Anger Management Mental Health

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Anger is a common emotion experienced by everyone of all ages from time to time. From an early age, people learn to express anger primarily by copying the angry behaviour they witness through friends, family members, at school or through the media, and by expressing angry behaviour and seeing what they can get away with. Modern society has an uneasy relationship with anger expression; we basically teach our children and are taught ourselves that it is not appropriate to express anger directly; that it must not be tolerated and that it is always dangerous.

Anger is a natural, almost automatic response to pain of one form or another be it physical or emotional. Anger can occur when people are feeling unwell, rejected, isolated, threatened or experience some loss such as the death of a close family member. The type of pain is not important; what is mportant is that the pain experienced is not a pleasant experience. Because anger never occurs in isolation but rather is necessarily preceded by pain feelings, it is often characterised as a secondhand emotion.

Anger can be an underlying cause of a range of mental health issues in both adults and children alike. Suppressed anger, for example, can be an underlying cause of anxiety and depression. Anger that is not appropriately expressed can disrupt relationships, create problems at work or school, affect thinking and behaviour patterns and create a variety of physical problems or even create problems with the law. Chronic, long-term, anger has been linked to health issues such as high blood pressure, heart problems, headaches, skin disorders and digestive problems. In addition, anger can be linked to problems such as criminal behaviour, emotional and physical abuse and other violent behaviour.

Participation in anger management individual or group programs can reduce the levels of anger, especially in provocative situations. Participants learn effective coping strategies and behavious to stop escalation and to resolve conflicts. Graduated homework assignments allow participants to apply their newly acquired skills in their day to day lives.

Each client at an anger management group program will typically receive a workbook and weekly group instruction. The purpose of such education is to improve awareness, self-expression and understanding others' points of view. Participants are also taught how to set limits. When clients learn to use these tools, their family can respond and troubled relationships can be repaired.

Do you or someone you know suffer from Anger Management issues ? Help is at hand, click here for more information.