Anger Management
Anger is a normal and natural emotion that arises in every person in appropriate circumstances. It is natural to experience feelings of anger in situations which you don’t agree with, when something seems deeply wrong or unfair or issues that you believe are important are not respected as such by others. Although anger is typically viewed as a negative emotion, it can be very helpful to motivate an individual to change the situation that elicited the response, or to achieve their goals.
However anger can become a significant problem when it is expressed in unhelpful ways, is felt extremely often or impacts on an individual’s day-to-day living, causing problems in areas such as work, school, home or with the law. Problematic expressions of anger are often felt as frequent, intense emotions which can lead to physical aggression, verbal putdowns and often disrupt a persons functioning.
Signs and symptoms typically felt with anger include:
- Increased heart rate (heart pounding)
- Increase of stress hormones
- Become hot or sweaty
- Feeling out of control
- Flushed face
- Tightness in chest
- Gritting your teeth
- Increased volume of speech (yelling)
- Increased rate of speech
- Throwing things
- Withdrawing and doing nothing
- Storming out
- Criticizing others
- Ignoring others
- Physical violence
Every person will feel and express anger differently, an individual may display all of the above symptoms or any combination of the above symptoms and other symptoms not listed.
A crucial step in anger management is understanding your anger and why it happens. Understanding why you get angry in certain situations and not others, and how you express this anger is helpful towards developing strategies to cope more effectively with anger.
Read about triggers of anger, and techniques that can prevent angry outbursts.
Steps you can take
Talking to a psychologist can help you to learn different ways of expressing your anger that can be more productive and to learn different ways of dealing with situations that have the potential to make you angry without escalating the problem by acting aggressively.
Your psychologist will tailor treatment around your needs, specifically targeting the ways in which you feel and express anger that may not be helpful for you. From treatment you can expect to develop new skills to help manage your anger in a more productive way, be able to identify situations which may trigger your anger responses and ways to avoid or better manage these situations.
Contact us at Strategic Psychology by phone, email or by dropping by our office to arrange to see one of our experienced psychologists to assist you in better managing your anger. No referral is needed to make an appointment, however you can contact your GP to arrange for a Mental Health Plan referral (if eligible) to receive rebates under Medicare.
