What causes violence? Read articles on anger management, hostility, violence and aggression and what can be done about it. Can impulse control be learned?

Source: Anger Management News

Anger and Intermittent Explosive Disorder are problems that need to be addressed and resolved as they have lasting effects on our society, in schools, and in families. We offer help for both problems at our Florida office as well as by video conference or in online anger management course format.

Source: Uncontrollable anger prevalent among U.S. youth: Almost two-thirds have history of anger attacks — ScienceDaily

The male gender remains the most prone to anger issues. Great article to review about the topic. If you need assistance with anger management, consider taking one of our online courses today!

Source: Mean Girls Not As Prevalent As Bullying Boys — ScienceDaily

Science Daily offers great scientific information about anger and anger management. I would suggest that if you have trouble with controlling your impulse to express anger or you are riddled with hostility or unable to let things go, then you read up on the latest science about anger and also seek professional assistance. Talking to a professional and gaining new ways to look at the world and manage yourself and the world will help you manage your anger and emotions. Contact us today at 904-379-8094. We have psychologists and therapist ready to help you today

Source: Anger

This is a great article about the science of anger and the health risks associated with it. Researchers have made great strides about the harmful impact of anger when out of control and new effective methods to treat it. Please see the section about anger and depression and how once depression subsides, anger often subsides as well. If you need assistance with anger management, please contact our office at 904-379-8094. We offer face to face anger management treatment, online anger management classes, and group anger management. Again, call us today for assistance.

Source: Anger Management | HMS

Untreated anger management can be a risk to your physical health in additional to your psychological health and relationships. Get help today if you can relate to having the traits described in this article.

Source: Anger and Stress Contribute To Coronary Heart Disease — ScienceDaily

We offer anger management at D’Arienzo Psychological Group in an online format as well as in person. We offer court referred and employment referred services. We will speak to your attorney or employer to ensure that you are receiving the anger management service that is required. Our services have been utilized worldwide from the United States to Japan and Australia. Contact us today at 904-379-8094 or at admin@livebetterjax.com

Source: Anger management

Is Anger Management Training Effective? This anger management training article was written by Brett Wallace, UNF Psychology Student, psychology intern at D’Arienzo Psychological Group in Jacksonville, Florida, and future psychologist.We welcome you to read Brett’s article about anger management. Please contact our office at 904-379-8094 for additional assistance.

While whether treatment is effective or not may seem clear cut to most individuals regarding a specific psychological treatment for a specific psychopathology. In practice such simplicity or parsimony does not often exist. In most cases multiple factors lend to a treatment’s effectiveness or to whether a type of psychotherapy inhibits progress, or the psychopathology is composed of many factors that may not be able to be treated all at once. This of course impacts the ease and how simple the therapy can be. In regards to anger management, multiple different factors can come into play from different sources and combinations. This is due to stress coming from a variety of sources. Some sources originating from the clients themselves.

Some factors such as those in prison or anti-social personality disorder impact the ease and effectivenss of therapy. While people with antisocial personality characteristics do benefit from anger management, they seem to be more resistant to it with minor decreases in trait anger, but a decent decrease in state anger (Marshall, Martin, Warfield, Doron-Lamarca, Niles, and Taft, 2010). As a refresher, trait, simply put, is a tendency to be angry. State is a short-term. In short, the participants had an easy time reducing their anger when angry, but the ease to make them angry did not decrease much. While the changes are more gradual, people with anti-social personality characteristic do still improve overall. Individuals that receive long-term therapy do make sizable gains (Wilson, Gandolfi, Dudley, Thomas, Tapp, and Moore, 2013). While noticeable gains were reported for aggressive acts aggressive language did not seem to decrease much at all.

The conclusion from these studies implies that even with the most difficult of clients, anger management techniques will eventually show noticeable improvement. The only area that seems not benefit much at all is the area of aggressive language. While arguably a moot point given improvements to most other areas of anger improved noticeably in the most difficult of clients, aggressive language could easily ensure that problems persist for the client.

References

Marshall, A. D., Martin, K. M., Warfield, G. A., Doron-Lamarca, S., Niles B. L., & Taft, C. T.     (2010). The impact of antisocial personality characteristics on anger management           treatment for veterans with PTSD.  Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 2(3), 224-231

Wilson, C., Gandolfi, S., Dudley, A., Thomas, B., Tapp, J., & Moore, E. (2013). Evaluation of     anger management groups in a high-security hospital. Criminal Behaviour and Mental                 Health, 23, 356-371

Please contact Dr. Justin D’Arienzo, Florida Licensed Psychologist, or one of our mental health counselors or mental health therapists if you or a loved one needs assistance with anger management. We have two online anger management courses as seen on our site and we offer in person anger management services as well. We can be reached at 904-379-8094. A wide variety of clinical and forensic psychology services are offered at our practice. Call us today!

Basic Anger Management Tools That Work

Dr. D’Arienzo’s Basic Anger Management Tools That Work

Brett Wallace, our UNF Psychology Intern, wrote, Basic Anger Management Tools That Work, to assist you in managing your anger and painful emotional experiences. By reading the article, you will learn about Diaphragmatic Breathing (DB), Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) and Mindfulness. Each tool is discussed with empirically based research confirming that each method is effective in improving your ability to manage your emotions and anger. The article was edited by Dr. Justin D’Arienzo, Licensed Psychologist (Forensic and Clinical Psychologist) and Anger Management Expert.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation Training: Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a common tool used to decrease stress and aggression. One does PMR when they isolate each muscle group first by contracting or squeezing it for five to ten seconds and then relaxing it for five to ten seconds. One typically begins with the toes and feet and then progressively works up toward the head clenching parts of the face like the jaw and forehead. The entire exercise takes about five minutes. The benefit is that one learns through the exercise how to better identify what parts of the body one clenches when stressed and or identifying when they are stressed by noticing that the body is tightened.

Many theories about why this works exist. One theory involves the use of biofeedback. Biofeedback is when an electronic device is used that measures some type of physiological reaction like galvanic skin response and increased heart rate. An individual’s current mood state affects the body. Stress and anger for example tense the muscles of the body while more positive mood states relax the muscles of the body. Biofeedback teaches one when the body is in a physiological state of a certain mood.

Multiple studies have shown evidence that PMR reduces stress. Nickel, Lahmann, Tritt, Loew, Rother, and Nickel (2005) conducted a study to test the effects PMR had on aggressive adolescents. The results showed that overall there was significant decrease in anger and stress. It should be noted that the entire sample for this study was male.

Rausch, Gramling, and Auerbach (2006) conducted a study to compare single session PMR therapy with meditation and a control group that received no treatment. In their study, the meditation involved repeatedly focusing on a mantra (i.e. a positive or a neutral word or simple syllable or syllables). In their study they found that participants in the meditation and PMR groups did better than the control group in regards to stress and anxiety. One interesting fact to note is that the treatment groups reacted more to new stressful stimuli than the control group but they recovered much quicker.

Another study by Dolbier and Rush (2012) studied the effects of PMR on stressed college students. The results showed that participants that practiced PMR were more relaxed physically and mentally than the control group and had a lower heart rate.

References

Dolbier, C. L. & Rush, T. E. (2012). Efficacy of abbreviated progressive muscle relaxation in a high-stress college sample. International Journal of Stress Management, 19, 48-68

Nickel, C., Lahmann, C., Trittz, K., Loew, T. H., Rother, W. K., & Nickel, M. K. (2005. Short communication: Stressed aggressive adolescents benefit from progressive muscle relaxation: A random prospective controlled trial. Stress and Health, 21, 169-175

Rausch, S. M., Gramling, S. E., Auerbach, S. M. (2006). Effects of a single session of large group meditation and progressive muscle relaxation training on stress reduction, reactivity, and recovery. International Journal of Stress Management, 13, 273-290

Diaphragmatic Breathing: The basis for diaphragmatic breathing (DB) mirrors progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) in many ways. Like PMR, DB is a type of relaxation tool.  DB focuses on a more specific area, namely an individual’s breathing. When a person is angry, stressed, or anxious they enter a flight or fight state. In this state their muscles tense up and they engage in thoracic breathing which involves rapid breathing with their chest muscles. Diaphragmatic breathing involves deep breaths using a muscle under the lungs called a diaphragm. This breathing also goes under the name deep or abdominal breathing.

A more physiological explanation revolves around the concentration of oxygen in the blood stream compared to carbon dioxide .When an imbalance in favor of oxygen occurs the blood flow to the brain decreases. Also, the act of diaphragmatic breathing causes nerves to send signals to the area of the brain that controls and moderates the heart and lungs. This then causes that area of the brain to force the heart and lungs to act less rapidly. This activates the part of the nervous system that counters the flight-or-fight response. This results in decreased heart rate, blood pressure, and causes a general sense of relaxation (Omoluabi, 1994).

Prinsloo, Derman, Lambert, and Rauch (2013) studied how deep breathing affected the heart rate of participants that had stressed induced. In their study they found that the heart rate of participants in the study decreased. Participants that engaged in deep breathing became less stressed after the second stress induction.

References

Omolaubi, P. F. (1994). Practical steps in learning diaphragmatic breathing: a first-aid technique for reducing sports anxiety. Psychology in Africa, 2, 129-137

Prinsloo, G. E., Derman, W. E., Lambert, M. I., Rauch, H. G. L. (2013). The effects of a single session of short duration biofeedback-induced deep breathing on measures of heart rate variability during laboratory-induced cognitive stress: A pilot study. Applied Psychological Biofeedback, 38, 81-90

Mindfulness: Mindfulness is another effective method that works to manage emotions. It has shown to significantly reduce an individual’s anger. Mindfulness involves non-judgmentally observing the present moment or feeling (Wright, Day, and Howells, 2009). “Feeling” can mean physical sensations as well as thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness is conducted when individuals study either their environment and their sensations or their emotional or anger experience. When focusing on their emotional experience, they focus on each facet of their physical and mental sensation in a purely objective way to gain a better understanding of it.

This leads to one hypothesis on how mindfulness affects anger. By studying anger in detail the individuals can then notice precursors of a potential anger outburst. This then allows one to then take measures to prevent this. Additionally, it also allows individuals to notice triggers that they initially were unaware of and avoid or prepare for them.

A second hypothesis on how mindfulness reduces anger takes a behavioral approach (Wright, Day, and Howells, 2009). One aspect of behaviorism involves negative reinforcement or escape/avoidant reinforcement. Some believe that anger outbursts are escape behaviors. Engaging in mindfulness forces the individual to get used to their anger without reacting to it.

A third hypothesis involves how mindfulness affects rumination. Rumination is defined as constant uncontrollable thoughts that cycle through an individual’s mind, seemingly without end. This can worsen stress, anxiety, depression, and anger (Wright, Day, and Howells, 2009). Borders, Earleywine, and Jajodia’s (2010) study seems to have shown that mindfulness decreases rumination and in effect, aggression in individuals. Unfortunately, the study in question focused on the correlation between the two so it cannot be said that decreased rumination leads to decreased anger.

References

Borders, A., Earleywine, M., & Japodia, A. (2010). Could mindfulness decrease anger, hostility, and aggression by decreasing rumination? Aggressive Behavior, 36, 28-44

Wright, S., Day, a., & Howells, K. (2009) Mindfulness and the treatment of anger problems. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 14, 396-401

If you are interested in pursing additional help with anger management issues contact our Jacksonville, Florida office at 904-379-8094 or find us on the web at https://www.drdarienzo.com and schedule an appointment with one of our anger management specialists. We also offer an Online Four Hour Anger Management Course and an Online Eight Hour Anger Management Course in the event that you have been court ordered to complete online anger management and or this is sufficient for your case.

Licensed Anger Management Specialists