Last Updated on December 16, 2021 by
The Anger attacks may include shouting, insults, sudden movements and even violence. Also, the anger attack also causes a series of physical changes like muscular tension, redness of the skin, sweating or increase of the cardiac and respiratory rate.
It is very important to know how to control anger attacks, with the aim of getting the emotion of anger not always translate into unwanted behaviors.
Anger Attacks
Obviously, getting angry may be a highly disruptive situation for the person. In the face of such attacks, behaviors are guided by the emotion of anger and not by rationing or thinking.
In fact, anger attacks often result in a series of unwanted behaviors, which very often provoke regret or shame when emotion disappears.
Anger is a normal emotion experienced by all people. This usually appears before specific situations in which an injustice, an attack or any situation that acts against personal interests is perceived.
In short, anger is an emotion that appears when the person becomes angry or feels provoked by something perceived as an offense, so the anger attack is that response that people perform when they experience anger and it becomes so direct in a behavior.
Do you want to know what steps should be taken to get it? Here are 12 tips that psychologists point out as fundamental to controlling anger attacks.
12 tips to control anger attacks
1- Gaining awareness about anger
The first step in learning to control anger attacks is to be aware that you have a problem.
Not all people experience anger attacks just as easily. In fact, there may be people who find it difficult to experience them and other individuals who develop them frequently.
So, if you want to solve your anger attacks you must keep in mind that you are a people prone to experience this kind of reactions.
This awareness will be basic so that you pay more attention to the situations that can because you attacks of anger. As well as the emotional responses you develop throughout the day.
In the same way that a person who does not know how to swim comes with caution to the pool when you want to take a bath, you will have to be more attentive when you expose yourself to irritating situations.
2- Identify dangerous situations
Another important aspect to take into account to control the attacks of anger is to identify the dangerous situations.
By dangerous situation it is understood all those circumstances that can provoke an attack of anger to him.
If you @nalyze where, how, when, with whom and why you have had your last rages, you are sure to identify specific situations to which you are especially vulnerable.
In discussions with your partner, when problems arise at work, during the practice of a sports competition…
All people have their weaknesses and if you want to manage to control your attacks of anger you must know yours.
By having well identified what your most dangerous situations are, you will have greater capacity to face them and to manage to control your attacks of anger.
3- Avoid irritating situations
On the other hand, it is advisable that you try to avoid, whenever you can, situations that can provoke an attack of anger.
Identifying dangerous circumstances should serve you not only to be more prepared when they happen, but also to try to avoid them.
The easiest way to avoid anger attacks is to avoid exposing yourself to situations that make you angry.
Obviously, this is not always possible but many times there is room for maneuver not to get into a situation that you know will make you experience anger.
4- Do not accumulate anger
Anger attacks are often much more common in those people who are not able to channel their anger or anger.
In this way, individuals are accumulating small amounts of anger through different situations.
By not channeling it and not expressing it in any way, it can provoke an excess of tension in the body, reason why this one becomes more susceptible to the attack of anger.
If this happens to you, it is necessary that you do not keep things and channel your emotions when they are not very intense.
Manifest an opinion, express what you feel, verbalize a thought … These are strategies that can serve to channel your emotions as you experience them.
If you do, negative emotions will not be accumulating and your emotional state will remain very calm. In this way, in the face of anger, it will be easier for you to control the rage.
5- Stop in time
If you have attacks of anger you will know perfectly that during the seconds before “exploiter” you notice clearly how the anger begins to rise by your body.
It is a brief but usually unmistakable sensation. When you feel that emotional load you know perfectly well that it will end in a fit of anger.
Well, if you want to stop the excitement and avoid the rage, you have to take advantage of those seconds in the best way you can.
In fact, when you look at yourself emotionally, only during that period of time will you have room for maneuver. If you do not act before your first expression of anger, you can no longer control your attack and reason will not have time to intervene.
At such times, it is often convenient to mentally repeat the word “STOP” or escape the situation.
The goal is to perform an action that distances you from the emotion and allows you to find a situation where you can calm down.
6- Avoid frustration
Most times anger attacks appear in response to a clear sense of frustration.
For this reason, you have to be aware that experiencing frustration can be your worst enemy and can easily generate anger.
In this sense, you should always @nalyze all situations with the greatest calm and rationality possible.
Many of the elements that generate frustration can be narrowed down and interpreted differently. More calmly and with a broader view that causes less emotional intensity.
Avoiding thinking in terms of all or nothing is one of the principles that allow one to get away from frustration and get adapted responses. In any situation, try to rationalize and look for alternatives. You will quickly see how to avoid frustration is simpler than you thought.
7- Analyze the causes and consequences
If you @nalyze the causes and consequences of the rage attacks, you will surely see that they do not have a good value for money relationship.
I mean that in most cases the causes that cause you an attack of anger are not so important as to justify your response. And even less to explain the negative consequences of an attack of anger.
The bad image you give yourself, the feelings of self-reproach you feel after acting in a way you did not want, concern for the harm you may have done to others…
All these consequences are too high, so make it clear that you do not want to experience attacks of anger.
A very useful task is to list all of the negative consequences that anger attacks have given you.
When you have it, read it carefully, study it thoroughly and memorize each of the aspects pointed out.
The goal is to keep in mind what happens when you have an attack of anger and what are your personal reasons to avoid them.
Doing this task will motivate you to control your anger attacks and, at the same time, make you aware of how to work towards it.
Inserting in your mind some of these aspects in the moments that you notice that you can have an attack of anger also can be very useful to him to be able to stop in time.
8- Learn to express anger
Learning to control anger attacks does not mean pretending never to experience this emotion. In fact, it does not imply never wanting to express feelings of anger.
Anger is a normal emotion, which we all have and that very often plays an important adaptive role. For this reason, wanting to live without this emotion can be detrimental.
In addition, in many moments of life it may be impossible not to experience anger, so we have to be prepared to experience it without it becoming an attack.
On the other hand, like all emotions, it is important that you can express your feelings of anger.
In this sense, learning to express anger is critical. Evidently channeling this emotion is more complex than expressing other less negative and intense emotions.
However, that anger is an aversive emotion does not mean that it has to come out explosively. These feelings can also express them with serenity, good words and self-control.
9- Improve your self-control
In order to properly experience and express anger, it is necessary to have high self-control.
Self-control involves knowing oneself well, knowing how things can affect things, and having in mind what kinds of responses appear impulsively.
Through extensive introspection and @nalysis of how one is and how it works, self-control can be greatly increased.
So, what you must do to control your rage is precisely this. Study what your performance is and what you should do to control yourself in those situations that cost you more.
Think about what acts are useful for you to avoid impulsivity. It can be going out to take the air, practice a relaxation exercise, and look for a distraction…
Everyone has their activities that work best, so you should find out what your own are.
10- Reduce your stress
Having a high level of stress is one of the worst enemies of self-control and, therefore, is often very difficult to control the attacks of anger.
If you are anxious, stressed and do not stop doing things all day, when you present an irritating stimulus you will be less prepared to deal with it.
In this way, the emotional overload that involves stress, can be ally with anger and become an attack automatically.
For this reason, it is important that you reduce your stress level. Analyze what activities you do, and which ones are expendable and which are not.
Also Read: 10 Mindfulness Exercises for Children and Adults
Also @nalyze how many hours a day you dedicate to your personal well-being, to relax and relax. All people need to release tension and have time for one.
11- Train your problem-solving ability
Situations that can cause anger and anger require a way to handle it.
If someone criticizes you unfairly you must have sufficient mechanisms to manage that situation without involving an attack of anger.
Communicating properly that you do not tolerate this kind of self-comment may be a good solution, although there may be many more.
In this case the objective is to eradicate those sources that can provoke attacks of anger, solving those problems that generate irritating situations.
12- Learn to relax
Finally, the worst enemy of anger is relaxation. In fact, when you are calm, it is very difficult for you to experience angry and angry emotions.
Practicing relaxation can be a very effective technique to apply also in those in which the anger attack appears. One exercise you can practice is the following.