Do you need anger management
Do you need Anger Management?
You come home after a harrowing day at the office and an equally frustrating number of hours stuck in traffic. You open the door and your dog happily greets you. But rather than give it a pat on the head for being so nice, you let rip with a stunning kick that sends the dog howling to the backyard. Yep, you are mad. This is a signal for everyone else in the room to clear off to their respective bedrooms and leave you alone with your foul mood. You might have heard of Anger Management therapy by now. But do you really need it or is it just a fad? Perhaps it would be best if we took a closer look at anger and Anger Management. With Anger Management, you will not be able to eliminate all anger but you can use it to improve your situation. There is a positive and a negative aspect to the function of anger. Anger becomes positive when you gain more energy, can convey your feelings, are able to resolve setbacks, and assume responsibility for the event. Anger becomes negative when there is a break in your thinking, and you become defensive and hostile - you become angry. The role of anger management is to capitalize on the positive functions of anger while putting less emphasis on its negative aspects. A person who is able to cope with anger realizes that he has other options aside from behaving in an angry manner. Picture this scenario: you are in a meeting at work and are making a crucial presentation. Then someone interrupts you to contradict what you are saying. Naturally, you resent the intrusion but manage to stay calm. You soberly point out the flaws in the other person's thinking. When no one objects, you are able to proceed with your presentation to your satisfaction. In this case, you became resentful (angry) at the interruption but did not resort to becoming hostile or making a scene. You were able to resolve the situation in a peaceful manner. This is the ideal result of effective anger management. Anger Management becomes necessary when becoming angry becomes a habit and we make it a point to try to hurt another person. When this is the case, one practitioner believes we are actually harming our own selves, whether we are aware of it or not. Anger Management is a way to break the habit of trying to hurt other people with our anger - this is important because once we get into the habit of hurting other people, we will find it more tempting to resort to anger on later occasions. Habitually angry people would be people who are always getting into fights. You may have known someone like that in school - perhaps that would be the school bully? At any rate, people like that develop that kind of reputation because they have already become habitually angry. They may be that way because they have found that anger is a good way to get what they want, that if they get angry other people will give in. Or perhaps they have an underlying problem that leaves them feeling frustrated so they take it out on other people. Such people are good candidates for an Anger Management program. Do we then need Anger Management? It would be up to you to decide that. If you are the type to verbally or physically attack someone over a small problem, then you could probably benefit from an Anger Management class. What you have to remember, with any psychological treatment, is that: when you tell yourself something and actually believe it, then it becomes accurate as far as you are concerned, thus influencing your behavior. Your belief translates into the expressions on your face and influences your feelings, thoughts, words, and body language. You also have to understand that you have to take responsibility for the way you opt to treat other people or yourself. It is a process of self-discovery that requires practice everyday. As you sow, so shall you reap.
Related Items:
|
