Anger is a normal human emotion and it can be justified in many situations. However when anger gets out of control it can become destructive, leading to serious problems at work and in personal relationships. Anger triggers an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and adrenaline levels in your body and we often have strong thoughts that come with anger- often 'should' statements. Typical angry thoughts are "They should not have acted in that way", "He shouldn't have cut me up" or "This is not fair".

What causes people to get angry? There are many common triggers for anger, such as losing your patience, feeling as if your opinion or efforts aren't appreciated, and injustice. Other causes of anger include memories of traumatic or enraging events and worrying about personal problems. We can replay events which can increase our angry feelings. 

Imagine that someone walks into a bar and leaves the door open letting in a cold draft. This may annoy you slightly and you then close the door. If this repeats over and over again you may find yourself getting more angry until the tenth person to do this may face you angry reaction. The reality is that that the tenth person did nothing different to the first but it was your interpretation of the situation that changed and caused the anger.

Anger is just an emotional reaction to our own perspective of a situation and help lies in understanding this. Whether feeling disrespected, humiliated or frightened makes you angry, this can be worked through in therapy. By recognising your individual signs and triggers of anger as well as ways to challenge angry thoughts you will be better placed to let situations go and address them with assertiveness whilst remaining in control.