Everyone feels anger at some point in their lives. In fact, it might be a sign that something has to change in your life or a hint that a relationship problem needs to be addressed. Anger, like other emotions, has different levels of intensity or ‘stages.’ Understanding how it shows itself in your life may help you deal with it more effectively by spotting the signs that it is approaching the surface. This helps to guarantee that it does not have as many bad implications for you or people around you. Increasing your emotional intelligence, or understanding of the reasons behind your anger, allows you to utilise it as a tool to achieve positive and uplifting changes in your life.
Take a look at the four phases of rage and some helpful strategies for de-escalating your emotional reaction at each step.
Annoyed
According to studies, most people feel bothered a few times every day, which indicates that something or someone is mildly uncomfortable or irritating to you. Someone, for example, may have finished the last spoon in the workplace break room without replenishing the supply. As a consequence, you’re irritated. It’s a good idea to go through any thoughts that are running through your brain while you’re this angry. Because your adrenaline levels are still relatively low, you’ll be able to objectively consider some of the causes of your displeasure. You’ll also be able to decide whether your rage is warranted, and you’ll be in a better position to discover a sensible solution.
Examining your thoughts, using the spoon as an example, may help you determine if your discontent arises from your irritation with coworkers who seldom replace things, or whether this was a one-time occurrence and your impatience was just due to being very hungry. After analysing your options, you may decide to either leave a message for your co-workers to be more respectful or simply ‘let it go’ and enjoy your lunch instead.
As with earlier stages of anger, the basis of your annoyance might be internal thoughts or an external experience. In periods of mild fury, using your brain to recognise this and find a fitting answer is the best method.
Frustrated
When your anger becomes more than a minor annoyance and your stress levels begin to rise, you’ve entered the state of frustration. You’ll still be able to use your brain to think rationally here, but because of your heightened resentments or dissatisfaction with what’s going on, staying calm and clearheaded may be more difficult. That’s why, at this time, it’s a good idea to incorporate some physical relaxation techniques, such as relaxing breathing, muscular relaxation techniques, and soothing affirmations. Here are a couple such examples:
• Take several deep, calm breaths, inhaling for four counts and exhaling for eight. This helps you to relax much more quickly.
• Concentrate on consciously relaxing your muscles, because anger emerges in the body as tension and is easier to release when tension is reduced.
• Decide if you want to accept, alter, or let go of the situation. Whatever you decide, repeat it to yourself several times. Because you’ve determined how to continue, you’ll feel more in control (and less unhappy).
Hostile
When you are under a lot of stress, pain, or anxiety, it might develop to animosity. Your tolerance for distressing events is too low for you to deal with them silently any more. This can happen for a variety of reasons, including an excess of physical or emotional pain, being overburdened with responsibilities, experiencing hormonal imbalances, or not understanding how to express your emotions in ways that prevent them from becoming ‘stuck’ inside of you. Hostility is the stage in which your anger tends to boil up and out of you before a solution to help alleviate it can be found.
The body’s ‘fight or flight’ mechanism, which is designed to alert you of danger, takes command at this moment. Because this response impacts the brain by suppressing the areas responsible for controlling social behaviour and correct planning. Seek Online counselling from the best counsellor at TalktoAngel to learn more about the emotional stages of anger.
Even if you’ve been openly hostile with another person and are snapping or yelling, there are incredibly effective strategies for returning to a more serene and relaxed state and turning the situation around. Making the option to go away and review the problem later is one of the most important skills at this level of rage. This helps you to unleash the pent-up energy from the adrenaline surge that occurs as a result of the body’s reaction to feeling assaulted and overwhelmed with emotion. It is essential to move around physically when resting. Try going for a short walk or doing a full workout. Relaxation breathing, meditation, and yoga are also excellent options at this period.
Enraged
When your anger reaches this level, you may demonstrate harmful behaviour such as lashing out physically, excessive cursing, or threatening violence. This happens rapidly, before the reasoning portion of the brain has time to think about your anger consciously, and the survival centre takes control. You may get outraged for many of the same reasons that triggered your animosity, and reaching this stage may also suggest that your ‘reactive’ brain region is more active than your ‘planning’ brain centre.
When you feel irritated, use the 4-count in, 8-count out slow breathing approach right away. This is the quickest technique to calm down the extreme emotional reaction you’re having.
It is also highly beneficial to have some healthy management strategies in place to successfully deal with your anger before it overtakes you. Our caring professionals have the knowledge and expertise to help you gain a better understanding of the underlying issues that contribute to feeling overwhelmed by anger and give practical solutions for dealing with each stage.