From reactive to responsive

Anger / Stress Management

Anger is a basic human an emotion, however, it is the differing degrees to which people express anger, feel angry and the effects this may have upon themselves and those around them that create concern and require positive interventions. Anger can range from a small interruption to your day to an intense and lingering frustration with explosive outbursts. Anger can often mask deeper states of mind and emotions, such as anxiety, hurt and sadness. The causes of anger can be found within unresolved emotional concerns and learned unhelpful thinking styles and patterns of behaviours.

​

Anger can be expressed in many ways; most commonly is the external projection of anger in the form of yelling, throwing objects, criticising, hitting and verbal expression. Anger is not always an isolated concern and can be accompanied by less obvious behaviours such as ignoring others or becoming withdrawn and retracting from the world. At the most extreme end of the spectrum anger can lead to physical, verbal and emotional violence.

​

Many factors can be attributed to the different levels of anger an individual may express or display. Typically the major factors involve genetic components, learned behaviours and social modelling from significant people in an individual’s life (including how these significant role models deal with and express the emotion of anger). Each of us as individuals have our limitations, including a tolerance to frustration. It is within our everyday lives that stressors can increase leading us to become frustrated, resulting in an expression of anger.

Individuals may have a number of concerns which impact and increase their tendency for the display and act of being angry. Individuals may turn to substance abuse to reduce the impacts of the underlying hurt or other emotional state. Anger may seem more frequently related to men, as it is often perceived as more masculine and socially acceptable emotion for men to express.

​

When does anger become a problem?

The results of anger become a major concern when it affects relationships with loved ones, family, friends and work colleagues. Anger has the ability to impact an individual’s health by increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and lifting stress hormones within the body. Anger and lead to expressed behaviours that may violate common laws leading to incarceration, particularly surrounding domestic and physical violence.

​

The signs that anger may be a problem:

1. An individual is expressing anger and there is signs of physical, emotional, verbal or psychological abuse
2. An individual expresses and feels anger a lot of the time
3. Anger is having a detrimental effect on relationships
4. An individual may frequently get angry over what might be considered small and trivial
5. Anger expressed by an individual appears to last for prolonged periods of time after the event that triggered it
6.  An individual appears to become anxious and depressed about being angry
7. Individuals may blame others for the circumstances of being angry
8. Others around the individual are concerned about the anger

If you are having problems with anger, or if you are a family member that requires assistance to provide a positive intervention and assist someone you love, please call us on 0418 105 574 for a confidential discussion.