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Does Anger Management Really Work
Does Anger Management Really Work
When you turn on the news you are faced with countless examples of what happens when people let anger control their reactions to situations. As a result of this increasing publicity over angry outbursts people have started to wonder in anger management is truly effective.
The first thing you need to know in order to answer this is that anger isn’t listed as a medical problem or illness according to the American Psychiatric Association. In addition, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Nervous and Mental Disorders there is no listing for anger. This means that the areas of mental health discipline has largely neglected anger research. This means that the effectiveness of anger management hasn’t been thoroughly researched.
Medication and psychotherapy are not indicated as treatments of anger since it is not classified as a mental or nervous disorder. The only time with mental health professionals see anger as a problem is when it becomes too strong of an emotion, when is lasts for a prolonged period of time, when it happens too often or when it leads to outward displays of aggression. This means that since medicine and psychotherapy aren’t indicated treatments then treatment should focus on addressing the issues related with anger and controlling or limiting their effects.
How a person responds to anger is considered a learned behavior according to many of the certified Anger Management Providers in the United States today. It is true that the environment people live in effects the way they react to situations and how they learn to deal with things that have a negative impact on their life. The environment as well as the family an individual grows up around plays a large role in determining how individuals responds to intense emotions such as anger.
What Fuels Our AngerWhat Fuels Our Anger? We can react in anger when we are stressed, threatened, or feel a sense of loss to our self, our body, our property, ..... Therefore, anger management can be looked at as a sort of education intervention. This means that rather than stopping or preventing the issues associated with anger or anger itself, anger management helps to teach necessary skills. These skills are then used to recognize and manage anger itself while also learning to manage the issues associated with anger such as stress, being more empathic towards others around us and learning important assertive communication skills. Therefore, anger management is actually a treatment but rather it is a control method.
This means that anger management will only work for certain individuals. This is why individuals are assessed before being taken into an anger management program using various instruments and tests. Often times the program will try to determine the individuals stress functioning level, their current anger and stress management, their communication abilities and their empathy and emotional intelligence. Based on the results of these assessments the anger management program can determine if an individual is likely to change. If the program feels no change is likely to occur through intervention then another method of controlling anger or treating related issues will need to be found. Although if an individual doesn’t have the proper motivation to make the necessary changes in their life then it is likely they will have a hard time continuing to control their anger for the rest of their life until they are ready to change.
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