The Etiology of Anger Does Not Offer Solutions to Its Management
If one comes across a person who has been shot by an arrow, one does not spend time wondering where the arrow came from, or the caste of the individual who shot it, or analyzing what type of wood the shaft is made of, or the manner is which the arrowhead was fashioned. Rather, one should focus on immediately pulling out the arrow.
-Shayyammuni, the Buddha
It is a popular notion in some anger management programs to focus on identifying the "the triggers" that cause a person to behave angrily. It is common to observe participants of anger-management process groups explaining how someone "pushed my buttons".
This notion takes away the responsibility of the angry perpetrators for his or her aggression and violence. We are responsible for our own behavior, regardless of the circumstances.
Rather than focusing on the cause of one's anger, it is far more productive to learn to recognize the initial signs of irritation, frustration, discomfort or whatever other emotions precede your anger, labeling these feelings and developing tools to stop the anger from becoming destructive to you or someone else.
While assessments are useful in anger management intervention, rarely is it worthwhile to examine "triggers or buttons" which may lead to anger. Think of a Juke Box, if you push the button for a particular tune and something else plays, over time you will give up pushing that button because you do not hear the tune you expected. Similarly, if the person who is responding to the "triggers" ceases to respond, that issue is closed to resolution.
Anger management assessments should assess for anger, stress, communication and emotional intelligence. Skill enhancement in these four areas should be taught in all anger management classes.
George Anderson, MSW, BCD, CAMF, CEAPDiplomate, American Association of Anger Management Providers
http://www.andersonservices.com/
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Anger Management Classes and why they can help a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a term we are all hearing with greater frequency than ever before. It is becoming common as more people’s lives are impacted by this condition. This disorder is very apparent in our military personnel when returning home from war. The Department of Veteran’s Affairs even has a section on their website devoted to assisting military personnel and their families who are experiencing this disorder first hand or have a loved one they want to help.
So what is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? It is an anxiety disorder that is commonly caused by a traumatic event. These events may include combat or military exposure, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, assault, abuse, rape, car accident, etc. The events are something horrible and frightening that happens to you or that you witness happening to another person. After the event, you may feel scared, confused, and angry. When these feelings do not go away, get worse, and disrupt your daily life it very well could be diagnosed as PTSD.
So why is anger a response to trauma? Anger is a primitive emotion; it is a signal that acts a survival tool for people to cope. Anger is energy. It can be used to protect us or “fight” or let us know when to escape “flight”. When our bodies respond to these threats we have an increase in heart rate, adrenaline, and muscle tension preparing our bodies for action. Adrenaline and other chemicals are pumped into the bloodstream. Breathing becomes shallow and rapid, muscles tense up and your body prepares for action. In most cases, geared up with no place to go. If we do nothing to reverse the physical stress reaction, we can remain in a constant state of unproductive tension. Sometimes with individuals who have PTSD this state becomes constant.
In other words, after responding to a threat, most people’s bodies will later return to normal levels. When someone develops PTSD their bodies are on a constant state of alert and they are ready for action even when it is not necessary. This can cause a person to feel frequently on edge, keyed up, irritable, easily provoked and over sensitive to their environment. It is common for these individuals to actually seek out situations that require them to stay alert and ward off potential danger. They may use alcohol and drugs to try to self medicate to reduce this overall tension.
Another effect of the trauma with the anger is seen with the individual’s thoughts and beliefs. These thoughts and beliefs can become over exaggerated and cause the person to overreact to situations that they perceive as a threat, danger, or hostile. Common thoughts of these individuals are that they feel that they cannot trust anyone and that they have to protect themselves because no one else will. They may feel that people are constantly out to get them.
Where can individuals find help with PTSD? Start with getting an evaluation from a therapist that is specifically trained to deal with individuals with PTSD. As part of the therapy it may include a regular counseling session, medication, support groups, and cognitive based anger management classes. Anger Management classes are not always covered by Veteran’s Benefits, however, seeking out the help on your own with the recommendation of your therapist can give the individual suffering from this disorder some hope. Cognitive based anger management classes are successful in assisting the individual in relearning better communication skills, stress management, anger management, and emotional intelligence. For example, with the Anderson and Anderson anger management curriculum, a recognized leader in anger management, a person can see changes happen in their lives by becoming more aware of their actions and practicing better ways of handling stress and anger. This in turn will improve relationships and give a person the confidence that they once had before they were traumatized.
Don’t depend on your benefits plan to pay for everything. Think out of the box and get the treatment you deserve and need to get back to who you really are. To find certified anger management providers in your area, check out the American Association of Anger Management Providers website at www.aaamp.org
For more information on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder go to the National Center for PTSD website at http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/
Karina Narduzzi, BA CAMF
Program Director
Positive Solutions Certified Anger Management
www.positivesolutions.org
So what is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? It is an anxiety disorder that is commonly caused by a traumatic event. These events may include combat or military exposure, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, assault, abuse, rape, car accident, etc. The events are something horrible and frightening that happens to you or that you witness happening to another person. After the event, you may feel scared, confused, and angry. When these feelings do not go away, get worse, and disrupt your daily life it very well could be diagnosed as PTSD.
So why is anger a response to trauma? Anger is a primitive emotion; it is a signal that acts a survival tool for people to cope. Anger is energy. It can be used to protect us or “fight” or let us know when to escape “flight”. When our bodies respond to these threats we have an increase in heart rate, adrenaline, and muscle tension preparing our bodies for action. Adrenaline and other chemicals are pumped into the bloodstream. Breathing becomes shallow and rapid, muscles tense up and your body prepares for action. In most cases, geared up with no place to go. If we do nothing to reverse the physical stress reaction, we can remain in a constant state of unproductive tension. Sometimes with individuals who have PTSD this state becomes constant.
In other words, after responding to a threat, most people’s bodies will later return to normal levels. When someone develops PTSD their bodies are on a constant state of alert and they are ready for action even when it is not necessary. This can cause a person to feel frequently on edge, keyed up, irritable, easily provoked and over sensitive to their environment. It is common for these individuals to actually seek out situations that require them to stay alert and ward off potential danger. They may use alcohol and drugs to try to self medicate to reduce this overall tension.
Another effect of the trauma with the anger is seen with the individual’s thoughts and beliefs. These thoughts and beliefs can become over exaggerated and cause the person to overreact to situations that they perceive as a threat, danger, or hostile. Common thoughts of these individuals are that they feel that they cannot trust anyone and that they have to protect themselves because no one else will. They may feel that people are constantly out to get them.
Where can individuals find help with PTSD? Start with getting an evaluation from a therapist that is specifically trained to deal with individuals with PTSD. As part of the therapy it may include a regular counseling session, medication, support groups, and cognitive based anger management classes. Anger Management classes are not always covered by Veteran’s Benefits, however, seeking out the help on your own with the recommendation of your therapist can give the individual suffering from this disorder some hope. Cognitive based anger management classes are successful in assisting the individual in relearning better communication skills, stress management, anger management, and emotional intelligence. For example, with the Anderson and Anderson anger management curriculum, a recognized leader in anger management, a person can see changes happen in their lives by becoming more aware of their actions and practicing better ways of handling stress and anger. This in turn will improve relationships and give a person the confidence that they once had before they were traumatized.
Don’t depend on your benefits plan to pay for everything. Think out of the box and get the treatment you deserve and need to get back to who you really are. To find certified anger management providers in your area, check out the American Association of Anger Management Providers website at www.aaamp.org
For more information on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder go to the National Center for PTSD website at http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/
Karina Narduzzi, BA CAMF
Program Director
Positive Solutions Certified Anger Management
www.positivesolutions.org
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works
Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works
Melinda WennerSpecial to LiveScienceLiveScience.comSat Jun 30, 1:35 PM ET
If you name your emotions, you can tame them, according to new research that suggests why meditation works.
Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation’s purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to “let them go.”
Psychologists have long believed that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them, but they don't know why it works.
UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman and his colleagues hooked 30 people up to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines, which scan the brain to reveal which parts are active and inactive at any given moment.
They asked the subjects to look at pictures of male or female faces making emotional expressions. Below some of the photos was a choice of words describing the emotion—such as “angry” or “fearful”—or two possible names for the people in the pictures, one male name and one female name.
When presented with these choices, the subjects were asked to pick the most appropriate emotion or gender-appropriate name to fit the face they saw.
When the participants chose labels for the negative emotions, activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex region—an area associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences—became more active, whereas activity in the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing, was calmed.
By contrast, when the subjects picked appropriate names for the faces, the brain scans revealed none of these changes—indicating that only emotional labeling makes a difference.
“In the same way you hit the brake when you’re driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses,” Lieberman said of his study, which is detailed in the current issue of Psychological Science.
In a second experiment, 27 of the same subjects completed questionnaires to determine how “mindful” they are.
Meditation and other “mindfulness” techniques are designed to help people pay more attention to their present emotions, thoughts and sensations without reacting strongly to them. Meditators often acknowledge and name their negative emotions in order to “let them go.”
When the team compared brain scans from subjects who had more mindful dispositions to those from subjects who were less mindful, they found a stark difference—the mindful subjects experienced greater activation in the right ventrolateral prefrontral cortex and a greater calming effect in the amygdala after labeling their emotions.
“These findings may help explain the beneficial health effects of mindfulness meditation, and suggest, for the first time, an underlying reason why mindfulness meditation programs improve mood and health,” said David Creswell, a UCLA psychologist who led the second part of the study, which will be detailed in Psychosomatic Medicine. Video: Here's to Your Brain Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind Using the Mind to Cure the Body Original Story: Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works
Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original, provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs, made simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!
Melinda WennerSpecial to LiveScienceLiveScience.comSat Jun 30, 1:35 PM ET
If you name your emotions, you can tame them, according to new research that suggests why meditation works.
Brain scans show that putting negative emotions into words calms the brain's emotion center. That could explain meditation’s purported emotional benefits, because people who meditate often label their negative emotions in an effort to “let them go.”
Psychologists have long believed that people who talk about their feelings have more control over them, but they don't know why it works.
UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman and his colleagues hooked 30 people up to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machines, which scan the brain to reveal which parts are active and inactive at any given moment.
They asked the subjects to look at pictures of male or female faces making emotional expressions. Below some of the photos was a choice of words describing the emotion—such as “angry” or “fearful”—or two possible names for the people in the pictures, one male name and one female name.
When presented with these choices, the subjects were asked to pick the most appropriate emotion or gender-appropriate name to fit the face they saw.
When the participants chose labels for the negative emotions, activity in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex region—an area associated with thinking in words about emotional experiences—became more active, whereas activity in the amygdala, a brain region involved in emotional processing, was calmed.
By contrast, when the subjects picked appropriate names for the faces, the brain scans revealed none of these changes—indicating that only emotional labeling makes a difference.
“In the same way you hit the brake when you’re driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses,” Lieberman said of his study, which is detailed in the current issue of Psychological Science.
In a second experiment, 27 of the same subjects completed questionnaires to determine how “mindful” they are.
Meditation and other “mindfulness” techniques are designed to help people pay more attention to their present emotions, thoughts and sensations without reacting strongly to them. Meditators often acknowledge and name their negative emotions in order to “let them go.”
When the team compared brain scans from subjects who had more mindful dispositions to those from subjects who were less mindful, they found a stark difference—the mindful subjects experienced greater activation in the right ventrolateral prefrontral cortex and a greater calming effect in the amygdala after labeling their emotions.
“These findings may help explain the beneficial health effects of mindfulness meditation, and suggest, for the first time, an underlying reason why mindfulness meditation programs improve mood and health,” said David Creswell, a UCLA psychologist who led the second part of the study, which will be detailed in Psychosomatic Medicine. Video: Here's to Your Brain Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind Using the Mind to Cure the Body Original Story: Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works
Visit LiveScience.com for more daily news, views and scientific inquiry with an original, provocative point of view. LiveScience reports amazing, real world breakthroughs, made simple and stimulating for people on the go. Check out our collection of Science, Animal and Dinosaur Pictures, Science Videos, Hot Topics, Trivia, Top 10s, Voting, Amazing Images, Reader Favorites, and more. Get cool gadgets at the new LiveScience Store, sign up for our free daily email newsletter and check out our RSS feeds today!
National Trends in Anger Management
The emerging field of professional anger management has experienced a dramatic surge in corporate and individuals referrals as well as media attention. While Los Angeles and New York are leading the way, smaller states such as Mississippi and Alabama are recognizing the value of legitimate anger management resources and moving to implement policies in a wide range of agencies and organizations.
A sample of recent trends as reported by Anderson & Anderson Certified Facilitators of Anger Management:
Three major Universities in Mississippi enrolled Key Members of their Student Judicial Affairs staff in the recent Adult Anger Management Facilitator Certification offered by George Anderson in Choctaw, Ms. on June 20, 2007. These Universities are Alcorn, Jackson State and Toogaloo.
The Family Law Court in Huntsville, Alabama has begun referring most problematic divorce cases to Mr. Frank Morales for anger management assessment and intervention rather than the traditional psychological testing used in most Family Law Courts. This process began following a pilot conducted by Mr. Morales at Family Services of Huntsville, Alabama.
The Family Law Courts in Los Angeles are actually ordering combative parents to complete one year of anger management classes or coaching which is being described as “in the best interest of the children”. When parents fight it is the children who suffer.
Air Line Pilots have been recently referred to Anderson & Anderson Certified Providers in Los Angeles, Memphis and Charlotte North Carolina. It appears that these participants as well as their Air Lines have recognized the value of Executive Coaching for stressed out Pilots.
The print media, television, satellite radio, as well as professional journals and internet blogs and ezines have provided both positive and negative information regarding anger management. Certified anger management facilitators have appeared on ESPN, CNN, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, London Times, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Star News, George Will’s syndicated column as well as professional journals in Nursing, Social Work and Psychology. Many of these articles can be found on the website of the American Association of Anger Management Providers at www.aaamp.org.
Meetings are scheduled in mid-July with representatives of Major League Baseball teams regarding the implementation of anger management programs in organized sports.
The Director of Student Counseling at East Alabama University has received certification in the Anderson & Anderson model of anger management and will begin using it for students and faculty.
The Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation has ordered all U.S. based Hospitals to establish policies for “disruptive physicians”. In essence, a disruptive physician is one who has problems managing anger, stress, assertive communication and emotional intelligence.
Anderson & Anderson and its national network of providers have been listed as providers of executive coaching/anger management for disruptive physicians on-site nationwide. For a list of these providers, click here http://www.andersonservices.com/providersus.html.
Psychiatrists, Psychologists, and Family Practice Physicians are now pursuing certification as anger management facilitators throughout the nation. This suggests the acceptance and recognition of anger management as a needed resource.
For a more expansive view of the latest trends in anger management, please access the Google search engine and type in anger management trends, anger management facilitator certification, anger management classes or executive coaching/anger management.
George Anderson, MSW, BCD, CAMF
www.andersonservices.com
www.anger-mangement-resources.org
www.aaamp.org
A sample of recent trends as reported by Anderson & Anderson Certified Facilitators of Anger Management:
Three major Universities in Mississippi enrolled Key Members of their Student Judicial Affairs staff in the recent Adult Anger Management Facilitator Certification offered by George Anderson in Choctaw, Ms. on June 20, 2007. These Universities are Alcorn, Jackson State and Toogaloo.
The Family Law Court in Huntsville, Alabama has begun referring most problematic divorce cases to Mr. Frank Morales for anger management assessment and intervention rather than the traditional psychological testing used in most Family Law Courts. This process began following a pilot conducted by Mr. Morales at Family Services of Huntsville, Alabama.
The Family Law Courts in Los Angeles are actually ordering combative parents to complete one year of anger management classes or coaching which is being described as “in the best interest of the children”. When parents fight it is the children who suffer.
Air Line Pilots have been recently referred to Anderson & Anderson Certified Providers in Los Angeles, Memphis and Charlotte North Carolina. It appears that these participants as well as their Air Lines have recognized the value of Executive Coaching for stressed out Pilots.
The print media, television, satellite radio, as well as professional journals and internet blogs and ezines have provided both positive and negative information regarding anger management. Certified anger management facilitators have appeared on ESPN, CNN, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, London Times, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Star News, George Will’s syndicated column as well as professional journals in Nursing, Social Work and Psychology. Many of these articles can be found on the website of the American Association of Anger Management Providers at www.aaamp.org.
Meetings are scheduled in mid-July with representatives of Major League Baseball teams regarding the implementation of anger management programs in organized sports.
The Director of Student Counseling at East Alabama University has received certification in the Anderson & Anderson model of anger management and will begin using it for students and faculty.
The Joint Commission on Hospital Accreditation has ordered all U.S. based Hospitals to establish policies for “disruptive physicians”. In essence, a disruptive physician is one who has problems managing anger, stress, assertive communication and emotional intelligence.
Anderson & Anderson and its national network of providers have been listed as providers of executive coaching/anger management for disruptive physicians on-site nationwide. For a list of these providers, click here http://www.andersonservices.com/providersus.html.
Psychiatrists, Psychologists, and Family Practice Physicians are now pursuing certification as anger management facilitators throughout the nation. This suggests the acceptance and recognition of anger management as a needed resource.
For a more expansive view of the latest trends in anger management, please access the Google search engine and type in anger management trends, anger management facilitator certification, anger management classes or executive coaching/anger management.
George Anderson, MSW, BCD, CAMF
www.andersonservices.com
www.anger-mangement-resources.org
www.aaamp.org
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