Managing and Coping with Anger

We've all experienced anger, whether a minor inconvenience or a full-fledged fit of rage. Anger is a perfectly normal and, in most cases, healthy human emotion. When it helps you work through concerns or problems, whether at business or home, it can even be a pleasant emotion. However, if your anger spirals out of control and becomes destructive, it can cause issues at work, in your relationships, and in your overall quality and enjoyment of life.

Experiencing extreme cases of anger might make you feel like you're at the mercy of a powerful and unpredictable feeling.

Anger is an emotional state humans often experience that ranges in intensity from mild irritation to severe fury and violence. When you feel furious, your heart rate and blood pressure rise, as do the levels of your energy chemicals, adrenaline, and noradrenaline, just like with other emotions.

 External and internal events can both trigger anger. You can be furious at a specific person (like a coworker or supervisor) or an incident (like a traffic jam or a canceled trip), or you might be angry because you're worried or brooding about your troubles. Memories of painful or upsetting situations can trigger anger.

Why Control Anger

Anger is a relationship killer. When a person is furious, they tend to act unreasonably against others. They express hurtful words more frequently, and this has an impact on relationships. Also, if you are constantly furious and don't know how to regulate or manage it, it might harm your health. Anger can cause headaches, depression, insomnia, and digestive issues. When a person gets furious, they are more likely to have a stroke, high blood pressure, or a heart attack.

Lastly, it will reflect poorly on your image as a person if you are constantly angry. You don't want to be known as an unpleasant person by your family, friends, and workplace. They may back away from you as a result.

Strategies to Help Cope with Anger

There are several ways you can start to cope with your anger, such as:

Recognise Triggers

If you can recognise why you usually start to feel angry, you'll be in a better place to begin coping with your anger and the stressors that cause it to get out of hand. Emotional triggers exist in almost everyone; however, they may vary slightly from person to person.

Reminders of unpleasant memories, uncomfortable themes, another person's words or actions, and even your behaviours may be among them. 

Consider Your Thoughts

Changing how you think about events, people, or situations is one approach to minimising your anger. It's easy to get caught up in dramatic and even overwhelming emotions when you find yourself focusing on things negatively or unreasonably.

Take a Step Back

It's nearly impossible to deal with an issue productively or helpfully when you're upset about it. Walk away from the situation if you sense yourself losing your cool. When everyone, including yourself, is calmer, you'll be able to deal with it better.

Open up to a Friend

Speaking to a trusted friend or family member about how you're feeling might take a load off your shoulders and mind. This friend could be a responsible adult, a close friend, or a family member. You may also join an online group to communicate with other people who understand your feelings and share their ways of dealing with rage.

Practice Forgiveness

For starters, forgiving liberates us. When we bottle up our feelings of rage, hurt, and resentment over what another person has done to us, we still allow them to harm us. Forgiveness also alleviates stress, anger, and resentment - all of which have been shown to have harmful effects on the body and mind. Consider how your deep resentment and anger are influencing your relationships.

Move Your Body

Regular exercise is particularly efficient at reducing stress in the body and mind, in addition to being healthy for your biological systems. To keep anxiety and anger at bay, try to get some exercise every day.

Take a brisk walk, bike ride, or run to relieve stress quickly. Sometimes, when you feel anger rising, you can go for a walk or engage in some other sort of physical activity.

When to Seek Professional Help

Anger is a natural feeling, but if it appears out of control or affects your relationships, you may be suffering from anger disorders. If this is the case, considering online relationship counselling may also be beneficial.

You may need to seek out anger management therapy if you find yourself frequently arguing, being aggressive or smashing things, threatening people, or being arrested as a result of occurrences linked to your anger.

A mental health expert can help you work through your anger and identify any underlying mental health issues that may be causing it. You can control your rage using anger management and other treatments. They could also help you learn to express your anger in healthier ways.