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Providing in-person and online appointments
Anger is an emotion encompassing irritability, resentment, frustration and agitation. Anger is usually a response to underlying feelings like hurt, fear, sense of unfairness or disrespect. These feelings trigger sympathetic nervous system arousal, the “fight, flight, or freeze response”. Therefore, the physiological processes of anxiety and anger are basically the same: amygdala and limbic system activation in the brain, flooding adrenal and cortisol into the system activating the body to flee or fight.
Anger can have a positive role in physically or emotionally protecting ourselves or moving us to fight against injustice. However, in modern society expressions of anger whether verbal or physical, are most often at best counterproductive and at worst violent and destructive. Anger is a normal part of life and is not necessarily pathological but it can be problematic when not controlled or expressed inappropriately.
Anxiety Treatment Services provides integrative and comprehensive therapy for anger issues including individual therapy and group support. Modalities include Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, EMDR and Meditation/Mindfulness.
We facilitate releasing anger by identifying and healing underlying emotional issues and negative beliefs that unconsciously fuel anger. We also teach practical tools and techniques to relieve stress and calm the nervous system in any situation.
Anger and aggression can be associated with Head Trauma, Alzheimer’s disease and Drug Abuse.
With Major Depressive Disorder many individuals report or exhibit increased irritability (e.g. persistent anger, a tendency to respond to events with angry outbursts or blaming others, an exaggerated sense of frustration over minor matters).
Manic episodes in Bipolar Disorder are characterized by a distinct period during which there is an abnormally, persistently elevated, expansive or irritable mood.
Adjustment Disorders are unusually severe reactions to an identifiable stressor that can include anxiety, depressed mood and disturbance of conduct. This mood disturbance can include irritability, frustration and angry outbursts.
The stressor may be a single event, for example, a termination of a romantic relationship, or there may be multiple stressors, like marked business difficulties and marital problems or recurrent stressors such as a seasonal business crisis, unfulfilling sexual relationships or continuous stressors like a persistent painful illness or living in a crime ridden neighborhood.
Some stressors may accompany specific events such as going to college, reentering a parental home, getting married, becoming a parent, failing to attain occupational goals or retirement.