Learn More About Anger
Anger is a normal emotion, but it becomes a problem when it is felt too intensely, too often, and expressed inappropriately. Some ways to deal with anger include attending an anger management class, talking with a therapist, and relaxation techniques. Below you’ll find articles and resources to help you both understand and deal with feelings of anger.
Featured Anger Articles
Treating Anger
Meditation for Anger: How It Works & Tips for Getting Started
Meditation for anger directly disrupts the body’s stress response, allowing you to remain calm and emotionally sound. When a strong emotion such as anger triggers this fight-or-flight reaction, a person’s entire system becomes aroused and agitated. Regularly practicing anger meditation exercises can help release frustration, rumination, and aggression, offering you a healthy outlet for your anger.
Medication for Anger: Types & Side Effects
Medications for anger management can come as either prescribed or over-the-counter options, targeting underlying issues such as depression, anxiety, and mood dysregulation. They should only be started after exhausting all other options, such as psychotherapy and developing coping mechanisms for life’s stressors.
CBT for Anger: How It Works, Techniques, & Effectiveness
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anger works to help you understand your triggers and replace them with healthy coping strategies. While anger is a normal emotion, when it crosses over into frequent outbursts or hurtful words at others, CBT for anger could be an effective form of treatment.
Types of Anger
Repressed Anger: Signs, Causes, Treatments, & 8 Ways to Cope
Repressed anger refers to anger that is unconsciously avoided, denied, or pushed down. Many times, repressed anger contributes to mental health symptoms related to anxiety and depression. If left untreated, it can also cause self-sabotaging tendencies, poor self-esteem, physical pains, and relationship problems. Therapy can help people learn healthy ways of expressing their anger, avoiding many of these negative impacts.
Pent-Up Anger: Symptoms, Causes, & How to Cope
Pent-up anger is typically a response to underlying feelings of unworthiness or resentment, resulting in destructive behaviors. If a person’s emotions explode, it’s often because it seems like there is no other way to release them. Coping with pent-up anxiety may include increasing awareness, enhancing assertiveness skills, and practicing relaxation techniques.
Displaced Anger: Definition, Impacts, & Ways to Cope
Usually, misplaced anger can look like directing anger at something or someone totally unrelated to the current stresses in one’s life. This reaction can be viewed as a projection because the recipient typically did not cause or contribute to the person’s anger or stress response. Displaced anger is a reactionary defense mechanism and a maladaptive coping strategy.
Mental Health Concerns & Anger
Depression & Anger: Connections & Treatments
Depression and anger are closely connected. In fact, irritability, frustration, and anger outbursts are common symptoms of depression. Likewise, depression may trigger feelings of anger with yourself or others. Depression and persistent anger may also correspond with emotional regulation and impulse control issues. Identifying and treating these symptoms can significantly improve how you feel.
Anxiety & Anger: Connections, Treatments, & How to Cope
Anxiety and anger are closely related as they both have functional value. Both experiences can share similar symptoms, causes, and physiological roots. While anxiety may make you angry or irritable, anger can also contribute to increased worry. However, the two issues are very different but can be treated with psychotherapy or medication when needed.
PTSD & Anger: Connections, Complications, & Treatment
Anger, one of the most prevalent PTSD symptoms, is often experienced more intensely by trauma survivors. PTSD anger may be expressed both outwardly and internally, sometimes resulting in increased hypervigilance, aggression, self-harm, suicidality, or self-hatred.
More Articles About Anger
12 Signs a Man Has Anger Issues According to a Therapist
Signs of anger issues in a man may include frequent and intense outbursts of anger, difficulty controlling anger, and verbal or physical aggression.
REBT For Anger Management
Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) focuses on identifying a person’s harmful core beliefs about themselves and the world to change their maladaptive reactions to triggering situations. When used for anger, a therapist offers clients constructive tools to help them determine if these beliefs are justified and warrant negative reactions. This can help them replace an unfavorable response to a trigger with a healthier, more positive one.
How to Deal With Frustration: 10 Tips
Learning how to deal with frustration can take time, but there are healthy ways to overcome feeling overwhelmed. Allowing your frustration to build up can lead to repressed anger, so releasing pent-up stress benefits your mental health. Developing coping skills, engaging in physical activity, and speaking with a professional are all tools that can help you better manage frustration.
