Wheres the anger management?
But unhappily, while the health dangers of anger are well established, “to my knowledge there are no studies that focused on giving people anger-management skills and show that that in turn reduces the incidence of heart attacks,” says Jerry Deffenbacher, professor of psychology at Colorado State University. Nevertheless, Deffenbacher says, controlling anger can do no harm to health and can help personal relationships, and “there are things that people can do to lower anger and manage it efficiently.” Control starts with self-awareness, he says: “A lot of emotional behavior is on automatic pilot. People who react angrily may not be good observers of what triggers their anger. You can start looking for patterns, consistent internal and external triggers.” One effective tactic in an anger-provoking situation is “to learn to take time out,” Deffenbacher says. “When you know you’re ready to jump, you might go for a walk, avoid confrontation for the next few minutes until you calm down. A t
