Anger Management Issues: A Sign Of An Unbalanced Life?

Dr. Purushothaman
September 23, 2013

Anger management isn't something to be ashamed of. If you've been ordered by a court or by a loved one (or what have you) to attend or enroll in an anger management program, then chances are, you likely have issues with control about your temper, about your emotions, and yourself on the whole. Everybody lacks some sort of control in some area of their life. Life is sort of a zero sum situation that way: people that are successful professionally, tend not to be so successful personally (and that sort of thing).

The idea is that if you're spending this moment (this second, minute, hour, or what have you) doing A (be that activity exercising at the gym, making your breakfast, working at the office, you can't possibly be doing anything else). That's the point of this notion of zero sum. And if you subscribe to this, then you might take the tact of: you may be failing in controlling things like your anger, because you're unevenly focused elsewhere. For some that enroll in anger management classes, that "elsewhere" is business; for others, it's a bit malevolent (an affair, alcoholism or drug addiction, etc.). See, the danger is that people tend to jump to a medical approach or tact, before they even consider where one's life might be uneven. Simply taking this zero sum approach and perspective, can identify weak points in one's lifestyle. It's important that people at very least consider it, because it's a relatively non-invasive method of treating a situation. Now, that doesn't at all imply that you can take what we've said here, and skip the classes. That's not it at all.

Instead, what's being posited here is a affirmation that these anger management classes are in most cases, extremely necessary. If you're even considering it, if you're even measuring this possibility as a plan of action, then you ought to spend the time into figuring out which of the classes out there is right for you. And this is where you'll need to spend a lot of time, because it's a huge investment. It may not be a huge financial investment, but it's an emotional one; it's a social investment (you can't just pop in one day, then pop out; what would your friends and family think?). It's a commitment, in other words. It's something that you hold resolve to, and you say to yourself, "You know what, there is a problem; I don't accept this problem, and I want to do better." In a lot of ways, it is like drug addiction (anger issues are, that is). And that's what you'll learn through anger management.

 

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