Are We an Angry Nation?
Posted by: Uticopa in mental health, anger management on Jun 06, 2011
Over the past few months The Mental Health Foundation has been researching whether or not we are becoming a nation of angry people, and what support there is for those who feel that they cannot control this primal emotion.
Of the 2,000 people surveyed, almost a third said that they knew someone who struggled with anger, and in a similar Government survey more than three fifths said they felt people were getting angrier.
What is quite worrying is that there really is very little help being offered to people who suffer from anger management problems. Anger is seen to be a symptom of a condition such as anxiety or depression and not worthy of "condition" status in itself. As a result, people will not generally be referred to a mental health professional until their anger has actually caused them to commit an aggressive act.
To us here at Uticopa this seems crazy. Anger is a very real and quite terrifying emotion for everyone whose lives it touches, and mental health professionals should be involved from as early a stage as possible. Catching anger issues early is very important to the process of establishing an effective management technique.
Talking therapies are an excellent tool for helping those with anger issues.
- Understanding your anger is the first step. To know your triggers will help any professional to formulate an effective management plan;
- Expressing your emotions in a healthy way provides a pressure release that can prevent you from boiling over;
- Self-control does not mean bottling things up, but knowing when to walk away and to calm down;
- Anger as an expression of internalised and retained emotions can lead to other physical and mental issues, so externalise your feelings by talking to someone about them;
The longer you allow your anger to rule your thoughts and actions, the harder it will be to find your way back to a happy, healthy way of life. If you'd like to find out more about managing your anger and a list of professionals who may be able to help you to achieve this, click here. Also, if you have any comments to add about your own experience with anger, please do feel free to write them here.
