What is Anger?
Anger is a strong feeling or emotion we feel when something in our life goes wrong, or someone upsets us. Anger is often expressed with feelings of stress, annoyance, frustration, and irritability.
Everyone feels anger, and it is normal to feel angry from time to time, as it is a normal response to stressful situations. Anger only becomes an issue when expressed in an extreme way that hurts or impacts one’s daily functioning. Anger can also be an issue when it begins to affect people’s daily functioning or the way they interact with other people.
Anger can vary in intensity, and it can go from normal frustration to severe rage. Sometimes, anger can be irrational or extreme, and it can be difficult to keep emotions and behaviors in control.
How Does Anger Affect Us?
When we are angry, our body goes through certain biological and physiological alterations, such as high blood pressure, an increased spike in adrenaline hormones, body temperature, and muscle strain.
We all express anger in different ways, which is the reason why anger doesn’t look the same in every one or the way they express it. Some examples of how anger is expressed can be elevated or high voice or speech, clenched firsts or jaw, frowning, excessive sweating or pacing, and rapid heartbeats.
Even though anger is a normal and healthy emotion to feel, it can be harmful to a person’s physical and emotional health if they are not in full control of it. If anger consistently reoccurs often, the biological and physiological changes can be detrimental to one’s health which can lead to other medical complications.
What are the Three Types of Anger?
- Passive-Aggressive Anger: repressing anger to avoid dealing with it leads to expressing it in unhealthy and harmful ways.
- Assertive Anger: handling anger in a controlled way by using words to explain and talk non-threateningly.
- Openly Aggressive Anger: physical or verbal aggression involving screaming, hitting, or hurting the other person emotionally or physically.
How Do We Help With Anger Management?
The true goal of anger management isn’t to suppress feelings of anger but rather to understand the message behind the emotion and express it in a healthy way without losing control.
We help clients understand their anger and the effect it has on them. We support clients in strengthening their skills of expressing their anger in different, healthier ways with new habits. We assist clients in being more in tune with the brain, which areas of the brain get activated when we are angry, and how to control the emotional triggers of fight, flight, or freeze responses.
We support clients to be in control of their anger and express it appropriately in order to help them build better relationships, achieve their goals, and lead a more satisfying life.
