Anger Management Santa Barbara

When Does Anger Become a Problem?

In the most general sense, anger is a feeling or emotion that ranges from mild irritation to intense fury and rage. People often confuse anger with aggression. Aggression is behavior that is intended to cause harm to another person or damage property. This behavior can include verbal abuse, threats, or violent acts. Anger, on the other hand, is an emotion and does not necessarily lead to aggression. Therefore, a person can become angry without acting aggressively.

A term relating to rage and aggression is hostility. Hostility refers to a complex set of attitudes and judgments that motivate aggressive behaviors. Whereas anger is an emotion and aggression is a behavior, hostility is an attitude that involves disliking others and evaluating them negatively.

Anger becomes a problem when it is felt too intensely, is felt too frequently, or is expressed inappropriately.

Power and Control:

The unhealthy manifestation of anger is about power and control. People can misuse power and control to get their needs met in relationship with others and in situations that involve conflict, particularly when they feel threatened or insecure. This misuse of power and control is learned from others, often at a young age, and can become a normal pattern of behavior for some people.

Triggers:

There are situations and behaviors that really make us angry. These are called triggers and need to be identified so that we can learn to take charge of our anger. Anger can be caused by both external and internal triggers. An external trigger might be someone’s behavior that causes us distress (such as a coworker or spouse) or an event (such as a traffic jam or a canceled flight). An example of an internal trigger is a faulty message or internal dialogue that we give ourselves that get us all worked up. Sometimes these thoughts are based on assumptions or incorrect information. Memories of trauma and conflict and traumatic or enraging events can also trigger angry feelings.

Cues:

Anger needs to be expressed for healthy adjustment. Like other emotions, anger is accompanied by physiological and biological changes; when you get angry, your heart rate and blood pressure go up, as do the levels of your energy hormones, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. Indicators like rapid breathing, a racing pulse, or a raised tone of voice are cues to your escalating anger.

Cues are your signals, or warnings. Cues let you know that you are getting angry. Your cues are part of the buildup or escalation phase of your anger. Types of cues:

Situations – problem situations that you know create a context in which you usually escalate, e.g., holidays, discipline of children.
Red Flag Words – words that are unique to you and that you are especially sensitive to because of past events. These events can involve internal processes (e.g., thinking about situations that were anger provoking in the past) or external processes (e.g., experiencing real-life, anger-provoking situations in the here and now).
Physical changes – the way your body registers stress, e.g., muscle tightness, stomach tension, clenched fists and jaws.
Negative Self-talk – negative thoughts you say to yourself (not out loud), e.g., “I’ll show him who’s boss.”
Mental Imagery – Mental pictures and visualizations during escalation – things you see in your mind’s eye, e.g., picturing that your spouse is out using again.
Emotional – Feelings you have during your escalation, e.g., powerlessness, scared, hurt, ashamed, desperate.

Studies show that the average person has between 14 to 15 anger episodes per day. These often arise when our expectations are not met upon demand. Although to feel angry is within the normal limits of human emotions, it is often mismanaged and misdirected. Unfortunately, we have been socialized to suppress our feelings of anger. As a result, anger either tears us apart from the inside (ulcers) or promotes intermittent eruptions of verbal or physical abuse. In many cases, we do not deal with our anger in a healthy manner.

Substance Use and Anger:

Substance use and abuse often coexist with anger and violence. Data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, for example, indicated that 40 percent of frequent cocaine users reported engaging in some form of violent behavior. Anger and violence often can have a causal role in the initiation of drug and alcohol use and can also be a consequence associated with substance abuse.

Individuals who experience traumatic events, for example, often experience anger and act violently, as well as abuse drugs or alcohol. Many people struggling with substance abuse and mental health issues are victims of traumatic life events, which, in turn, lead to substance use, anger, and violence.