods of anger that are within a standard and healthy range. However, a common awareness of more progressive ways of expressing and dealing with anger is appropriate for the entire population. Learning healthy technique of dealing with anger benefits people by looking after their psychological and physical health, solve problems, achieve goals and helps cultivate social relationships. On the other hand, at the more extreme side of the range, anger can come to be entrenched in daily life for some individuals, with negative effects. Some individuals experience anger repeatedly and deeply, and it affects their thinking, behaviour, feeling, and relationships, every so often creating desolation for themselves and others. For this crowd, who might be labelled as experiencing ‘anger problems’, receiving support could make an enormous transformation to their well-being, as well as the well-being of people around them.

Anybody who vigorously pursues help when they feel that anger is instigating problems in their life should obtain it.

Why aren’t anger problems well tackled?

Anger has gotten relatively little consideration in the mental health field. A vital lack of discussion in scientific literature shows that anger has not been is well-thought-out as an emotional issue commendable of scientific conceptualisation and thoughtfulness. The absence of attention issued to anger by researchers certainly has a knock-on consequence in clinical practice.

Anger problems are still hardly conceptualised as a psychological health. Sadness and fear are emotions which are if engrained in the conditions of despair and anxiety and have been offered much attention in psychology because of a motivation to treat anxiety and depression, if which are documented as common mental l health complications. At each and every phase of the working models, approaches and outcomes have is being deliberated extensively. The psychology of anger has been left behind.

As well as the labelling of angry behaviour as being ‘bad’, instead of ‘sad’ or ‘mad’, and thus unworthy of attention and care. Appreciating anger problems and more so, its superficial expression in aggressive conduct have been endeavoured mostly from a criminal justice standpoint.

While anger is an emotion and aggression is a form of behaviour, the two are every so often conflated. This conflation is time and again cited as a motive, why underlying imbedded anger goes

generally un-tackled while aggressive behaviour is reprimanded. Given this background, it is not unexpected that the opportunities for individuals seeking support with anger problems are limited.

We are intervening very late if we can’t support people with anger problems before their behaviour necessitates severe intervention in the criminal justice system. Admirable work has been embarked on with regard to anger and aggression in criminal justice, but we should not wait until our lives have been irreparably impaired to intervene. Better recognition of anger problems may possibly offer countless opportunities for constructive intervention in the lives of people and communities to profit their physical and psychological health and whole quality of life. Anger should be everybody’s business. How can we effectively tackle anger problems? Regardless of a widespread absence of motivation to study anger as a problem, scholars say there are about 50 published research studies that have verified some form of intermediation for anger with adults, and another 40 concerning children or adolescents. From these they determine that effective interventions exist for children, adolescents if and adults and that they are likewise fruitful for all age groups and all sorts of populations.

This suggests that treatment for anger problems can be effective. Study commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation discloses that the public considers anger to be an increasing problem in the society, and that they overwhelmingly back the idea that somebody with anger problems should seek support. That support is most probable to be pursued from a GP or another health professional.

Patients with anger problems do not fit the benchmarks for recommendation to psychologists’ in primary care.

- These incline to centre on individuals with psychological health problems such as depression and/or anxiety.

- You can refer individuals to the voluntary sector, but various people do not feel assertive to do this, either as they don't know what’s offered or they are not sure the service is appropriate or quality tested.

Some obligation for addressing anger problems lies with scholars, clinicians and policy-makers.

Anger problems, regardless of its sometimes-terrifying visibility, have every so often been overlooked as an area for study and service delivery in the mental health field. The result is that individuals who may benefit immensely from learning how to cope with their anger are not motivated to come forward, or when they do come forward, they may be presented with little or nothing in the mode of useful support.

Expressing Anger

The expression of anger can take numerous forms.

Some common ways of expressing anger include resisting, venting, seeking revenge, avoiding the source of anger, expressing dislike, and/or seeking help. Nevertheless, in various cultures, people are

showed that while expressing depression, anxiety or other emotions is tolerable, expressing anger is not. The purposeful expression of anger is deliberate, has a substantial degree of contemplation or calculation, and produces a high amount of self-control. The spontaneous expression of anger is instantaneous, has little calculation, and yields little to modest self-control.

In relation to usefulness, the expression of anger can be destructive or constructive. Constructive expression of anger asserts and acknowledges one’s veracity and boundaries devoid of intention to threaten another individual. Destructive expression of anger aggressively projects and rigidly fortifies one’s susceptible identity and boundaries. These distinctions are responsible for four rudimentary expressions of anger. Purposeful and constructive expression direct to affirmation. Purposeful and destructive expression direct to hostility. Spontaneous and constructive expression direct to passion and suffering. Spontaneous and destructive expression direct to rage, screaming, violence, screaming, and hitting.

With reference to rage, someone can be outraged by an apparently clear and external sometimes even criminal target or someone can be in-raged by a response to still unsettled internal pains and humiliations. Even though much of the research in anger management centres on assisting individuals understand what elicits their anger and on learning a positive response, or expression of anger, the argument continues concerning the healthiest techniques to express anger.

Fascinatingly, some sources show that repressing anger can be adaptive for handling certain emotions. Other sources document that subduing anger can cause headache, high blood pressure, hypertension, depression, gastrointestinal disorders, emotional disturbances, respiratory disorders, genitourinary disorders, skin disorders, arthritis, infirmities of the nervous system, circulatory disorders, and even lead to suicide.

It is imperative to learn to recognise whether a client’s responses to expressions of anger are problematic.

Assessing Anger

How and when does a client recognise when his/her anger is more of a problem than a help? Few prescribed assessments are present to quantifiably portion the level of one’s anger. Nevertheless, there are several qualitative pointers to review with clients to understand the degree of their worries about their anger and anger management strategies.

ls the anger recurrent, long-lasting, too intense, or too frequent?

Does the anger interrupt the client’s affect the client s work or school performance?

Does the client display frequent loss of temper at trivial provocations, a cynical or hostile disposition, passive-aggressive conduct, protracted irritability and crankiness?

Has the client instigated to exhibit low self-esteem, sulking, or brooding?

ls the client socially withdrawing from family and friends?

ls the client getting physically sick or doing to one’s own or others’ bodies or possessions?

ls the client facing physical symptoms, for instance amplified heart rate, increased blood pressure, or augmented adrenaline flow?

Even though some of these symptoms may be symptomatic of other issues, they are also habitually related to unsettled anger. The ‘sine qua non’ is that when an individual a victim to his/her own anger, the anger becomes a problem.

Managing Anger

According to Wellness Reproductions (1991) there are three leading approaches to dealing with anger.

First, there is “stuffing” one’s anger, a method in which an individual may or may not acknowledge his/her anger to themselves, or others, and in which one eludes direct confrontations. An individual may stuff his/ her anger out of fear of hurting somebody else, fear of denunciation, fear of harming relationships or fear of losing control. Frequently, a person who stuffs anger is not capable of coping with stout, intense emotions and considers that anger is unfitting or unacceptable. Stuffing one’s anger normally results in damaged relationships and compromised physical and psychological health.

Second, there is intensifying one’s anger, a process in which an individual aggravates blame and shame. The drive is to exhibit power and strength, while eluding the expression of underlying emotions. People who escalate their anger often are afraid of getting close to other people and lack actual communication skills. Escalating one’s anger characteristically reduces short-term results, compromised relationships, and impaired physical and psychological health. Occasionally, escalating one’s anger also causes physical destruction of property or abusive situations, hence adding the possibility for legal consequences.

Third, there is handling one’s anger, a process in which an individual is honest, open, and direct and in which one rallies oneself in a progressive direction. The emphasis is on the behaviour that prompted the anger and on the present where preceding issues are not brought into the current issue.

An individual who manages his/her anger avoids black and white thinking such as ‘never’ or ‘always’ and uses effective communication skills to share feelings and desires, checks for possible middle ground, and evaluates what is at stake by deciding on staying angry as opposed to dealing with the anger.

Managing one’s anger leads to an increased energy level, improved communication skills, bound relationships, improved physical and psychological health, and improved self-esteem. It is this process of handling one’s anger that is the main goal of counselling individuals to efficiently deal with anger. The objective is not to eradicate anger. Anger is a normal and healthy emotion. After a client recognises that he/she is angry, a counsellor can assist the client in learning how to decrease the emotional and physiological stimulation that anger causes learn to manage its effects on individuals and the surroundings. To be more operational, specialists attempt to comprehend the degree and expression of the anger, the explicit problems ensuing from anger, the function anger serves, the fundamental source of anger, and the domain the complications occur in such as emotional, physiological, or cognitive domains before picking interventions for the client.

Anger is a source of stress, both for you and the person that is angry. When we are annoyed we feel as though our blood boils; anger is an emotion that arises regularly in the life of every individual. Appropriate acknowledgment, appreciation and channelling of anger can make life more comfy and successful. For anger to be managed productively, its constituents must be known, and its foremost functions must be understood. Anger befalls when we are not getting something we desire. We become angry when we feel frustrated, attacked, or hurt. Anger has in It a sense of virtue and a conviction that one’s subjective rights have been violated. Anger distresses us physically indicated with muscle tension a clenched jaw or facial flushing.

Function of Anger

Strategies for Working with Angry People

Dealing with angry individuals occasionally makes us angry. Handling a difficult or heated person means also handling yourself. Do not take the individual's anger as a subjective attack. Focus on what you want to achieve with this individual. Establish objectives and stay fixated and engaged on those objectives. Don't let the individual's emotional explosion deflect you. Keep the individual talking. Ask questions, for instance: "What are you going to do next?" Fix limits and offer structure. Let the individual know that it is challenging to listen to them when she/ he is shouting.

Take your time. An unhurried, even pace exhibits a sense of calmness. Avoid a power struggle - this will only intensify the individual's anger. Discourse the feeling state of the person and echo this feeling back to the individual.

Managing Your Own Anger

Communicating Your Own Anger:

Using "l" proclamations escalates the likelihood that your message will be received -

and aids to reduce defensiveness within the other individual. Create statements that are expressive rather than evaluative. By eluding evaluative language, the other individual will not feel judged or pounced on and will be more open to what you must tell them.

When sharing your grievance, be explicit rather than general. Instead of calling a person assertive or controlling it is more beneficial and supportive to your cause to say, "l feel my outlook is not valued when we are together.” Elude labelling the other individual. For instance, try not to say, "You're bad," or "You're so childish". Consider the desires of both the receiver and giver of the response. Make direct statements in the direction of behaviours the receiver can do something about. This assists in decreasing frustration and enables change. If probable, feedback is usually most useful when enunciated at the initial opportunity is after the assumed behaviour.

Why do we get angry?

The circumstances that elicit anger at present are much the same as those tackled by our ancestors. They comprise:

- fronting a threat to ourselves or our loved ones.

- somebody going in contradiction of that we consider essential

- suffering a blow to our self-esteem or our place within a social group

- being interjected when pursuing an objective

- being verbally or physically stricken

- feeling disenchanted by someone else or in ourselves

- having our possessions mistreated

- being treated fraudulently and feeling powerless to change this

- losing out when cash is at stake

Whether or not we feel somebody has aggrieved us on purpose is a fundamental factor in whether we come to be angry. Our current experience can also affect our reactions. If you’re having a dreadful day and are in a state of endless tension, you're more probable to snap when the fifth or sixth thing in a row goes wrong, even if it’s something that would not typically bother you.

We may feel angry instantaneously or only feel angry later as we remember a situation. Anger that comes to the surface a while later occasionally has its roots in neglect or abuse that happened long ago. Occasionally, anger slings around inside us for years because it wasn't dealt with adequately at the time.

ls anger the same for everyone?

Faced with the same condition, some individuals will feel angry and others will not. Some will display their anger, in a range of ways, while others will retain their anger to themselves. As well as variances between the means that individuals react to trigger situations, people's reactions can contrast according to their age, gender, ethnicity, social position, religion or family history. The expectations of the people close to us or of society in general, can influence how we act. For instance, some individuals think it is less acceptable for ladies to raise their voice in anger than for men to do the same. That may be why ladies tend to suppress their anger more than men, turning it in on themselves instead of letting it out in words. During the course of our lives we get used to behaving in established ways in response to certain situations. These ‘learnt behaviours’ can form a configuration which is sometimes difficult to break. The way parents behave when they are angry can affect how their children deal with anger during their lives; therefore, it's imperative that parents set a noble example.

How do individuals behave when they are angry?

Anger isn’t always negative. It can be a force for good. Moral outrage can motivate people to champion for transformation, right wrongs and impose the rules that administrate our society.

Individuals every so often think of anger and aggression as similar things, but researchers estimate that individuals get belligerent just 10% of the times that they are angry. Anger is an emotional state, while aggression is just one of the means that individuals behave when they are angry.

Aggressive conduct can be physical or verbal and provides the indication that somebody set to cause harm. It can mean individuals become violent to others or even throw things. Aggression regularly takes over when individuals act on their predisposition to protect themselves or others.

Alcohol can make some people act more aggressively and drug use can likewise lower our inhibitions. People regularly express their anger vocally. They may threaten, shout, use dramatic words, bombard somebody with hostile queries or exaggerate the impact made on them by somebody else’s actions.

Some people who are angry get their own back indirectly by acting the sacrificial victim.

They get their own way by making other individuals feel guilt-ridden and playing on that guilt.

Others cultivate a cynical attitude and relentlessly criticise everything, but then never address problems productively.

Some individuals internalise their anger. They may be boiling inside and may physically shake, but they don't display their anger in the way they conduct themselves, when they are around other individuals. People who internalise their anger may harm as themselves when they are angry as they find it difficult to deal with their emotions. They intentionally harm themselves, often in secret, as a technique of coping with deep feelings they can’t express another way. Self-harm is most prevalent among young PEOPLE. They may feel it offers them a relief from their anger, but the relief is only momentary and, like various more obvious methods of expressing anger, self-harming doesn’t solve complications in the long term.

What types of problems can be linked to anger?

Anger is neither bad nor good; however, it becomes problematic when it harms us or other people. Anger IS the emotion most probable to result in relationship problems in the family, at school and/or with associates. People with a long-term anger problem tend to be poor at making decisions, assume more risks than other individuals and are more probable to have a drug or substance abuse problem. Prevalent and intense anger has been associated with psychological health problems comprising of anxiety, depression, and self-harm. It is also associated to poorer overall physical health in addition to conditions from colds and flu, high blood pressure, to coronary heart disease, cancer, stroke, and gastro-intestinal complications.

Why do individuals tend to neglect anger problems?

Reports indicate that anger problems are as apparent as anxiety and depression, but individuals experiencing problems with anger regularly fall to detect their anger or perceive it as a problem. They seldom seek support and may be more probable to perceive other people as the problem. If a member of their family, or associates, convince them to pursue support, they may be less eager to take on board any as recommendation they are offered than if they had enquired for support themselves. Shifting how you behave takes determination and can be made easier by the aid of friends and family.

How can managing my anger help me?

Most individuals get angry rather often, but their anger is contained below a normal and healthy level. Other individuals experience anger often but if it is powerfully adequate for it to interfere with their daily life. Both sets of individuals can profit from learning how to cope with their anger more

commendably. There’s lots of indication to advocate that managing your anger in a healthy manner can aid people look after their psychological and physical health, feel more confident about themselves, realise their goals, resolve problems and delight in relationships with the people around them. Anger can direct you to action, or even violence. Keeping your rage under control can also save you from yourself, aiding you to elude the trouble or humiliation that may shadow an outburst. Bottling up your anger for an extended period isn’t a good thing. It's imperative to deal with anger and move on, and not let it simmer inside you.

Anger Management

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