Anger Management Resources for Mental Health: 2008

The Best Anger Management Resources For Mental Health

Anger has a tremendous effect on your mental health. That much is obvious. It distorts our thinking, drags us into depression, keeps us constantly boiling inside and constantly keeps us in a state of war.

From there, it spreads out to disrupt our outside life - our studies, work, friends, romances, family relationships. It even hurts us physically - many extremely dangerous conditions such as cancer and high blood pressure are linked to anger.

First of all, we have to understand what anger is. Anger is not wrong in any way. Yes, I believe we can transcend it, but to make ourselves wrong for being angry will only hurt us more.

What is anger

Anger is a protection system - it allows others, and us, to know when something is wrong. This is especially true in older times - if physical action is needed, anger is what lets us fight if we have to, for our own protection. This is also the reason why anger sometimes gives us a feeling of power - and this is why it is so addictive.

But in this day and age, reacting with aggression, violence, or shouting is uncalled for. It is often a sign of emotional weakness and immaturity. (Although sometimes you have to tell someone to back off.)

Most people know that reacting without emotional control is weak, and so they try to keep their cool. They do in the wrong way, however, and they end up repressing their anger - which leads to all the ills we mentioned above.

Anger management resources are vital in differentiating between the right and wrong ways in controlling anger: You could lose more than just your mental health.

To make things easier, I'll differentiate between two types of anger: Repressed, and "Fresh". They are dealt with in different ways.

Repressed anger

For repressed anger, here's a quick summary of how to release it: Let it all hang out, but not on the person or event that makes you angry. Find somewhere you can be alone.

Then, simply give your anger a voice. Scream out whatever has been tearing you up - everything that you've wanted to say. Scream until you become the scream. This is the most important ingredient. Take some safe physical action at the same time. For people who like punching, punch the pillow. For those who feel better twisting, find a thick towel and twist it with all your might.

Again, screaming and shouting is important. Don't hold it back for fear of scaring your neighbours. When I dealt with my anger, I went for long drives alone at night, and screamed at the driving wheel. It worked wonders.

Fresh anger

The next kind of anger is "fresh" anger. While it is a very complex subject, here is a bit of information that helps.

Fresh anger is triggered by thought. It could be a reaction to a current event or person, it could be anxiety over the future, or it could be a painful past memory. These thoughts could come so fast that you don't catch it, and so you go straight into an anger response.

These emotional responses then strengthen and further distort your thoughts, and so it begins a vicious cycle. To stop fresh anger, many anger management resources recommend replacing these angry thoughts with positive thoughts "It's not that bad," or "calm down". I personally found it hard to switch thoughts when you are seeing red.

I suggest taking a page from meditation and clearing the mind. When you clear the mind you stop the thoughts, and the anger dies soon afterwards with nothing to feed it.

The fastest way to stop the thoughts is to watch your breath. This is also a meditation technique. Feel the breath. What does it feel like as the air passes through your nose? What does it feel like as it goes into your lungs, and as it comes back up? By occupying your mind in such a way, it cannot think any angry thoughts - it cannot do more than two things at once.

Great Resources

Of course, these are just very basic overviews on anger management. There are some great resources, but it can be a while to sift through the rubbish.

Here are some of the works that I recommend:

A New Earth or The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle: His spiritual works don't cover just anger but every thing that could disturb your peace and happiness.

The Australian Psychological Society has a strictly psychological approach: They have a small free online guide.

Lastly, I'd like to congratulate you on taking steps, looking for anger management resources, and looking after your mental health. A lot of people don't even recognise that they have a problem. As a result their mental health deteriorates until it - or their lives -hit rock bottom.

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Anger management involves a system of psychological therapeutic techniques and exercises by which one with excessive anger can reduce the triggers, degrees, and effects of an angered emotional state. Anger management will help you break out of the anger trance, stop it ruining your relationships, and damaging your health.

Anger management is not about stopping you from expressing your anger entirely. Anger management, then, is the process of learning how to "calm down" and diffuse the negative emotion of anger before it gets to a destructive level.

Stress

Stress has been found to have a direct correlation to unmanaged anger and aggression. In fact, trying to suppress or deny your anger can lead to a host of physical complaints, such as headaches, depression, stress, and sleeping or eating difficulties. Anger and stress are highly correlated and the effects of stress on the body are well documented.

Health

Anger that's out of control can be destructive, leading to problems in your relationships, at work, in your enjoyment of life and with your health. If your level of anger is high or you tend to express anger in an unhealthy way, make plans to deal with your anger. Your health may improve, you'll feel better about yourself, and strained relationships may heal when you control your anger.

Techniques

By employing various mental techniques, anger management classes attempt to help you see differently the situations that have caused you anger and to change your thinking processes. A common skill used in most anger management programs is learning assertive communication techniques. Typical anger management techniques are the use of deep breathing and meditation as a means of relaxation.

We see that, with enough will power, we can climb large mountains, so we need to think that anger is just a mountain that we can climb to the top of with simple anger management techniques.

Counseling

An individual who exhibits behaviors that can lead to harm of another or property damage needs psychological services from a professional trained in anger management. Talk to your health care provider about resources, such as counseling or anger management classes. Getting some anger management counseling is a great idea if you do not know how to control your anger.

Conclusion

Identify and promote effective anger management methods and techniques. Luckily you CAN learn anger management skills to apply to your family and career lives, and you can improve. Being proactive with anger management will help to ensure it remains a healthy emotion that protects you from unnecessary hurt or threat.

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