Therapy for Anger Management

We all get angry from time to time. Some of us more than the others. But few of us cannot control the anger. This article gives an insight into uncontrolled anger and the best therapy for anger management.

Whenever things do not go the way we want them to, it is but natural to get angry. That is what most of us believe. It is a basic emotion. The question is what do we do when we are angry. There are two categories of people –

·        Those for whom the anger is directed outwards. They get openly destructive, abusive or aggressive. Their relationships quite naturally suffer a lot.

·        Those for whom the anger is self-directed. They end up hurting themselves, physically and emotionally.

Let us consider the first category. Why do they act the way they do? If you were to ask them retrospectively, most of them regret having acted the way they did when they were angry. However, they will tell you at that moment the emotion was so overpowering that they could not help themselves. It is as if they are not in control of their actions at that time. It so happens that they might end up meeting with fatal accidents if they happen to be driving or riding when they are angry.



So, what do we do about them? First, the psychiatrist takes a detailed history of his/her life, starting from the childhood to present times. This is to determine what factors gave rise to such behavior patterns. It might be genetic (running in the family) or as a result of environmental interactions, including traumatic ones. The next step will be to work on each contributing factor, individually, till it is resolved. We remember from the discussion above that they lose control over their actions and are actually quite helpless in those situations. The final step is establishing control of the individual over thoughts, emotions and behavior patterns.

Considering the second category, these individuals usually have a problem with regulating their emotions. They usually have intense mood swings, are considered overtly sensitive and emotional by their close ones, and often feel empty within.

The best therapy for anger management in them would be to address the emotional instability first. The rest are just by products. If we can stabilize their emotions, half the battle is won. They usually need intense therapy sessions, usually multiple and closely spaced.

Along with psychotherapy, persons from both categories often need medications to keep them from harming themselves lethally. As doctors, our first aim is to save the patient’s life and then improve the quality of life. So, if your psychiatrist recommends medications, it is in the patient’s best interest.

There are also a number of problems that go hand in hand with intense anger. These people are very likely to abuse recreational substances like cannabis, alcohol and so on. Repeated lying, stealing or truancy may be associated with anger issues in young adults.

The best therapy for anger management therefore is the one where the psychiatrist addresses all these problems together, treating the patient as a whole rather than addressing anger as an isolated issue. Remember, with proper treatment, there is nothing that cannot be fixed.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Treatment for Memory Loss

Image
All of us have elderly family members who are suffering from memory loss. With advancing years, the memory dysfunction with its associated problems becomes quite unmanageable. Your general physician probably advised you to visit a psychiatrist for managing such cases. Before you type best psychiatrist in Kolkata into the search engine, we recommend you read up on memory loss and its treatment methods. This article is a short overview of the dangerous disease that is dementia from a psychiatrist’s point of view. The cause With age, the brain begins to atrophy (simply put, wither away). It is a natural process. However, which part of the brain withers more and how fast varies from individual to individual. Depending on these parameters, the manifestation of the disease varies. Symptoms Most people become forgetful initially. They misplace items of daily use quite often. They find it difficult to find their way back home when they venture out of their immediate neighborhood. As th...
Read more

Is Your Child Suffering from ADHD?

Image
ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is receiving a lot of attention from worried parents and teachers nowadays. With parents struggling to balance the work-family dilemma in nuclear families, children suffering from this disorder are difficult to manage. This article is a simplified overview of what constitutes the disorder and the best treatment for ADHD. As the name implies, ADHD constitutes of two primary symptoms – attention deficit and hyperactivity. Added to these is the symptom of impulsivity. A child may show features of only inattention or predominantly hyperactivity or both. This means, the typical complaints from school would be that the child refuses to sit still in class, disturbs other students, often gets into fights with others and rarely finishes his/her schoolwork. If we observe their class notes or examination papers, a typical pattern is seen. They start off alright and the first few sentences are properly written. Thereafter the problem begins. As th...
Read more