Anger Management and Causes Of Anger
We tend to learn behaviors from those around us, and anger, like
anger management, can be a learned behavior. If we have lived with people who express anger, in negative ways, we
are most likely to use the same approach. The good news is that negative behaviors can be unlearned, and positive
ones can be learned to replace the old, negative behaviors we have struggled with.
The key to changing old, destructive patterns of reacting to situations that make you
angry, is to learn what causes, or contributes to, your feelings of anger. The following are common causes that
provoke anger.
• Frustration and stress often cause people to react with
anger.
• Being extremely tired can cause people to lose their patience, and become
irritable, and that can lead to angry reactions.
• Keeping feelings bottled up inside can cause people to explode over minor
issues.
• When people feel that they are not understood, or worse, that their feelings are
being ignored, and don’t matter, it can cause an angry outburst.
Consequences of Uncontrolled Anger
-
Anger can
actually cause, or worsen, health problems.
- Anger can cause hypertension, high blood pressure, or
depression. According to several double blind studies, some over a 25 year period, those high levels of
hostility were directly correlated to dying not only from heart attacks and strokes, but from cancer as well.
Further, anger that is kept bottled up inside, can lead to personality changes, behavior problems, and
depression.
-
Poor anger
management is a key factor in domestic violence, child abuse, relationship problems, behavior problems,
workplace violence, substance abuse, school and workplace violence and delinquency, and criminal
behavior.
Help For Those with Poor Anger Management
Skills
Controlling the destructive aspects of anger, and reacting to it in
productive, rather than destructive ways can even be healthy. Only when your anger controls you, instead of you
controlling your anger, does it lead to problems.
Anger can cause problems with your family, friends, personal relationships, and anger
can effect your overall quality of life, but anger can’t be totally eliminated from anyone’s life. Things will
always happen that cause you to be angry, and sometimes the anger is justified.
Frustration, pain, loss, and the unpredictable actions of others are a part of life
that you can’t change, but you can control the way you let things affect you, and you can learn, through anger
management techniques, to react in constructive ways, rather than the same, old destructive ways that damage your
health, and your relationships with others.
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