Anger: Psychological Reasons Why It Rises and How to Reduce It

Anger is a common emotion with related behavior. For example, angry individuals may experience elevated heart rate and blood pressure, increased body temperature, sweat, furrow their brow, clench their jaw, tremble, get a headache, feel dizzy, have muscle tension, chest tightening, rapid shallow breathing, yell, swear, intimidate, be impatient, have their voice crack, throw things, break objects, slam doors, physically hurt themselves or others, be immune to logic or calming, among other expressions. People can be puzzled why anger rises and remains for themselves or others. As it can erupt quickly, be disruptive and upsetting, as well as seemingly animalistic, counterproductive, baseless, unpredictable, illogical, random, and uncontrollable, it's often viewed as an innate reflex or unstoppable natural result of some cause, such as a chemical imbalance, brain injury, physiological issues, or genetics. While psychiatric reasons for anger exist, complete understanding, assessment, and treatment also require knowing psychological factors, such as individual choice, people's personality, their idiosyncratic collection of rules, goals, and information they use to define reality and survive and thrive, can be related to anger. For instance, as individuals can get angry after failing, experiencing an injustice, getting stuck in traffic, being ridiculed, rejected, abandoned, or experiencing social discord. While people may view this as additional causes of anger, there's much more to know. For example, social elements can account for when, why, how, and with whom anger rises and recedes, and reveals people's mindset and goals. Often, people use symptoms including anger to achieve good and healthy outcomes, say to defend themselves or others, or to motivate themselves. This book provides a comprehensive, encouraging, effective, and empowering understanding of anger. It investigates, identifies, and explains three psychological reasons why anger erupts, its various forms, factors that maintain it, its purposefulness, how to avoid getting or remaining angry, as well as how to handle other people's anger. This is a theoretical approach to understanding certain forms of anger. This book is not about physical abuse, child abuse, intimate partner violence, domestic violence, sexual abuse, or any situations or conditions that involve injury or death. This is not a self-help book, nor is it to be used for diagnosis. This book is not a substitute for therapy.