Anger

Anger is a natural emotion and certainly has a place. It is normal to be angry when someone is insulting you, making discriminatory comments, or engaging in inappropriate behavior. Anger becomes a problem when it is too intense, lasts too long, escalates, or results in aggression or violence.

Often, people express anger instead of other emotions such as stress, frustration, fear, disappointment, resentment, hurt, shame, or embarrassment.

How You Can Protect Our Pride

If you find yourself in a situation where anger levels are elevating, try to use some of these tactics.

• Do your best to stay calm, cool, and collected.
• Make sure the situation is safe for you. Walk away if it's not and get additional help.
• Remove the drama from the situation.
• Focus on solving the problem, not winning the fight.
• Don't get personally caught up in the situation.
• You might consider separating the angry people/person, removing them from the situation, and distracting them.

If you struggle with anger, you can do the following things to help yourself.

• Seek out anger management classes or counseling.
• Try to stay out of situations that might be high risk.
• Be aware of your triggers.
• Read Controlling Anger Before it Controls You, a publication from the American Psychological Association.