There are common problem behaviours that goes side by side with crisis situations as in the case of the recent flooding and mudslide disaster or working in a crisis affected community? These are: Anger (and) Drinking

Understanding what anger is?

Anger is:

• a normal human emotion.
• feeling annoyed, frustrated, irritated, or even very angry from time to time.
• expressed by shouting, yelling, or swearing, but in extreme cases it can escalate into physical aggression towards objects (e.g. smashing things) or people (self or others).
• sometimes could be a brooding, silent, or leads to withdrawal.

Things to watch out against:

• Do I found myself getting really angry at people or situations?
• When I got angry do I got really mad?
• When I got angry do I stayed angry for a very long time?
• When I got angry at someone do I really want to hit them?
• Do my anger prevented me from getting along with people as well as I’d have liked?

Benefits and problems of Anger:

There is always a good and bad effect of problem behaviours – however, what most times could be considered as good effects are only temporal and does not have a lasting impact. Whilst anger would help the individual to unwind the tension within and at the same time makes them feel high, it damages the individual’s health, expensive to maintain, results to low feeling afterwards, affects quality of sleep as well as causes relationship problems.

The costs are very much in terms of effect than the benefits; So then preventing or dealing with it is very important – It is much more important to manage ones anger than unleash it.

If and when an individual manages his/her anger, he/she is able to facilitates better sleeping pattern, becomes more focused than distracted and conserves more energy than expels it.

Sources/Causes for Anger:

Anger comes mainly as a result of a feeling of boredom, low mood, feeling anxious, having bad memories, wanting to do the same as your friends or an habitual feelings that one may have at certain days or times of the week

Can someone be able to modify problem behaviours like Anger?
Problem behaviours especially issues of anger could be effectively modified. It mainly focuses on the causes of anger that the anger reaction itself. This could be done through the following steps/practices:

• When you feel Boredom find something to do
• When you feel your mood is low, find something else to do that is enjoyable
• When you are not able to manage the above two suggestions find someone to talk to – So at best problem behaviour (specifically anger) can be modified but not managed?

There is the traffic light rule which helps to deal with anger in another way. It states that when you are really angry (which shows the red light) it means it is dangerous to go ahead, therefore you must stop right there as is the same rule for a car. Wait for a moment until you feel the orange light is on (which requires be ready to act). In this case the orange light requires the individual get ready to calm down, breathe out – blow the anger away. And take 2 deep breaths to wait for the green light which instructs you to either go away or distract yourself until you feel calmer.

What effect does anger has on an individual?

Anger affects an individual’s body, behaviour and thoughts and when it persists and is not controlled then it becomes a serious problem and would require someone to see a mental health worker for specialized support.

Where can these supports be found?

Every government hospital has a mental health worker – you can access a free of cost care for such talking sessions. It is better to seize such opportunities than to allow it to totally destroy your valued relationships.