Everyone feels anger or frustration at times. Anger can be constructive and gives people a way to express their emotions. But if you have trouble controlling your anger, it can quickly become destructive and impact your quality of life and mental and physical health. Anger management therapy won’t try to keep you from feeling angry; anger is a normal, healthy emotion.
How individuals express their anger
How individuals react to anger depends on various factors which include the following; the individual’s current life-situation, particularly if they are dealing with various issues or stress, may make it more difficult to control their anger, if they have a family history, grew-up with, anger issues such as parents arguing or fighting as a child, past events which they have experienced may have made them angry without an outlet for expressing this and they may still be trying to handle these past angry feelings, some individuals express anger verbally which involves shouting, swearing, threats as well as name-calling, other individuals may react violently, lashing out physically, hitting, pushing or breaking things and some show anger passively by ignoring others or sulking.
Individuals who hide their anger or even take their anger out on themselves may find it increasingly difficult to express and let out their anger. Turning anger inwards can lead to self-harm as a way of handling with the intense feelings.
Anger and Anger Management Therapy
But when you can learn to recognize the signs that you’re becoming angry, you can implement learned strategies to calm down and deal with the situation. Anger management therapy can be done individually or in a group. Techniques include learning to think more clearly and overcome the impulse to lash out, learning breathing techniques, managing anger in the long term through considering ways to control your anger or avoid situations which trigger anger, being creative through writing, playing music, dancing or painting help to release tension and reduce anger and above all learning to talk about how your feelings with those around you can help to give you distance and perspective about angry situations.
Discussing your feelings as part of anger management therapy, with a qualified therapist, is the best way to gain perspective, identify angry thoughts and learning how to manage angry thoughts, feeling and situations.
