How can I control my anger?





Anger is one of the basic human emotions, as elemental as sadness, happiness, anxiety, and disgust. Anger is a natural, healthy emotion. However, it can arise out of proportion to its trigger. In these cases, the emotion can impede a person’s decision-making, damage relationships, and otherwise cause harm. Learning to control anger can limit the emotional damage.





Anger could invoke feelings of animosity, resentment, or hate, which can be directed against certain personal, groups, objects, entities, behaviors, concepts, or ideas.

These emotions are tied to basic survival and were honed over the long course of human history. Anger is related to the “fight, flight, or freeze” response of the sympathetic nervous system; it prepares humans to fight.





But fighting doesn't necessarily mean hiting on someone; it might motivate communities to fight injustice by changing laws or enforcing new behavioral norms. Of course, anger too easily or frequently mobilized can undermine relationships and it is deleterious to bodies in the long term. Prolonged release of the stress hormones that accompany anger can destroy neurons in areas of the brain associated with judgment and short-term memory, and it can weaken the immune system.





What is

Anger therapy is a psycho-therapeutic program for anger control and prevention. Many therapeutic strategies are available to help you overcome with anger issues, but the most popular is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a brief treatment that has proven to be the most highly effective anger management therapy. Through CBT sessions with a therapist, patients will often undergo:

Healthy distress tolerance training

Mindfulness training

Restructuring of dysfunctional thoughts

Skill building to translate anger to assertiveness

Emotion regulation and empathy training

Benefits of Anger Therapy

People learn to help themselves stay calm and handle tense situations in a constructive and positive way through anger therapy. These skills can help them avoid anger suppression, which can lead to depression, hypertension, and anxiety. Other benefits include better:

Communication.

Often anger is caused by miscommunications that result in misunderstandings. Learning how to open up communication makes dialogue easier and more controlled.

Relationships

Many people who have anger related issues stay away from their loved ones or are asked to stay away because they can hurt people with their strong emotions — the ones we love are our nearest, easiest victims. Learning to control your anger will help put others at ease about outbursts and better able to focus on your relationship.

Judgment

Anger makes us incapable of grasping the situation in an unbiased way and makes us prone to making mistakes in sound reasoning. Anger management helps an individual channel anger better so his or her control and temper are not lost, allowing the individual to analyze situations more objectively.

Understanding of empathy

A big part of therapy is learning empathy for others, which helps one party understand the other better, decreasing chances of further conflict or disputes.

While working with an anger therapist has long-term benefits, you’re learning specific behavioral skills and ways of thinking so you can cope with anger more easily.

If you need of being calmed down when not in the presence of a professional, there are things you can do. Follow these easy tips for a quick cool down.





Use logic

While anger can quickly skew judgment and logic, do your best to stay focused. Remind yourself that the world is not out to get you – this is the irrational anger talking. Remember to do this each time you start feeling heated, and you’ll start realizing you’re getting a more balanced perspective.

Stop reacting

Listen before reacting. Take time to think carefully about how you want to reply. It’s OK if you need to step away to cool down first.

Relax

Practice taking controlled, slow breaths that you picture coming up from your belly rather than your chest.

Anger is a healthy emotion. Whether or not it’s of concern depends on its severity. If you have difficulty controlling your emotion or your anger comes out in unhealthy ways that could hurt others as well as hurt yourself, it’s time to take control of it. Left alone, it can negatively affect your relationships and professional career. If you think you will benefit from therapy, talk to a therapist today and get started on a path to a calmer lifestyle.

Human emotions are not just caused by circulating levels of hormones like adrenaline. Adrenaline levels are raised in anger because anger causes physical and mental (rather than sexually, although this can sometimes happen for some people) arousal. Adrenaline is the dominant hormone of all kinds of arousal. Known as the fight or flight hormone, it is involved in excitement as well as fear, happiness and desire as well as anger and stress.Anger management involves a range of skills that can help with recognizing the signs of anger and handling triggers in a positive way.It requires a person to identify anger at an early stage and to express their needs while remaining calm and in control. Managing anger does not involve holding it in or avoiding associated feelings.Coping with anger is an acquired skill, almost anyone can learn to control the feelings with time, patience, and dedication.When anger is negatively affecting a relationship, and especially if it is leading to violent or otherwise dangerous behavior, a person may benefit from consulting a mental health professional or attending an anger management class.However, there are initial, immediate techniques to try. Some people find that they can resolve these issues without seeking professional assistance.