Controlling Your Anger Through Anger Management

Anger is a completely normal, usually healthy, emotion. When it gets out of control and turns destructive, it can lead to more serious problems. It can make you feel as though you're at the mercy of an unpredictable and powerful emotion.

Anger, an emotional state that varies in intensity from mild irritation to intense fury and rage, and is accompanied by physiological and biological changes. When you are feeling angry, your heart rate and blood pressure rises, as do the levels of your energy hormones, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. Anger can be caused by both external and internal events. You could be angry with a coworker, a canceled flight or even a traffic jam. Anger may also be triggered by personal problems, memories of traumatic or enraging events.

The natural way to express anger is to respond aggressively. Anger is an adaptive response to threats; it inspires powerful, often aggressive, feelings and behaviors. This allows us to fight and defend ourselves when we are attacked. We can't physically lash out on people who irritate or annoy us, which means common sense limits on how far our anger can take us.

People use a variety of both conscious and unconscious processes to deal with their emotions of anger. Expressing your angry feelings in an assertive way and not an aggressive manner is the healthiest way to express your anger. Being assertive doesn't mean being pushy or demanding. You need to be respectful of yourself and others.

Anger can be suppressed and then redirected or converted. This occurs when you hold in your anger. You need to stop thinking about it and focus on something positive. Suppress your anger and convert it into more constructive behavior. Unexpressed anger may cause other problems. It can lead to pathological expressions, which means getting back at people also known as "pay backs". People who are always putting others down, criticizing everything, and making cynical comments haven't learned how to constructively express their anger. These people aren't likely to have many successful relationships.

There are psychological tests that measure the intensity of anger emotions, how prone to anger you are, and how well you deal with it. Chances are if you do have an anger problem, you already know it. Some people with anger problems are more "hotheaded" and seem to have a low tolerance for frustration. They get angry more easily and more intensely than the average person does. Some people with anger issues don't show their anger in loud spectacular ways but are chronically irritable and grumpy. Others seem to withdraw socially, sulk, or get physically ill.

What makes some people this way? One cause may be genetic or physiological. Some children are born irritable, touchy, and easily angered. These signs are present from an early age. Sociocultural may be another reason. Anger is regarded as being negative, as we're taught that other emotions like anxiety and depression is all right to express but we are taught anger is not all right to express. If we don't express anger, we don't learn how to handle it or channel it constructively. If you are someone who has a problem dealing with anger, anger management can reduce both your emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. You can't avoid it or the things or the people that enrage you, nor can you change them, but you can learn to control your anger.