Anger Management and the quest for less stress.

Life in our busy world can be stressful. Raising children, working, paying bills, taking care of household chores, driving in traffic and dealing with challenging relationships can be just the tip of the iceberg that we call life. Stress is an inevitable factor in all of our lives, it is unavoidable, sometimes overwhelming and can be a major contributing factor to anger management.

Anger management classes can provide a safe place to talk about the stress in our lives and provide tools for dealing with it. Many people in anger management therapy want to know how to get rid of the stress in their lives, but the secret is no person can eliminate all stress from their life. Stress serves a purpose for us, without some stress many of us may never get off the couch and go out into the world to make our mark. Some stress is a good motivator to do something, but too much stress and a lack of healthy coping skills can lead to a problem with managing frustration and anger.

In anger management classes, participants learn that recognizing our stress levels is one of the keys to managing our anger. If we are under a tremendous amount of stress we may have the tendency to blow up at the smallest inconveniences. This usually leaves us feeling worse about our situations and ourselves.

Although we cannot eliminate the stress in our lives, it is important to minimize it by using stress relieving techniques, learning to respond instead of react to situations, taking time to retreat and think things over when necessary and using assertive communication to express ourselves appropriately. These are all tools we don’t necessarily learn in school or at home and taking an anger management course can be helpful.

The most important thing is to be aware when we are under extra stress and take care of ourselves by eating well, drinking plenty of water, getting enough exercise and rest so that we are in better shape to take control of our emotions and our situation instead of letting them take control of us.

Shannon Nemzer MA is an anger management instructor at Daybreak Counseling Service. She teaches in our Gardena office which service Los Angeles County. For more information call 855 NO ANGER or 855-662-6437

Daybreak Counseling Service
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