Anger is a normal human emotion, much like happiness, amusement, and boredom. But what if your anger becomes intense and frequent and starts to affect your everyday life? In that case, you could consider anger management counseling. Perhaps you’re going through a hard time in your life that you’re unable to express anger in a healthy way, so you end up lashing out at the people around you.
If you keep living like this every day—angry, cranky, or, worse, prone to physical violence, something has to change. Uncontrolled anger might affect not only your daily mood but also the quality of your life and your relationships with loved ones. If you’ve been dealing with anger issues and want them to end, keep reading this post.
Anger management counseling can benefit you in many ways. In this article, you’ll learn about the advantages and effectiveness of anger management counseling, tips on controlling your temper, and where to book online management counseling services.
What Is Anger Management Counseling?
Anger management counseling is designed to manage emotional and physical anger. Here’s a fact that you may already know: we can’t control what makes us angry. It could be an annoying coworker, the thought of injustice, snide comments from a relative, endless bills, and many more. Though you can’t control these triggers, you can do so with how you react to them. That’s what anger management counseling is all about.
Anger management counseling can help you learn about behavioral skills and ways to cope with anger. If you have mental health concerns such as depression or panic attacks, anger management can also help with that. For some, angry outbursts don’t just happen in the heat of the moment; there could be underlying issues that need to be addressed in order to get rid of the problem once and for all.
How Can You Explore the Roots of Your Anger?
Anger is like a leaky roof—you have to find holes, cracks, or faults before you can begin to deal with it. Otherwise, the whole roof and ceiling may come crashing, metaphorically speaking. If you’ve been experiencing anger issues, you need to determine the cause of the leak or, in this case, the roots of your anger so you can manage your emotions.
Before everything comes crashing down on you, learn how to explore the roots of your anger. You can do this with a therapist during counseling sessions. So what are a few examples of possible factors that may make a person angry?
- Personal failures, frustrations, or heartbreak
- Public humiliation, teasing, or bullying
- Feelings of injustice due to people or circumstances
- Pressure at work or at home
- Grieving over the loss of a loved one
- Unresolved childhood issues
- Financial problems
- Traumatic events caused by natural disasters, violence, or abuse
For some, the roots of their anger may be masked by vices, emotional trauma, grief, and other unresolved issues. Even though it’s human nature to find temporary relief whenever you’re mad or frustrated, lashing out on others who don’t deserve to be the receiving end of your anger is toxic. You don’t want to be called a cranky, mean person behind your back, do you?
In addition, if you display your anger in inappropriate ways, there might be a more serious underlying mental health concern that requires attention. If you think this is true for you, seek help from a mental health professional through anger management counseling. That way, you’ll be able to recognize, control, and manage your anger.
Types of Anger Management Therapy
Therapy is an essential component in controlling anger. You can’t suppress that kind of emotion as it wouldn’t be healthy. The goal of therapy with a trained mental health professional is to work on balancing your emotions.
There are different kinds of anger management therapy. Your therapist will determine which one’s best for you depending on the roots of your anger. Below are several types of anger management therapy you can expect to undergo:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): The therapy of choice for anger management is often cognitive behavioral therapy. During CBT sessions, your therapist will help you acknowledge your anger, find out what triggers you, control how you feel, and respond to anger in a healthy way.
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT): DBT is a form of CBT. It’s designed to help individuals with intense anger management issues. Through it, you can regain emotional control by learning how to develop emotional regulation, increase tolerance to triggers, and communicate properly rather than having outbursts.
- Family Therapy: When your anger is directed toward a family member, be it one of your parents, a sibling, or any of your children, family therapy is the anger management option for you. During family therapy, you’ll learn how to resolve issues at home and communicate without shouting or breaking things.
- Psychodynamic Therapy: Together with your therapist and through psychodynamic therapy, you can examine the root cause of your anger. It could be an unresolved childhood issue or a mental health issue you’re unaware you have such as intermittent explosive disorder. As a result, you’ll discover how it’s affecting your life at the present so you can move forward into the future without anger issues.
During anger management sessions, your therapist will determine your circumstances, behaviors, stressors, and so on to figure out which therapy or combination of therapies would best suit your needs.
Keep in mind, however, that anger management may take time. Complete healing won’t happen overnight. It’d take your cooperation, your therapist’s skills and knowledge, and your determination to control your anger. It may not be easy, but self-awareness regarding your anger issues can go a long way in bettering your life and relationships.
Techniques You Can Learn From Anger Management Counseling
When you get in touch with mental health professionals regarding your anger management problems, there are techniques you can expect to learn from them. These aim to guide you in understanding your triggers, responses, change thought patterns, and attitudes. Most importantly, it’ll allow you to learn self-control. Here are the techniques you might encounter in anger management counseling:
- Identifying your triggers and responses to anger problems
- Learning coping strategies to diffuse anger
- How to change your attitude, thoughts, and behavior toward anger
Identifying Your Triggers and Responses to Anger Problems
Therapy can help you identify what sparks your anger and why you respond to it the way you do. Are you only having a bad day, or is it becoming a pattern that you’re starting to worry about? There’s a huge difference between having an awful day and being mad so often that even the smallest issue can tick you off.
During therapy, you can expect to learn how to avoid being exposed to triggers. For instance, if you get extremely frustrated by heavy traffic, perhaps you can leave the house earlier than usual, try a different route, or consider transferring to a place that’s closer to your office. Also, therapy can help you change your reaction to traffic so you can stay calm even when you get stuck on the road.
Keep in mind that every problem comes with a solution. Therapy can help you determine the factors that make you mad and develop solutions to address them.
Learning Strategies to Diffuse Anger
No matter what you do, you won’t be able to avoid every single thing that would make you mad. You can’t control what’s happening around you 24/7, be it an annoying coworker who can’t seem to stop talking or your child who keeps running around the house. However, the good news is that you can learn how to diffuse your anger.
How exactly do you do that? When you think you’re about to implode, pause, take a deep breath, walk out for a while, and distract yourself. If you’re in a room full of people who get on your nerves, listen to some calming music, soothe your anger with humor, and take a time-out.
Changing Attitude and Thought Patterns
With anger management counseling, you’ll be more open to changing your attitude and thought patterns. Therapy is a perfect opportunity for you to learn how to restructure your thoughts and behavior. For example, you’ll discover more peaceful alternatives to shouting or breaking things whenever you’re angry.You’ll be able to embrace confrontation and confront it healthily as well.
In addition, therapy can help you learn how to forgive and be compassionate. Regardless of the kind of disappointment that may come your way, you have the ability to change the way you think and react to the situation at hand.
Benefits of Anger Management Therapy
Once you learn to control your anger through therapy, you’ll reap many benefits as a result. Anger management may help with many aspects of your life: relationships, physical health, emotional peace, and, of course, mental wellness. So how can counseling help if you experience anger issues? Read on to find out.
Mental Health
If you’re angry all the time, this may take a toll on your mental health. Not only will your anger consume your energy, cloud your judgment, and demand your focus, but it could lead to other unpleasant experiences such as loneliness or panic attacks. These may negatively impact your mental health. What’s more, some people choose to mask their anger by drinking, which may lead to substance abuse.
Physical Health
Did you know that getting angry often may affect your physical health? Yes, this is true. According to the American Psychological Association, angry outbursts cause a surge of adrenaline. This may lead to physical manifestations such as high blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, and muscle tension.
Having to deal with excessive stress or anger is a risk factor for developing certain diseases, too. Studies have found that too much stress and anger may result in obesity, gastrointestinal problems, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and many more physical ailments.
Career and Work Performance
If you keep succumbing to anger, how can you excel in your career or your studies? Fortunately, going through anger management counseling can be beneficial to your career and work performance as well.
Uncontrollable anger can harm your relationships with people at work, affect your productivity, and limit your efficiency with tasks. There’s no need to alienate yourself from colleagues because of your anger. Instead, seek help from an anger management therapist as soon as possible in order to excel in school or the workplace.
Relationships With Family Members, Friends, and Your Social Circle
When you don’t know how to manage your anger, you’re more likely to lash out at the people around you. These include your family, friends, and social circle. Do you know what anger does to relationships? It can strain them in that people around you may lose their trust in or respect for you.
If you have children and get mad at them all the time, it could be emotionally damaging for them as they grow up. To have harmonious relationships at home, keep your anger in check and seek professional advice right away if needed.
Other Benefits of Anger Management Counseling
Poorly managed anger can lead to consequences such as violence. You wouldn’t want to end up getting sued because of your anger, right? You have to take control of it now before it’s too late. Here are the other benefits of anger management counseling:
- It can change the way you think for the better.
- You can develop skills related to taking control of your emotions.
- You can learn relaxation techniques to calm yourself and be positive.
- Counseling can teach you problem-solving skills.
- Counseling can help you communicate better and express your feelings respectfully and assertively.
Ways to Manage Anger and Control Your Temper
Other than talking to a counselor, it’s a good idea to get your journal and take note of the ways for you to manage your anger. Anger management skills can be learned if you practice them on the daily. Angry outbursts won’t do you any good, and they’ll just spoil your and everyone else’s mood the whole day. Try following these anger management techniques:
Self-awareness means having the ability to focus on yourself—your thoughts, words, actions, and emotions. Be aware of what you’re doing and how you react. Listen to your body as well because self-awareness is the first step to being in tune with yourself. After all, if you don’t know what makes you tick or what hurts you, how can you take charge of your emotions?
Stepping Back and Slowing Down
Have you noticed that you often resort to aggressive behavior when you get angry? If this applies to you, step back and slow down. Take a deep breath, leave the room, and don’t return until you’ve cooled down.
If you feel as though you’re about to blow a fuse in a heated situation, step away from it. Upon physiological arousal of anger, slow down and relax your mind. As much as possible, avoid putting yourself in a situation where you’ll lose your temper.
Changing the Way You Think
As you start attending anger management courses, consider changing how you think. What does this mean? Stop getting mad at the little things. Are you annoyed at the clutter in your home? Either ignore it or, better yet, clean it up. Are you pissed at your colleague? Let their provoking words pass from one ear to another.
It’s absolutely not worth it to ruin your day over petty matters. Accept whatever provokes your anger and just take a breather. By changing your perception of your surroundings and circumstances, you can get a fresher, more positive outlook in life.
Attending Anger Management Counseling Classes
If you think you need intervention for managing anger, consult with an anger management specialist or a therapist. It can be hard to figure out what makes you mad on your own. At times, it’s better to talk to an anger management therapist to be sure.
Don’t let anger issues lead to more complicated scenarios and even mental health conditions such depression, substance abuse, or nervous breakdown. Though anger is a normal reaction, it’s not normal anymore when it becomes frequent, intense, and violent.
Anger Management Counseling at Counseling Now
If you’re looking into attending an anger management class or if you have a loved one struggling with anger issues, schedule an appointment with Counseling Now. Here, you can be sure to find help available and get assurance that someone will listen to you. You can also attend group therapy sessions to directly communicate with individuals experiencing the same situation as you are.
Controlling your anger requires a lot of patience and determination. The ability to control it is a learned behavior, and it can’t be learned overnight. But over time, through anger management therapy and with the professional advice of our counselors, you can get past this and live happily once you’ve freed yourself from anger.
