Mastering Anger: Techniques for Impulse Control and Conflict Resolution

1. Anger Management and Impulse Control

3. Anger Management and Impulse Control • Target: I will be able topractice anger management and impulse control to prevent violence • 2/3 of U.S. adolescents have experienced an anger attack in their lives that involved threatening violence or violent behavior. • Punching a wall and other physical manifestations of anger, if repeated constantly, is a mental health issue • The actual physical pain is a release for the internal pain that one has no idea how to handle Pg. 57

5. Anger Management: The process of learning to recognize signs that you're becoming angry, and taking action to calm down and deal with the situation in a positive way.  • It doesn't try to keep you from feeling anger or encourage you to hold it in.

6. Impulse Control: The ability to control a sudden strong urge or desire to act. • The “voice” that tells you to do something • This is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex- the area of the brain that handles planning, making choices, suppressing urges, and regulating emotions.

7. Anger Management Techniques • Negative Ways: • Keeping it in • Hurting ourselves emotionally and physically • Withdrawing from life • Taking risks • Overeating • Using alcohol or drugs

8. Letting it out • Insulting others • Harming others • Throwing tantrums • Destroying property • Taking revenge

9. Positive Ways: • Think it out (Sit down, relax, and come up with ideas for how to solve it) • Separating yourself by going to a quiet place

10. Talk it out (Counselor, parent, trusted adult, friend) • Write it out (Journal, poems, diary, etc) • Channel anger into a creative activity

11. Get active- go for a walk, run, or do another exercise activity • Relax • Listen to music • Meditate • Yoga • Deep breathing • Tense and Release various muscles. • Visualize a quiet place

12. Often times we confront and accuse, rather than communicate, and all we accomplish is putting the other person on the defensive. • One way to communicate in an assertive and effective way is to use I-Messages: • I feel…(be specific) when you… (give details of the behavior or circumstances), Because…(this is the hard one: the "why") Summary:

13. SKITS!!!!  • With your table group you are going to be showing a scenario in which anger is displayed in an unhealthy way. • The group then needs to show healthy ways to manage anger/impulses; as well as how to resolve the conflict in a healthy way. • Think about what are some assertive and effective ways to tell someone you’re angry at that you need to talk to them. For example: "I have something I'd like to talk about" or "Can I talk to you about something?" Rather than Yelling down the hall that you want to talk to someone, or approaching someone when they're with a lot of their friends, etc.

14. Reducing Anger Option 1: Create a cartoon strip about practicing anger management and impulse control to prevent violence Option 2: Write a story about a personal experience with anger; explaining what made you mad and how you were able to deal with it in a healthy way. *Use a minimum of 4 colors/good grammar* Pg. 56