Why Am I So Angry? A Discussion On How Anxiety Can Lead To Anger.

mindfulness ocd

 

Do you feel ever notice that your overwhelming fear turns into overwhelming anger?  Yes?  Well, you are not alone.   Anger is a very common bi-product of anxiety.

In this week's podcast episode,  I share about the amazing experience of listening to Clint Malarchuk (and his wife Joanie), who was a National Hockey League player and was the keynote speaker at the most recent Southern California IOCDF Conference.  

Don’t miss the most recent podcast episode! 

Your Anxiety Toolkit Episode #44: Anxiety + Anxiety + Anxiety = Anger 

You can listen to the episode for FREE on iTunes HERE

You can listen to the episode for FREE on Stitcher HERE

You can listen to the episode for FREE streaming HERE

Clint and his wife told their beautiful story about Clint's struggles with OCD, Trauma depression, and suicide.   Clint shared all about his journey of managing obsessions and compulsions while excelling as a professional hockey player.   There was SO much about Clint and his wife presentation that I loved, but one thing stood out to me as being REALLY important.   Clint shared about his intense and overwhelming Anger.  Clint and his wife shared how he was overwhelmed with rage.  Clint was angry at himself.  He was angry with his wife for demanding her get help.   He was angry at this parents.  But, most of all, he was angry at his disorder, for taking so much away from him.

It made me think, I AM SURE some of you would LOVE to know that you are not alone in your anger. This podcast is for you if you commonly feel angry about what you are going through and angry at those who just don't get it.  Click here for last weeks podcast episode on YOU ARE NOT ALONE

Here's the thing.  Anger is a normal human emotion.   What we must do is work on making space for it.  We cannot push it down and we cannot transfer it onto other people by yelling, throwing, punching and/or saying mean things.

Don’t miss the most recent podcast episode! 

You can listen to the episode for FREE on iTunes HERE

You can listen to the episode for FREE on Stitcher HERE

You can listen to the episode for FREE streaming HERE

If you want to learn more about anger and how to manage it, here are FOUR KEYS ways you can manage your experience of anger (and NO, punching a pillow is not one of them).   By using these FOUR STEPS, you will learn that you have to honor and respect your anger and create a better relationship with it.

FOUR KEY STEPS TO MANAGE ANGER

1)  Acceptance the presence of Anger.  We have to practice Acceptance of how things ARE, right here, right now.   We also have to practice Acceptance of ourselves at this very moment.  We are who we are and there isn't anything we can do at this very moment to fix that.    I understand this is hard, which is why we have step 2. 

2) Practice Compassion like your life depends on it.   We also have to practice compassion for others who don't understand and aren't quite sure how to help us.  

3) Practice Meditation.  Meditation has been proven to help with anger management and can help us have a better relationship with our own discomfort and 

4) Learn to Communicate to loved ones on how you are doing, emotionally.   As I mentioned, living in isolation and secrecy doesn't help and can make the world feel even scarier.  Find a trusted friend of a good therapist and start communicating your struggles.  

Click HERE to read about CBT School's Mindfulness for OCD Online course

Click HERE to read about CBT School's online Course, BFRB School: Joyful living with Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (Hair pulling and Skin Picking)