Anger Management 2

Anger Management

Anger is a completely normal, healthy human emotion, and a certain amount of it is necessary to our survival. It inspires powerful and often aggressive feelings and behaviors, which allow us to fight and defend ourselves when we are attacked.
When anger gets out of control and turns destructive it can lead to problems at work, in personal relationships, and affect the overall quality of life. Anger can be caused by both external and internal events, and like other emotions, anger causes heart rate and blood pressure to increase, in addition to the levels of the hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline. Over time, people can suffer physically and have chronic health issues arise because of their inability to keep triggers at bay. People with anger management issues get angry more easily and more intensely than the average person, and the notion that “letting it all out” helps is false, because it actually escalates anger and aggression, which doesn’t resolve anything.

The term, “anger management”, commonly refers to therapeutic techniques and exercises practiced by someone with excessive or uncontrollable anger to control or reduce triggers. According to the American Psychological Association and various reliable online sources, the goal of anger management is learning how to control anger before it controls the individual, to reduce both emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. The most common techniques recommended immediately before escalation of emotions is to stop talking, stop staring, and leave the room. Learning relaxation techniques like deep breathing and meditation will also help, in addition to stress management skills, learning empathy and forgiveness, and becoming optimistic instead of pessimistic. Prolonged mismanagement of anger can lead to serious physical and mental disorders, and if the individual is not proactive, whether by voluntary or involuntary means, the outcome could be disastrous.

Limits are placed on how far anger can take an individual, by laws, social norms, and hopefully common sense. People just can’t physically lash out at every person or object that irritates or annoys them; they need to focus on something positive instead of losing control and dramatizing every life event. Fortunately for these people, there are many reliable self-help resources available online for people with anger issues, including online anger management counseling and education at www.angermanagementonline.com, featuring easy, fast, enjoyable classes, whether by court order or voluntary enrollment. For more information and resources on the subject visit the American Psychological Association at www.apa.org, and www.angermgmt.com for additional tips on managing anger.