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Healthcare Training Institute - Quality Education since 1979CE for Psychologist, Social Worker, Counselor, & MFT!!
Section
12 Feelings, Anger and Behavior
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Read content below or listen to audio.
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In the early morning hours of January 7th, 43-year-old
Derrick K. Miller walked up to a security guard at the entrance to the San Diego
Courthouse, where a family court had recently ruled against him on overdue child
support. Clutching court papers in one hand, he drew out a gun with the other.
Declaring: "You did this to me!!" he fatally shot himself through the
skull. Miller's suicide is symbolic of a frightening global trend. That trend
is an alarming rise in male suicides.
In the last section, we looked
at the ABC's and a D as they can be applied to a depressed male client's anger
control.
In this section, we'll look at the "Anger Diary". As you listen,
how I used this technique with Neil think of a male client you are currently treating
and evaluate whether this technique would be beneficial.
As you are
aware many depressed male clients do not realize they are depressed. As mentioned
in a previous section, they often do not realize how frequently their depression
results in anger and how their anger affects others. A good example of this is
found in my client Neil, a 27-year-old advertising agent who had been dating his
girlfriend, Maggie, for three years. During our first session together, Neil admitted
to getting angry some of the time. I asked Neil to describe how much of a problem
he thought his anger was. He stated, "I don't really see it as a problem.
I just get kind of mad sometimes at Maggie."
♦ Technique: Anger Diary
I told Neil
to begin recording his anger experiences. "Every night before you go to bed,"
I told him, "write down all the incidents of the day that have made you angry
and how you handled them. Here are some specific items to include in an entry:
the date, time and place of each anger-provoking experience, the person and or
condition involved, the external events that provoked the anger, both the negative
and positive self-talk that you used before, during, and after the anger-provoking
experience, and how you behaved in response to the provocation. Also, write down
the intensity of the anger you felt and an evaluation of how well you dealt with
that anger."
I told Neil that his anger diary would
help him to get a better idea of how often and how intense his anger incidents
were. Also, I told him that the anger diary would help me to see what kinds of
things were provoking his anger. From there, we could decide the best way to go
about treating his depression. At the beginning, Neil was skeptical. He knew that
something was wrong, or at least that his girlfriend Maggie had told him he was
too volatile. However, he didn't see his anger as a problem. When Neil came back
the next week, he said he was surprised by what he recorded in his anger diary.
Neil told me that he hadn't realized how much he got angry.
He began to recognize a pattern in his anger experiences. "I guess I got
mad the most after meetings at work, especially meetings that were really non-productive.
Then I'd get home and still be angry." He also noticed that he "lashed
out" most of the time in response to his anger. I asked Neil what he thought
of his anger diary. He said, "I had no idea how much of a problem this was.
I think I'm beginning to see what my girlfriend was talking about."
♦ Harmful Anger
In
order to treat Neil's depression as a whole, we had to first work with and
begin to reduce his harmful anger. After Neil's twelfth and final session, he
had actually reduced the intensity of his anger, even when he felt frustrated
by coworkers. Also, was doing less "lashing out" from anger in the past
few weeks. Do you have a client who may be unaware of the intensity of his angry
outbursts and how they affect the people around him? Consider sharing this technique
with him.
In the next section, we'll look at systematic desensitization,
another method you can use with angry male clients.
Reviewed 2023
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article References:
Cole, B. P., & Davidson, M. M. (2019). Exploring men’s perceptions about male depression. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 20(4), 459–466.
Davis, H., & Turner, M. J. (2019). The use of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) to increase the self-determined motivation and psychological well-being of triathletes. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology. Advance online publication.
Grov, C., Golub, S. A., Mustanski, B., & Parsons, J. T. (2010). Sexual compulsivity, state affect, and sexual risk behavior in a daily diary study of gay and bisexual men. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 24(3), 487–497.
Lemay, E. P., Jr., Overall, N. C., & Clark, M. S. (2012). Experiences and interpersonal consequences of hurt feelings and anger. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(6), 982–1006.
McIntyre, K. M., Mogle, J. A., Scodes, J. M., Pavlicova, M., Shapiro, P. A., Gorenstein, E. E., Tager, F. A., Monk, C., Almeida, D. M., & Sloan, R. P. (2019). Anger-reduction treatment reduces negative affect reactivity to daily stressors. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 87(2), 141–150.
QUESTION
12
What does an Anger Diary help a client see about his rage? To select and enter your answer go to .
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