Controlling emotions can be a challenge for everyone, especially when dealing with anger. If you struggle with how to express what you’re feeling, finding healthy ways to do so can significantly impact your mental health and overall well-being.
At Evoke Wellness at Waltham, we offer anger management therapy. Our compassionate and supportive team can help guide you in developing coping mechanisms to effectively manage your anger. Through evidence-based treatments, we aim to provide you with practical tools to identify and regulate your emotions in a healthy manner. Call 866.276.1920 to learn more.
How to Control Anger: Understanding This Powerful Emotion
Anger is an emotional state that can range from mild irritation to rage and intense fury. It comes with biological and physiological changes. Just think about what happens when you feel anger—your heart rate and breathing increase, and your blood pressure goes up. Along with these, there are spikes in your energy hormones, including adrenaline.
You can experience anger as a result of external or internal events. You could be angry at a frustrating situation, like a traffic jam or a person. You could also experience anger as a result of your own thought processes. Memories can often trigger anger.
When you feel anger, your body wants to react instinctively and aggressively. Anger is an adaptive and natural response to threats, allowing you to fight when you’re attacked. The issue starts when you have the urge to lash out at anything that irritates you.
In the search for how to control anger, people tend to follow one of three paths:
- Expressing
- Suppressing
- Calming
Expressing your anger in an assertive, but not aggressive, manner tends to be the healthiest way to deal with it. It involves making clear what your needs are and knowing how to meet them without hurting others.
It’s possible to suppress anger and redirect or convert it. You may do this by holding your anger in, not thinking about it, and focusing that energy on something positive. The danger with this strategy is that your anger can turn inward and harm you. Unexpressed anger can also lead to passive-aggressive behaviors that harm others.
Calming means not just calming your outward responses to anger but your internal ones as well. This is still not the healthiest option because anger is appropriate and even healthy in some instances.
Anger Management: Learning Healthy Ways to Express Emotions
Anger management helps you learn how to handle situations that make you angry. It’s a kind of talk therapy that uses a cognitive-behavioral therapy base and can take place in individual therapy and group therapy sessions.
Anger management can help you learn to recognize how you respond to anger while also teaching you problem-solving and communication skills to help you better manage what you’re feeling. It usually also involves learning relaxation techniques.
During the cognitive restructuring process of anger management, your therapist helps you shift your perspective so you’re not dwelling on the negative feelings. Instead, you can acknowledge what you feel but not engage in harmful self-talk.
Learning healthy ways to express emotions doesn’t mean ignoring your anger. You have the right to be angry if the situation warrants it. What matters is how you express that anger, which is why communication skills are essential. For some people, even assertiveness training can be helpful.
Anger management also teaches you how to pause before reacting and use relaxation exercises. This can help you avoid ruminating on things you’ve already resolved. Instead, you learn how to allow your body and mind to let go.
Call Evoke Wellness at Waltham to Get Help Managing Your Emotions
Battling with anger can disrupt your life, affecting relationships, your job, and even your health. Finding healthy ways to handle your emotions is crucial to maintaining your overall well-being. When you turn to us at Evoke Wellness at Waltham, you can address mental health concerns in a safe and welcoming environment. Start your healing by calling us at 866.276.1920 or contacting us online with questions.
