It’s a well known fact that male are more likely to lose their temper than women. Either that or the men are simply more likely to act on their anger while women tend to keep it to themselves. A classic example of this is that of a man unleashing curses and letting fists fly while women wait until they’ve “had enough” and scream at you about everything you did wrong since you were born. While neither method is healthy, men’s nature of aggressiveness makes their anger issues more of an urgent matter due to the quick possibility of violence. To avoid this, men simply need to take a deep breath and wait – literally.

Taking a deep breath is one of the oldest tricks in the book when dealing with anything stress related. Anger issues are products of strong stressors that a person may or may not have gotten over with. Over time, the stress builds up and messes with the mind, and the most likely results include panic and anxiety attacks or disorders, including general anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorders, phobias, social disorders, and whatnot. Most, if not all, of these stress related results have one thing in common – compulsive actions.

Compulsion is acting without thinking, or trying to think against doing something but still ending up doing it anyway. In terms of anger management, the feeling of anger is normal, but the urge to act on that anger and acting upon it without second thoughts can be considered a compulsion. That being said, the compulsions, according to cognitive behavioral therapy principles, can be overcome if you understand the fact that they are merely patterns. Breaking that pattern, or rearranging it, is the first step towards beating your compulsive actions out of anger.

As mentioned above, taking a deep breath works for any stress related issue because it is a natural relaxant and as we all know, relaxation is the perfect counter to stress. You get an abundance of oxygen to your brain, which relaxes you. Another technique here is to take a deep breath, slowly count to five, then exhale, and repeat. This not only relaxes you, but delays whatever your compulsions tell you to do out of anger. The key here is postponement, which is why “wait” is mentioned above as well.

Most compulsions are courses of action that you take immediately. By simply waiting, you break your compulsive pattern. For instance, if you literally bump into someone, wait a few seconds and restrain yourself form saying “watch where you’re going” followed by a profane word of your choice. If it wasn’t your fault, the other party will most likely apologize – which SHOULD make you feel better. Now, imagine if you didn’t wait; you won’t likely get an apology. Instead, an altercation may follow.

Taking a deep breath and waiting are just two of the techniques that involve the delaying of the compulsions to be acted upon. They may be too simple of a method for controlling angry outbursts, but they are effective as long as you take the principles into heart.

Author Bio: Sharon Campbell enjoys writing for Uniformhaven.com which sells cherokee scrubs and landau 8555 as well as a host of additional products.

Category: Self Help
Keywords: male anger,stress related,anger issues