4 Steps to Control Your Anger

Anger is an emotion, which all of us have experienced. Yet, even though it is very common, individuals who use anger as a frequent response to stressful events are actually placing their future health at risk.

In teens, young men who react to stress with anger are three times more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease before the age of 55 than peers who said they let stress just roll off their backs.

This issue also suffers no gender barriers. Women who react with anger to pressures and stresses are three times more likely to suffer heart attacks.

A study at John Hopkins University reported that, even in individuals with normal blood pressure, could suffer heart attacks from being angry. Why?

Anger has been shown to narrow already diseased blood vessels, to increase blood pressure as well as heart rates and adrenaline levels. Anger may also cause platelets, which are the blood cells that form clots, to get sticky and clump, which of course may then cause a stoppage and a heart attack.

To better handle anger, there are four strategies that have been widely researched. These four appear to be effective for assisting individuals control their anger.

1 – Relaxation Usage

Training yourself how to relax and when to relax is critical. Daily practice of the Relaxation Response, meditation or yoga is key to reducing anger.

2 – Cognitive Restructuring

Cognitive restructuring is the process of learning to refute cognitive distortions, or fundamental “faulty thinking,” with the goal of replacing one’s irrational, counter-factual beliefs with more accurate and beneficial ones. If you wish to learn more about this, David Burns, MD and Martin Seligman, Ph. D. have written extensively about this issue.

3 – Exposure

Exposure therapy is placing oneself in a difficult situation and restricting your responses. This approach demands that you force yourself into a setting in which you normally get angry, and then respond in a more constructive way. See Self-Exposure for Self-Confidence for more information.

4 – Rehearsal

No, you are not going on the stage. Rather you are rehearsing new ways to handle situations which normally cause you to overreact. Remember, practice makes perfect.