Anger in the Workplace:
Taming Your Temper - Learning To Turn Down The Heat

You're late for work, your toddler spilled jam on your suit and now your car won't start. How do you deal with the rising anger? Whether you brush it off and move on, or lash out in frustration, how you deal with anger affects not only yourself, but also your spouse, your children and even your career.

As hard as we may try to stay calm, situations always arise that push our buttons. While feeling anger isn't a bad thing, it is important to constructively express that anger. It may seem surprising, but being overly passive and keeping your anger pent up can be just as unhealthy as having a violent outburst. Both reactions can cause headaches, insomnia, high blood pressure and digestive problems. A recent study at the Duke University Medical Center even found a link between anger and heart disease -- yet another reason to tame your temper.

If your health isn't enough of a motivation to control your anger, outbursts in the office or at home can be detrimental to your career and personal life. Blowing up at a co-worker can negatively affect morale, productivity and teamwork in the workplace. In the household, intense or chronic anger can have a devastating effect on children and your marriage.

So how do you know if you need to express your anger more constructively? Use these questions to assess your response to anger:

-- Do you try to intimidate others with your anger?

-- Does your expression of anger ever frighten or overwhelm yourself or others?

-- Do you use threatening language or gestures?

-- Do you get angry enough to physically harm someone or something?

-- Do you turn to alcohol or drugs to ease your anger?

-- Do you experience muscle tension or an elevated heartbeat when you get angry?

-- Do you try to hide or suppress your angry feelings from others?

If your answer is "yes" to even just two of these questions, you should seek professional guidance to help you learn how to better express your anger. A Marriage and Family Therapist can help you become more aware of what triggers your feelings of anger so you can learn to keep that anger under control.

Cognitive restructuring in cognitive therapy is the process of learning to refute cognitive distortions, or fundamental "faulty thinking," with the goal of replacing one's irrational, counter-factual beliefs with more accurate and beneficial ones.
The cognitive restructuring theory holds that people are directly responsible for generating dysfunctional emotions and their resultant behaviors, like stress, depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal, and that we humans can be rid of such emotions and their effects by dismantling the beliefs that give them life. Because one sets unachievable goals - "Everyone must love me; I have to be thoroughly competent; I have to be the best in everything" - a fear of failure results. Cognitive restructuring then advises to change such irrational beliefs and substitute more rational ones: "I can fail. Although it would be nice, I didn't have to be the best in everything." [Ellis and Harper, 1975; Ellis 1998]

This is accomplished by leading the subject to:
Gain awareness of detrimental thought habits
Learn to challenge them
Substitute life-enhancing thoughts and beliefs
The rationale used in cognitive restructuring attempts to strengthen the client's belief that 1) 'self-talk' can influence performance, and 2) in particular self-defeating thoughts or negative self-statements can cause emotional distress and interfere with performance, a process that then repeats again in a cycle.
Clinical applications

Anger management
Main article: Anger management
Anger management programs have used cognitive restructuring to help high-anger drivers stay calm and collected. Anger control training combines cognitive restructuring with social skills training, thus helping the chronically angry to overcome their rage that arises in specific situations as well as their general anger against themselves, loved ones and the world in general. Interestingly, Cognitive Restructuring has also shown great beneficence in the pre-release preparations of criminals, reducing recidivism.

Depression
An example of how cognitive restructuring can be used in treating clinical depression is to find a statement that describes the cause of the depression, such as " No one likes me " and to challenge this, "People have liked me, my family does like me, I get along with work colleagues " and turn this into a positive affirmation "People have liked me, it is likely people will like me again, therefore I am a likeable person." Some refer to this general technique as "reframing" or "frame-breaking ". In clinical depression the triggers of the feelings of hopelessness and helplessness are often concealed, and using cognitive therapy and communicating in words about what the causes of the feelings are makes it possible to identify triggers. Thought processes are activated by external stimuli[citation needed] and so finding what external stimuli activate these thought processes restructures the way the mind deals with triggering stimuli. For example, if being at a party where everybody is laughing and dancing causes depression, cognitive therapy investigates the thought process that is triggered by the external stimuli. A statement about the stimuli explaining the trigger is: "I do not know how to dance, I will never be as happy as those people." and a restructuring statement is: "I want to learn how to dance." This is a way of changing a belief from a negative to a positive one and may be helpful in the treatment of depression.

Social phobia
Cognitive restructuring (CR), integrated with exposure techniques, is used in Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy (CBGT) to break the cycle of social anxiety. CR is used to conquer social phobia both in the therapist's office and in the client's daily life. Under the therapist's direction, clients are guided through cognitive restructuring before, during, and after in-session exposures to high-anxiety social situations. Then for homework, clients are asked to engage in cognitive restructuring activities before, during, and after each assigned in vivo exposure.

Trauma victim anxiety
Cognitive restructuring, in combination with other techniques, has been used successfully to reduce anxiety in many people from trauma victims to students suffering from test anxiety to diabetes-related issues. It has also helped patients struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Body Dimorphic Disorder (BDD), substance abuse habits and non-generalized social phobia.

That is the beauty of the our Online Anger Management Class & Online Anger Management Courses - you can get started today! For one low price, you will have three (3) months access to your Online Anger Management Course so that can move at your own pace without being held back by a class-full of people you don't have a thing in common with except the need to get your Anger Certificate and to get your anger problems under control. With our online anger courses, you can cut through the red tape and get right down to business. The sooner you start and the harder you work, the quicker you will begin to make progress and get your life back.

Those who have already completed this practical and powerful online course tell us it not only fulfills their court-mandated anger management requirement, it also REALLY WORKS! They have been able to improve the way they deal with anger, and it has made a big difference in their relationships with their spouses, friends and coworkers. It is also fast and easy to do!

Our Online Anger Busting Anger Management Course is the most thorough and comprehensive programs of its kind. Everything you need to help you begin to CHANGE NOW is included. You can do the lessons from your computer in the comfort and privacy of your own home, accessing the online course material one lesson at a time using passwords we provide for you after you have paid for the and registered for the Online Class. All you have to supply is the courage and discipline to do the lessons, and then faithfully practice what you learn. When you have completed all 24 lessons and quizzes, you will receive a certificate of completion you can present to the court which has been signed by the bestselling author of the Anger Busting Workbook, James A. Baker Houston, Texas.

For information on how to register for the Online Anger Busting Anger Management Courses using a major credit card. The fee is only $65 and signing up is easy so you can get started today! You also receive a free copy of James A. Baker's Best Selling Book "The Anger Busting Workbook" which you will receive within three to four business days after signing up. You do not need the workbook to take the online class or to receive the Online Anger Management Certificate of Completion.
Please Note:
In order to maintain our affordable pricing:

• Live support is NOT included with the online courses.
• Live support is available at an additional cost but you probably won't need any.
• Save time & money by referring to our FAQ for course assistance.

Good luck as you begin your Online Anger Management road to recovery. Anger Management Help is just a click away. Don't waste your life wishing for change. Make it happen.

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