Taming Your Temper – What to Know About Anger Management and What You Can Do

Stress at work, in our personal lives, and everything in between can trigger emotions of anger, especially in the stress-driven society in which we live.

Why Manage Your Anger? 

While anger is an innate human response, one must learn to express this emotion as overly angered  or aggressive behavior can be disruptive to one’s day-to-day life. Research by Staicus et al., shows  anger can have a various negative impacts on one’s health.  

Anger can be expressed in various ways such as acting out on others through threat or violence, it can lead to poor problem solving, having poor relationships and at times we can direct anger at ourselves to being overly self-critical. 

Red Flags That Indicate You Have Anger Management Issues 

Although feeling angry over someone or a situation is normal can be normal, there are warning signs that suggest you are not managing your anger in a healthy way. These include the following:

• Easily frustrated
• Repetitive negative thoughts and seeing the bad sign in every situation; 
• Feelings of irritation, and impatience
• Small disagreements escalate into full-fledged arguments 
• Having an urge to throw or hit something 
• Resorting to destructive behavior  driving recklessly
• Coping with substances such as alcoholAvoiding talking about your anger
• Feelings of guilt

If you are concerned about your anger and experiencing any of these  indicate a need to speak to a professional before your anger escalates and you  hurt  yourself or someone you love.

How Does Anger Management Therapy Help You? 

Anger management therapy can help you acquire the tools and skills required to better understand and to be able to manage your anger. In their meta-analysis review , Del Vecchio et al., showed that Cognitive Therapies has produced moderate to high effect size for treating various anger presentations. 

While anger management therapy does not stop you from feeling angry, it allows one to recognize the signs of negative behaviour and find effective strategies to process and manage your anger. After all, anger is a healthy and perfectly normal emotion, but it’s up to each individual to identify and manage their anger before it can affect your personal health and important relationships. 

What Can You Do to Manage your Anger?

Many can agree that leading a hectic and fast-paced lifestyle can be stressful and frustrating and over time can lead to anger and negative outcomes.

If you’re looking for ways to better manage your anger you can reach-out to Toronto Talk Therapy who can work with you in identifying unhealthy thinking and behavioural patterns that may contribute to your anger.

Here at Toronto Talk Therapy, we understand that solutions often require individualized approaches, which is why we offer online talk therapy to tailor the right anger management approach that best suits your individual needs. With our help, you can learn to respond better to your feelings, so don’t hesitate to reach out and see what we can do to help you manage your anger. 

References

Staicu, Mihaela-Luminiţa, and Mihaela Cuţov. “Anger and health risk behaviors.” Journal of medicine and life vol. 3,4 (2010): 372-5.

Del Vecchio T, O’Leary KD. Effectiveness of anger treatments for specific anger problems: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review. 2004;24:15–34.