Anger

Learn from Dr James Collard, Clinical Psychologist, as he talks about anger and why it's a misunderstood emotion. Anger goes with the fight part of our automatic physiological reaction to a real or perceived threat, being the fight, flight, freeze response system. Anger difficulties can show up in different ways, it may be impulsive and highly reactive and it can also be long held resentment where people are passive aggressive. Combating the impulsive and reactive outbursts may take some practice, James suggests it is useful to become aware of your physical queues, such as muscles tensing up, breathing speeding up, and heart racing. Once aware of your anger it's time to focus on calming techniques; self-talk, slowing down the breath (breath in for the count of 4, hold for a count of 2 & breathe out for a count of 6), removing yourself from the situation, or using grounding techniques. If you need help working through unhelpful feelings of anger, speak with your GP about getting a referral.