Learning to Manage Anger…

Anger is a natural emotion that every human experiences. Mild forms of human anger may include displeasure, irritation or dislike. When we react to frustration, criticism or a threat, we may become angry – and usually this is a healthy response. Anger may be a secondary response to feeling sad, lonely or frightened. When anger becomes a full-blown rage our judgment and thinking can become impaired, that is when we are more likely to do and say unreasonable and irrational things.
Anger is not just a mental state of mind. It triggers an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and levels of adrenaline and noradrenaline. Anger has survival benefits, and forms part of our fight or flight brain response to a perceived threat or harm. When a human decides to take action to stop or confront a threat, anger usually becomes the predominant feeling and takes over our behavior, cognition and physiology.

As a parent, you may have a hard time trying to figure out what is normal behavior and what is not. If your child’s life has become unmanageable, if you are being responsible and accountable for your child instead of them being accountable for themselves they need intervention.

Triumph provides a small, highly structured family-type environment for our students. Triumph’s cognitive therapy approach utilizes individual therapy mixed with group and family therapy to treat each young man’s issues. In addition to the therapy, the positive peer culture utilized in Triumph facilities help the students process their issues and build skills for their own personal progress. This includes consistent group counseling and peer mentoring with special education needs.

Here are some signs to look for:

Hyperactivity – short attention span, impulsiveness.
Deterioration in school such as declining grades, truancies, decreased extracurricular activities such as loss of desire to participate in sports.
Self-destructive behavior such as cutting, suicidal thoughts, impulsive and compulsive behaviors.
Family conflicts such as: curfew violation, consistently breaking rules, aggressive behavior toward parents and siblings, not taking responsibility for their problems, blaming others for their actions,spending more time away from home.
Change in personality such as sudden mood changes, angry most of the time, eating and sleeping disturbances, poor hygiene, defiance toward authority.
Drug or alcohol related charges,shoplifting, vandalism etc.
Evidence of any drug use such as drug paraphernalia, drunken or stoned behavior, unexplained losses of money belonging to others (stealing from family members), having an excuse for everything such as blaming it on a friend or bad behavior reports from school.
Replacing lifelong friends with new friends that your son is reluctant to have you meet or you do not approve of.

We at Triumph Youth Services/Academy are capable of helping your Son learn to manage his anger and work on the underlying problems he may be dealing with. It is our goal for our students to leave here knowing how to live a healthy, happy and productive life.