Anger

Have you ever wondered why we get angry?

Our emotions are impulses to act out; anger is an automatic defence for handling life events. It is a response of our autonomic system and is not always rational.

An unknown fact about anger is that it is a normal and healthy emotion. It’s not our anger that can get us into trouble but how we respond to it. Usually, for teens and young people, acting out their anger is attributed to a build-up of unresolved feelings.

We need to help young people learn to express their feeling before they get to the point of an explosion. If, for a minute, you could imagine your unresolved emotions as a volcano. Each unresolved emotion creates a layer of lava; when the lava builds to a certain point, the volcano erupts. Anger can also often be misplaced and does not always present as the cause of these unresolved feelings.

The key to helping individuals with their anger is to create an open dialogue with them. This can sometimes be a challenge. Young people are very guarded around sharing their inner feelings, sometimes due to a fear of how others perceive them or, just as important, they do not understand the emotions themselves and lack the verbal language to communicate them.

Here are a few tools parents and individuals can use to help with anger management:

StopLight Exercise

Mindful Breathing

Understanding Anger Worksheets

And as always, we encourage you to look at our services if you need more help:

Counselling

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