21 Best Anger Management Books

Plenty of people lose their temper from time to time. But, if you’re constantly clowning up over relatively minor things or have trouble controlling your emotions on a regular basis, you may need to look into anger management help. These anger management books may be partnered with a therapist or could be the start of your journey.

Here are 21 of the best books on anger management:

1. Anger Management Workbook for Men: Take Control of Your Anger and Master Your Emotions

Clinical therapist Aaron Karmin helps you get to the root of your anger with this modern workbook. Build self-confidence, self-respect, and self-control with positive practices to help you be in control of your emotions. It includes examples of clinical anger management strategies and productively expressing your anger.

2. The Dance of Anger: A Woman’s Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships

Anger isn’t just something to ignore, Dr. Lerner argues. It exists for a reason and is a call to something that needs to be addressed. In close relationships, it often is a source of discontent and may encourage women to silence themselves to not rock the boat.

Dr. Lerner writes that both men and women can benefit from learning to express anger in healthy ways and identify the true source of anger, allowing emotional intimacy in couples to flourish.

3. Mindfulness for Anger Management: Transformative Skills for Overcoming Anger and Managing Powerful Emotions

We talk a lot about mindfulness here because it’s a powerful tool for mental health in a variety of ways. Dr. Dansiger takes his 25 years of experience and asks readers to look inward to identify the cause of their anger in real-life applications: work, home, and relationships. The result is a book full of self-reflective exercises, practical advice, and a deeper understanding of what happens to our bodies when we’re angry.

4. Rage: A Step-by-Step Guide to Overcoming Explosive Anger

Anger can be categorized into four different types, and each one needs to be addressed differently. There’s impotence rage, triggered by feelings of hopelessness, or shame rage, induced when a person feels very disrespected. Dr. Potter-Efron offers practical advice for change while understanding that anger is a personal responsibility to manage for the safety of others.

5. Letting Go of Anger: The Eleven Most Common Anger Styles & What to Do About Them

Understanding what type of anger you’re experiencing is the first step to understanding how to treat it. The Potter-Efrons share that some of these styles are appropriate. However, others are not and this can lead to serious problems if not addressed. This book offers concrete examples of types of anger and how to effectively deal with each in healthy, flexible ways.

6. The Anger Workbook: An Interactive Guide to Anger Management

Anger is expressed in a variety of ways, and why we feel it is just as crucial to understanding how to overcome it. This workbook helps readers identify their anger, let go of notions of defeat” or “weakness,” and live more in control of their emotions.

7. Beyond Anger: A Guide for Men

Men tend to process emotions differently, and Dr. Harbin’s book is here to help men process difficult emotions and understand how they affect the world around them. Explosive, aggressive anger can damage relationships and impact work. This book, designed for men with anger issues, gives men simple strategies for understanding their anger and how to successfully deal with it in a healthy way.

8. The Anger Trap: Free Yourself from the Frustrations that Sabotage Your Life

Anger isn’t just lost tempers and loud voices; it can include annoyance, criticism, or frustration. Learning how to recognize healthy and unhealthy ways of expressing anger can help you live a more nourishing emotional life. Dr. Carter draws on clinical and spiritual experience to help you live to your fullest without being trapped by your anger.

9. Never Get Angry Again: The Foolproof Way to Stay Calm and in Control in Any Conversation or Situation

If you’ve struggled with anger management treatment in the past, maybe it’s time for a change of pace. Or rather, a change of mind.

Dr. Lieberman challenges readers to consider that a change in perspective might be healthier than trying to just “calm down.” In his book, he argues it’s a lot easier to never get angrier in the first place rather than calming down after a blow-up.

10. Angry All the Time: An Emergency Guide to Anger Control

If you’re someone who has lost a lot to anger – jobs, relationships, or worse – then this book is your first step in the right direction. Anger expert Ronald T. Potter-Efron outlines the step-by-step program to help you avoid what makes you angry, get to the root causes, and ask for what you need without anger.

11. Anger Management for Everyone: Ten Proven Strategies to Help You Control Anger and Live a Happier Life

We all experience anger from time to time. But there’s a significant difference between occasional frustrations and anger that damages relationships or impairs your daily functions. Two doctors team up to offer practical applications of anger-reduction techniques to keep you from losing it constantly.

12. The Cognitive Behavioral Workbook for Anger: A Step-by-Step Program for Success

This workbook draws on cognitive-behavioral therapy for anger and rational emotive behavior therapy to provide individuals with the tools they need to overcome overwhelming anger. This book hopes to help you break free from dangerous anger traps and allow you to live a healthier, less angry life.

13. How to Stop Losing Your Sh*t with Your Kids: Effective strategies for stressed-out parents

Raising kids can be a frustrating challenge sometimes. If you’re constantly snapping, screaming, or losing your temper with your kids on a consistent basis, you probably need a break. Carla Naumburg, a clinical social worker, wants you to know you’re not a bad parent if this is the case. You likely are overworked and overstressed. Her book is here to help you work through your difficulties to live more presently with your children while also taking care of yourself.

14. The Anger Workbook for Women: How to Keep Your Anger from Undermining Your Self-Esteem, Your Emotional Balance, and Your Relationships

Many anger management books are geared toward men, and the stereotypical “angry guy” usually gets more attention in the anger management world. This book is for women and addresses the specific ways women tend to manifest their anger. Learn anger management techniques through exercises and how to take the steam out of potentially anger-inducing situations.

15. Overcoming Anger in Your Relationship: How to Break the Cycle of Arguments, Put-Downs, and Stony Silences

Relationships require a lot of communication, and when one person is dealing with anger, resentment, or unhappiness, taking it out on their partner can be very damaging. Whether you and your partner are both dealing with anger issues or one is more frustrated than the other, this guidebook is here to repair the damage anger caused.

16. Stop Overreacting: Effective Strategies for Calming Your Emotions

Stop Overreacting helps readers learn to identify their emotional triggers – those little things that completely set them off. For example, criticism and rejection are common emotional triggers for people, but it is vital to think about the consequences of these kinds of angry, knee-jerk reactions. Author Judith P. Siegel says that overreaction, like any behavioral tendency, can be unlearned. This book is all about neutralizing certain harmful emotions and choosing healthier responses that don’t undermine your ability to think rationally in moments of anger, stress, or crisis.

17. Women’s Anger Management Workbook: A Mindful Guide to De-Escalate Explosive Emotions & Overcome Negative Thinking

Women and girls are socialized from a young age to think that anger is not “feminine” or “ladylike.” Many women end up holding onto their anger for so long that, eventually, it explodes out of them in the heat of the moment. In these moments, those women are often unfairly labeled as being “hysterical” or “crazy.” Fortunately, the Women’s Anger Management Workbook walks readers through healthier ways of dealing with their stress and anger without losing control. It also provides tips and lessons like how to channel anger into a positive outlet, how to avoid triggers, and signs of hormonal imbalances that may be making emotional regulation more difficult.

18. Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames

Buddhist monk, Vietnam refugee, and the author of Anger: Wisdom For Cooling the Flames, Thich Nhat Hanh, was actually nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. In other words, Hanh is considered an authority on topics like peace, comfort, and compassion. He writes about how, twenty-five centuries ago, Buddha realized that three states of mind were the source of all unhappiness: Wrong knowing, obsessive desire, and anger. He also states that anger may be the most difficult state of mind to overcome. Anger is a simple guide to transforming relationships, focusing positive energy, and remaking the parts of ourselves that have been decimated by anger.

19. The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power

Psychotherapist Katherine Morgan Shafler wrote The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control as a guide for how to trade anger and a need for control for peace and power. Interestingly, Shafler writes that we don’t need to completely let go of perfectionism; instead, it is important to find a balance based on what type of perfectionist you are: Classic, intense, Parisian, messy, or procrastinator. After helping you identify your brand of perfectionism, The Perfectionist’s Guide shows how to manage and even enjoy your perfectionism. Ultimately, this book is about “the ultimate exchange,” superficial control for true power.

20. When Anger Hurts: Quieting the Storm Within

When Anger Hurts is a second edition revision of a best-selling classic by Matthew McKay, PhD, Peter D. Rogers, PhD, and Judith KcKay, RN. It provides a step-by-step guide to changing anger-related tendencies and developing healthier ways to meet your emotional and physical needs. Readers receive updated chapters on emergency anger control, road rage, parental anger, and much more. When you move through and engage with the exercises in When Anger Hurts, you will learn to recognize the early warning signs of angry outbursts and how to cool down before giving into behavioral impulses.

21. Be Angry, But Don’t Blow It: Maintaining Your Passion Without Losing Your Cool

Lisa Bevere, author of Be Angry But Don’t Blow It, says that conflict is unavoidable; therefore, we have a responsibility to ourselves and others to learn how to manage it. Unfortunately, many people with anger issues feel like they can’t manage conflict due to their emotional outbursts. Bevere herself says anger controlled her life for years, but she found relief in spirituality, confession, self-forgiveness, and acceptance. This book combines wisdom from scripture with practical examples and personal anecdotes. It also includes a three-week program that helps readers shift from destructive anger and rage to healthy passion.