The 3 Main Classes of Anger Management Techniques

Anger management techniques come in three basic flavors, if you will: replacements, stress reduction, and distracters. The replacement techniques are the ones people are most familiar with: instead of punching your boss or breaking something valuable, you punch something that won’t break and won’t hurt you (and won’t get you arrested!). Punching a pillow or punching bag, screaming, shredding old phone books, or hitting inert objects such as a bed or chair with a rolled up newspaper are all types of replacement behaviors, where the angry action (to hit or punch or destroy something) is replaced by a benign but similar action.

Stress reduction techniques are designed to calm you down or chill you out. The idea here is that you "self soothe" to radically change your emotional state. Techniques in this category include deep breathing, counting to ten, performing self massage, using yoga postures or breathing exercises to relax, or doing progressive relaxation.

Distracter techniques are designed to shift your attention away form your emotions and focus on something else. Some of these techniques include listening to music, watching TV, or doing something like housework or yard work (pretty much anything!) to distract yourself.

Each of these techniques has some pros and cons. Replacement techniques work well if you are already extremely angry and teetering on the verge of losing control. It can be extremely difficult to do some self soothing or yogic breathing when you are already steaming mad and your adrenaline is pumping. However, using yoga or regular exercise on a daily basis can help prevent you from accelerating from zero to sixty so quickly. And distraction techniques can help when you are angry but not furious and need to just get some time away from the source of your anger to cool off and think things through with a cool head.

Cognitive Techniques

Another approach to anger management involves a course in self study: noticing what you think about and what words you use when you are thinking things that make you angry. If you are like most people, you might bristle at this idea. You might think: other people make me angry. Traffic makes me angry. Injustice makes me angry. But the words I use when I’m thinking? Why should that make me angry?

Start by noticing just how you "narrate" your thoughts when you are starting to get just a little bit angry. For example, notice if you think to yourself in "shoulds": "That shouldn’t have happened. That guy shouldn’t drive like that. He’s a jerk. He’s going to cause an accident. He should be more careful." Or "my best friend shouldn’t go out with that guy. She should know that I liked him first. She should be more loyal to me. After all, we were friends first." Shoulds are phrases or thoughts about what should or should not happen. In general, if you think in these terms, you will get angry. If something should be happening and it isn’t, that is by nature very annoying. But thinking about it in those terms is like pouring gasoline on the fire. It isn’t helping, it’s making it worse.

Maybe you don’t "should" in your thoughts. Maybe you have other thinking habits that increase your likelihood of getting angry. Notice if you tend to think in "all or nothing" terms, such as "I ruined everything when I sent that email. Now I’ll never get a job." All or nothing thinking, also known as black and white thinking can lead to increase stress and tension, because the world always seems worse than it might really be.

The first step is to notice your thoughts. Write them down. Start a journal with two columns: title one "What I thought" and title the other "How I felt." Keep track of thoughts and feelings for a week or so, and notice the correlation: when you think in "shoulds" you are likely to feel angry. When you think in all or nothing phrases, you are likely to feel angry too. When you assign blame and organize your thinking around concepts like blame and overly rigid notions of right and wrong, you may also feel increasingly angry. After about a week of doing this exercise, you probably have gotten the hang of it: thoughts clearly have an impact on emotions, and especially anger.

Now you can get creative. Each time you catch yourself thinking in one of your patterns that tend to make you angrier, stop. Notice what’s happening, and take a long slow deep breath. Remind yourself that you can change what you think. And then do it. Think something different. In traffic, when you see someone driving quickly and erratically, consider alternative explanations as to why that’s happening. Maybe that person has a sick relative in the hospital or maybe they are a doctor on call trying to get to the hospital. Consider alternative explanations and tell yourself alternative stories about things you may have been making assumptions about. Maybe your best friend thought you had gotten over that guy since you did say that last week. Maybe your best friend just wants to be happy, and isn’t that what you want too? There is always room to try thinking about things in a different way, a way that is more neutral, more even-tempered and more generous than the old habitual ways that were making you angry.

Remember, you can change the way you think, and if you do, you will change the way you feel.

A higher number of teenage girls are being taken to the hospital with symptoms of binge drinking than are boys. Nearly 550 girls are ending up in the hospital, due to binge drinking, on a monthly basis compared to 450 boys, reported the Department of Health. And according to the UK’s public health minister, in the first eight months of last year, an estimated 8,000 young adults were treated by physicians for problems relating to alcohol.

The country is currently considering changes to the cost of alcohol in pubs, clubs and shops. This fierce approach to curb binge drinking will cost drinkers about $700 million a year. Who knows if that will stop the tragic statistics that show more than 25-percent of girls, aged 16 to 17, in the UK admitted to drinking to make themselves happy. In 15-year-old girls, the numbers show at least half have been drunk twice which is almost twice the average compared to other developed countries.

UK is a part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. This organization, which includes Europe and North America, showed that Britain had the highest percentage of 13-year-old girls to have been intoxicated at least two times in their lives(one in three).

Studies compared past users of injection-type drugs to non-injection users of drugs who use and included the drugs cocaine, heroin and meth. They found that those living in rural areas were the highest users of injection-type drugs. Scott Novak, the lead author of the study, found that drug use by injection users poses much higher problems with abuse than those who do not inject.

Novak states that drug dependence is more prevalent, as well as re-occurring disorders of a mental or physical nature. Unemployment problems were a factor with these types of injectors also. Novak says these people represent a part of the population in need of treatments that are of a specialty-nature, according to research available in Medical News Today. RTI conducted a nationwide poll of about 70,000 adults and youth in the U.S. annually and found that the most preferred means of administration was through injection among this demographic. Those in the rural areas were higher than those in suburban areas and the study showed that injection users were typically over 35 years old, with less than a high school diploma and were unemployed.

Novak found the study confirmed long held beliefs that users who inject their drugs are in fact unique to the drug population with specific needs for treatment, regardless of the drugs they infuse. He hopes to continuing learning more about their means of administering these drugs and the individualities of the users, in order to better tailor treatment programs and strategies to help them.

In a study published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, researchers said that when teenagers engage in a short conversation with an adult – even as little as 20 to 30 minutes – they may be more likely to decide to say no to marijuana. The results are significant because marijuana use may inhibit a teen’s normal brain development and have lifelong consequences, including a tendency to engage in high-risk, dangerous actions during the adolescent years.

During the study, researchers representing Virginia Tech and the University of Washington visited several high school classrooms, presenting the truth about marijuana, such as how it affects the brain and body, and gave information explaining their research study. More than 7,000 teens were offered participation in the study, and 619 chose to participate voluntarily. Half of these students satisfied the study guidelines for regular marijuana use.

Some of the study participants engaged in personal conversations with health teachers using a technique of motivational interviewing. With this technique, the students were able to talk about their marijuana habits and the ways the drug is impacting their success and their plans, among other areas. Others were involved in an educational technique, in which they viewed a slideshow related to marijuana facts and its effects.

After three months post-study time, the participants who were part of the motivational interview group saw a decline in marijuana usage by 20 percent. At twelve months post-study, the students retained a decline in marijuana use of 15 percent. Results were not as significant with the educational-based technique.

Researchers hope the study will lead to new ways to help teens decide not to use substances like drugs and alcohol, especially because the technique is relatively simple to deliver and doesn’t carry a high cost.

A study conducted at the University of Virginia School of Medicine shows that treatment tailored to an individual’s motivation level may help in reaching recovery. The results of the study will be published in the September 2011 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

J. Kim Penberthy is the associate professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia and corresponding author for the study. Penberthy explains that the model used for the study conceptualized motivation as a measure of readiness to chance and self-efficacy as a combined measure of temptation and confidence to abstain.

While the effects of patient motivation and self-efficacy on treatment have not been studied fully, Penberthy explains that they are significant factors that determine how individuals respond to treatment and specifically when they respond to treatment.

Penberthy and colleagues examined 321 participants, comprised of 226 men and 95 women, and evaluated them for changes in motivation, temptation to drink, confidence to abstain and drinking behaviors during the treatment phase of a study.

The participants were all treated with cognitive behavioral therapy and were placed either on Ondansetron or a placebo. The researchers also collected information about the participants’ drinking severity, age of onset of alcohol dependence, and medication status and how they influenced changes in motivation, self-efficacy and drinking behaviors.

The researchers found that some factors, such as increased motivation to change, reduced temptation to drink and increased confidence to abstain, showed reductions in drinking behavior, which was unrelated to the type of treatment provided. The information provides support for tailoring treatments targeted to specific subgroups for more effective outcomes.

The researchers believe that when designing treatment programs, the treatment should be tailored to the stage of the disease that the individual is experiencing, along with their level of motivation, their self-efficacy and their biological responsiveness to medication.

The researchers also found that the decrease in drinking behavior in early-onset drinkers may be affected by a reduced temptation to drink. However, Ondansetron did not differ in its impact when comparing early- versus late-onset alcoholics in terms of increased motivation or confidence to abstain from drinking

The connection between alcoholism risk and weight-loss surgery seems related to the technicalities of the surgical procedure. The risk for alcohol abuse is believed to be at least twice as high for obese patients who have a gastric bypass surgery than for those who have gastric band surgery.

When gastric bypass is performed, part of the stomach is closed off and food travels directly to the small intestine and then into the bloodstream, bypassing absorption in the stomach. When alcohol is consumed, the intoxication effects occur quicker – which may heighten the addictive effects in the brain. For some patients, one alcoholic beverage can cause a rise in blood alcohol content to the level considered legally intoxicated. The more intense the reward from the alcohol, the more likely the patient may be to use it to avoid negative feelings and the closer they may move to an addiction.

During a gastric band procedure, the food consumed still enters the stomach – slowing the absorption of the alcohol and the impact of its reward.

Patients with obesity who were opting for weight loss surgery also had a greater chance of being hospitalized for a mood-related illness or depression prior to and following the surgery than did patients from the population at large, when the groups were compared according to their gender and their age.

Researchers believe that food addiction and alcohol addiction could serve interchangeably for some patients. When the ability to find satisfaction from eating too much is gone, they may look to alcohol as a replacement. Additional research may explore the connections between biological factors in the "reward" systems of people who abuse food and alcohol, as well as the unique social and emotional factors that may prompt some people to develop an alcohol addiction following a weight loss surgery.

Dean Ames, the drug intelligence adviser at the Forensic Science Service, advises that BZP is now the main ingredient in ecstasy. The former main ingredient in ecstasy was MDMA, but Ames says that MDMA is rarely seen in the tablets. The new tablets look the same, but they contain BZP.

The research conducted at Anglia Ruskin was led by Professor Mike Cole and Dr. Beverley Vaughan and was designed to examine the risks associated with taking piperazines. The researchers wanted to help medical professionals understand the symptoms of piperazine use, usually associated with liver and kidney damage.

The research, which was presented at the annual conference for the American Academy of Forensic Science, was conducted in response to the rising rate of death and serious illnesses related to the use of substances such as BZP. The market for designer drugs has increased significantly in recent years.

The results of the research provided evidence of cellular cytotoxicity associated with BZP and indicated that the liver is sensitive to the actions of drugs like BZP.

The research team tested the effects of exposure to BZP on cells derived from the liver and kidney at concentrations that mimicked the levels experienced with use of ecstasy. The cells were then analyzed for significant changes, such as apoptosis, also known as cell suicide, and necrosis, also known as cell murder.

Some of the starting ingredients were found to be toxic to the liver, and the finished product of BZP was found to be toxic to the liver. The study’s findings showed a connection between water soluble drugs and toxicity damage to liver cells and a connection between compounds and mixtures with damage to the kidneys.

The different mixtures of drug and impurities synthesized in different ways to emulate street drugs showed a variety of toxic factors, but all were considered significantly toxic substances.

The findings are significant because they reflect the wide range of effects that may be seen depending on the mixture of drugs and impurities found in street drug formulations. Individuals using a drug on the street may never be confident about measuring the risk they are taking because formulations and their associated side effects change rapidly.

A report in the Bradenton argues that stories related to celebrity drug problems are more than just entertainment opportunities for the media. Instead, there is an opportunity to look beyond the celebrity image and recognize that there is a person behind the addiction. This person offers a public face for that specific addiction.

In fact, celebrity drug addictions can provide the general public with insight into real-world examples of the damage of drug abuse, including delusional behavior, paranoia, loss of inhibitions, outburst of anger, changes in appearance, fatigue, difficulty focusing, mood swings, loss of interest in favorite activities, increased sensitivity and so much more.

Drug abuse and addiction have the potential to destroy. The current media surrounding Charlie Sheen is one prime example. The actor was often portrayed in the media as having substance abuse problems, yet he was able to maintain his high-profile lifestyle, addictions and his job – for a while. The public is now getting a different glimpse into his so-called glamorous life and the hold substance abuse has on him.

Substance abuse does nothing more than destroy the individual caught up in the maze and without clear intervention and a change in environment, his or her life could be at stake. And, while celebrity lifestyles may be appealing to some, a world of pain and confusion would be enough to keep others away.

The findings from this study suggest that the influences of the neighborhood affect men and women differently in terms of alcohol consumption. This association is important to examine as heavier drinking is often linked with greater risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, higher death rates, heart disease, cancer and liver cirrhosis.

According to Matheson, even with men in these neighborhoods being more susceptible to drinking than women, the study found a large gap in drinking patterns that existed between men and women and among men, depending upon where they lived. She added that the location of a woman’s home really didn’t influence her tendency to drink.

On average, women living in low-income neighborhoods tended to drink 2.6 drinks each week, while women in more affluent neighborhoods drank 2.2 drinks each week. For men in the low-income neighborhoods, they drank 8.5 drinks per week, while men in more affluent areas drank 4.5 drinks per week.

Those involved with this research suggest that the consumption gap between the genders could have something to do with the environments that promote heavier drinking patterns. It could also have to do with the way men and women each deal with stress. Research tends to suggest that low-income communities are more likely to support an abusive culture and men tend to externalize stress by drinking.

According to this recent Science Daily release, there is a gender gap in the death rates across Europe and this gap is attributable to smoking. Recent research published online in Tobacco Control shows that smoking accounts for as many as 60 percent of the gender gap in that it kills twice as many men as alcohol.

Women have been outliving men in developed European countries since the mid- to late-18th century and the reasons behind this gender gap have been hotly contested over the years. While some have argued that the gap exists because of simple biology, others argue that women seek out health care more readily than men.

The magnitude and Variability of the trends suggest that something much bigger is at play here. The authors of this latest research piece set out to define the reasons behind the gap and used World Health Organization figures on death rates among women and men from every cause. They also examined those who died as a result of smoking and drinking in 30 European countries.

The data captured showed that death rates from all causes were higher for men than for women, although the excess for males varied considerable across the countries examined. Death rates related to alcohol were high among men in Eastern European countries, but also among women. The widest gap between the genders was found among smokers, suggesting that tobacco use is the culprit behind male deaths when the gap is the largest.