Anger Management

Everyone gets frustrated and upset sometimes, but anger can be dangerous if it spirals out of control. At Open Door Wellness Center in Great Falls, Montana, Josh Holloway offers anger management training to help you keep your temper in check. Using proven techniques and talk therapy, anger management provides the tools required to successfully manage overwhelming emotions. Call Open Door Wellness Center today or schedule a consultation online to learn how you can benefit from anger management.

What is anger management?

Anger is a powerful emotion people feel when frustrated, hurt, or disappointed. Getting angry is often normal and often motivational. But allowing anger to take over can result in a harmful loss of control and even violence.

Anger management helps you understand why you feel angry so often or struggle to control your anger. First, your therapist shows you how to recognize when anger is a problem. They then teach you how to calm yourself and direct your anger toward something positive.

What problems does anger cause?

If you don’t learn to manage anger, it can become a long-term problem that results in health problems like:

• Headaches
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• Heart disease
• Distorted thinking and behaviors
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Skin disorders
• Digestive upsets

It can also cause problems at work and relationship difficulties. Excessive anger can sometimes cause behaviors that result in arrest and prosecution.

Anger management teaches you to avoid excessive anger and express it appropriately. This approach is far healthier and more effective than suppressing anger or continually losing your temper.

Which treatments does anger management use?

Open Door Wellness Center designs personalized treatment plans for each patient’s needs. Techniques your provider can use include:

Calming thoughts

Your therapist helps you choose a word or phrase to repeat to yourself when you’re becoming angry. This word or phrase interrupts and diverts building rage. For example, you could repeat “stay calm” or a similar phrase or memorize a poem to recite that will diffuse your rage.

Breathing exercises

Slowing your breathing, taking long, deep breaths, and yoga breathing exercises help calm anger. They’re also excellent for managing stress, one of the most common triggers of anger.

Diversions

Many people find that giving their mind something else to focus on helps them switch from anger to calmness. Anything requiring concentration would work, including listing United States presidents in order or all the words beginning with a specific letter.

Assertiveness and communication

Anger can develop if you’re unable to express your feelings. Assertiveness and communication training enable you to express yourself clearly without getting angry.

Your Open Door Wellness Center therapist also diagnoses and treats disorders like depression and anxiety that affect emotional control. Medication and talk therapy (psychotherapy) can be beneficial for these mental health conditions.

Call Open Door Wellness Center today or book an appointment online for expert help with anger management.