Anger Management Liverpool

So we understand that anger can serve a positive function for us, but why does anger become a problem? Why at certain times in our lives does anger seem like something that we don’t have control of?

A key part of anger management problems are the way that we think about our situations. If we consider that anger is part of our threat response, then we can start to think a little bit about what it is that we are thinking that makes us believe that certain situations are threatening to us. Also, we need to think about not just why these situations are threatening, but also about why they are the type of threat that we think is appropriate to fight, rather than flight.

The types of thoughts that typically lead to anger emotions are those in which we feel that our own needs are being transgressed in some way. In plainer English, angry thoughts are those in which we feel that people are taking advantage, dominating us or otherwise not respecting us in some way. In these cases, Anger activates Fight, which gives us all the physiological resources (increased heartrate, physical tension, faster breathing, tunnel vision) needed for us to engage in aggressive behaviour. Aggressive behaviour increases the likelihood of our needs being met.

However, certainly in modern times, aggressive behaviour can come with significant negative consequences. It can lead to violence, very often inappropriately, which can cost us our health, our relationships, our jobs or our freedom. So we need to start looking at our thoughts in more detail. This is where CBT anger management comes in.

CBT for emotion regulation typically consists of four different sets of treatment. Some adults only require one or two, while others need all four. CBT for emotional management emphasizes mindfulness. It teaches individuals to recognize their emotions before they get out of hand, allowing them to better manage or control them.

The main assumption in CBT is that it is our thoughts about ourselves, other people and the world around us that leads to our emotions, our behaviour and our physical sensations. When someone comes to therapy, we try to understand how they are thinking about events and work out whether how the are thinking is an accurate view.

As discussed above, in problem anger we often have the thoughts that people are disrespecting or beating us down in some way. For instance, using the common example of road rage, we might have the the thought, “he did that deliberately to me” in response to someone driving discourteously.

But of course, we don’t know why they drove the way that they did. They might just be a poor or a new driver. They might be anxious or worried about something and this is affecting their focus on the road. They might even be in a rush to see a loved one at the hospital. We just don’t know.

But in anger, as in many other emotions, we pay attention to the “negative automatic thought” and this is what creates the anger response. The truth is there may be a million other reasons why our other driver is driving discourteously – It doesn’t mean they’re doing out of disrespect for you.

So, in CBT we aim to train you to notice the type of thoughts that are present when you are angry, and then teach you how to consider alternative ways of thinking. As we do, the range of thinking increases beyond those just associated with threat and new, more neutral emotions become available.

In addition to challenging our unhelpful thoughts, CBT for anger management also looks at the role that emotion, behaviour and physical sensations play in keeping your anger problem going.

We do this by breaking down the problem into parts and treating them one at a time, leading to improvement with the problem as a whole.

The diagram on the right – a 5 areas formulation – shows how we look at each of the areas of the problem in CBT.

So, let’s start with the emotion. Emotions can typically be defined in one word. “anger” is an emotion, but other related emotions may be “irritated”, “annoyed” or “frustrated”, etc. We’d write this in the “emotions” box.

Next, we want to think about all of the things that we experience in our body when we’re angry. What do you experience? As mentioned earlier, when we’re angry all of out fight or flight resources kick in and we’re full of adrenaline, our hearts pounding, breathing quickly and full of tension in our muscles.

We would treat these changes by using really simple techniques like controlled breathing, grounding or progressive muscle relaxation to lessen the sensations in our body that are telling our brains that we’re ready to fight.

Lastly, we have our “behaviours” box. This is where we will write all of the things that happen when we are angry. We might include things like shout, slam doors, hit people, throw things, or whatever it is that we do when the anger problem is there.

Please contact us for more information and help.