Mental Health Moment: Tools for Managing Anger

06 Jun Mental Health Moment: Tools for Managing Anger

For further information about the pandemic in the Telluride region, go to tellmed.org/coronavirus. 

For San Miguel County updates, go here.

If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, call The Center for Mental Health’s crisis line at 970.252.6220. For help with deep stress, Lindsay Wright can be reached by calling the Telluride Medical Center at 970-728-3848 or, if you are a patient, by messaging her through the Telluride Medical Center portal.

Lindsay Wright, LMFT, of the Telluride Medical Center talks about tools for coping with anger in the Age of Corona.

Check out Lindsay’s podcast on Tools for Coping with Anger.

In Spanish: 

At present, we may be more observant of the behaviors of others, and subsequently may disagree with the choices others are making, which may in turn lead to feeling more anger.

As with all emotions, anger has its purpose. It can serve as a way of protecting us from what we perceive may interfere with our safety and security, which in some cases can trigger the fight or flight response in our bodies.

In today’s world, we may be experiencing these triggers more often than we are used to. It is also important to remember that anger is one of the stages of grief, something that many of us may be experiencing currently, as we adjust to our frequently changing world.

So what can we do about our anger during this time with corona on the agenda?

First, we should make sure that our anger is not misdirected at something or someone else. For example, this can happen when we feel angry about new rules and protocols at work, but we find ourselves expressing it by snapping at our partner over the dishes, rather than talking about the larger issue that is really making us mad.

If you notice yourself becoming increasingly frustrated by the small actions of your family members or housemates, take a moment to assess if their actions are truly upsetting, or if perhaps your anger towards them has been transferred from a larger issue.

By labeling what we are actually angry about, we take a step towards addressing our feelings of anger in a healthier way, and may even be able to engage in problem-solving to resolve the issue.

Secondly, we can challenge ourselves to practice compassion and empathy in response.

For example, if we are feeling anger or frustration towards a stranger who has cut in line at the store, we can work to shift that emotion to one of empathy and understanding by challenging ourselves to change the narrative around the other person’s behavior. Rather than viewing the stranger as selfish, we can reframe the experience for ourselves; perhaps the other person did not see us, or didn’t realize we were in line. This shift in perspective can help us to decrease the intensity of our anger and frustration, and help us move past irritants.