• Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series about anger management. “The Corner” has received requests to speak more thoroughly on anger management. This will take more than one column, as it is a complex process. Cognitive
• Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series about anger management.
“The Corner” has received requests to speak more thoroughly on anger management. This will take more than one column, as it is a complex process. Cognitive behavior therapy is considered the most effective means for helping people address their self-control issues. The treatment focuses on changing an individual’s thoughts (cognitive patterns) in order to change his or her behavior and emotional state.
One of the tasks of adolescence is learning how to control emotions and actions. But some people don’t learn it, and their emotions cause trouble. Assault, harassment, terroristic threatening and criminal property damage are all against the law.
When anger causes teens respond in these ways, they may have to go to court or Teen Court and are often required to take alternatives to violence classes for teens at YWCA.
Adults may be required to take anger management classes and may have jail time too. Anger management is a component of the alternatives to violence class, and CBT is a part of anger management. So learning how to change our thinking patterns is a part of every program.
First the students learn about our human three-part brain.
1. The reptilian brain, the oldest of the three, controls the body’s vital functions such as heart rate, breathing, body temperature and balance. Our reptilian brain includes the main structures found in a reptile’s brain: the brainstem and the cerebellum. The reptilian brain is reliable but tends to be somewhat rigid and compulsive. It often repeats patterns without thinking about them.
2. The limbic brain emerged in the first mammals. It can record memories of behaviors that produced agreeable and disagreeable experiences, so it is responsible for what are called emotions in human beings. The main structures of the limbic brain are the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the hypothalamus. The limbic brain is the seat of the value judgments that we make, often unconsciously, that exert such a strong influence on our behavior. In other words, this part of the brain is where our likes/dislikes, rights/wrongs, and good/bad are held.
3. The neocortex first developed sufficiently in primates and culminated in the human brain with its two large cerebral hemispheres that play such a dominant role. These hemispheres have been responsible for the development of human language, abstract thought, imagination, and consciousness. The neocortex is flexible and has almost infinite learning abilities. The neocortex is also what has enabled human cultures to develop. This is the thinking and planning part of the brain that gets the other parts of the brain to do what it wants them to do.
These parts of the brain work together through what is called neural pathways. The brain’s No. 1 function is to keep us alive. The most basic instincts come from the reptilian brain:
• Instinctive survival: These are the automatic reactions like jumping out of the way of a car, wanting to eat when hungry, breathing, etc.
• Attack or hide response: These are what we do when threatened.
•Aggression: One type of reptilian coping behavior is trying to show you’re meaner or stronger than others. It may include bullying, and laughing when others get hurt. This unacceptable behavior would be changed by CBT from the higher brain, which uses empathy and reality thinking in dealing with others.
• Anger Display: In this we not only frighten others, but we are preparing ourselves for battle. Anger increases blood pressure, heart rate and releases stress hormones into our brain and body. Too much anger over time can lead to heart trouble and permanent high blood pressure.
• Fear: Fear is an instinctive, primitive response to help us to avoid threats, injuries or death. We’ve all felt the tingling rush through our bodies when we feel like we are in danger.
• Revenge: The reptilian brain wants us to “get even” with others when we have been injured, rather than working it out thoughtfully through our limbic system and neocortex.
• Tribalism and territorial behavior: Joining forces with others and excluding others are separating activities generated by the reptilian brain. Exclusion is a form of bullying.
Below is a picture of the location and relative size of the different parts of the brain.
It’s really a waste of brain power to be making important decisions from the smallest and most basic part of the brain.
CBT helps us really examine what is going on and think about what is important in a situation in the long run, rather than just reacting. Here are the steps we take from an event found at www.internet-of-the-mind.com.
• A = Activating event (Trigger event) Someone bumps into you at the mall.
• B = Belief about the event (the meaning that I think this has for me) Someone is out to get me.
• C1 = Emotional Consequence (Resulting emotional state) I get fearful and angry.
• C2 = Behavioral Consequence (Our actions or reactions) I hit him back.
The above responses listed might be from a person with anger issues. The key in changing the behavior lies in step B. What meaning do you give this event? Most people wouldn’t give it any meaning. Their belief is that people bump into others in crowded places. If they get hurt, they might say, “Hey, that hurt me. Please be more careful.”
Now if I’ve grown up in a household where there is domestic violence, and most of my physical touching has been hurtful, the reptilian brain, which wants to protect me, is going to flare up, and respond as in the first example. So I have to ask myself, “Do I really believe most people are out to get me? Is this belief really working for me?”
If not, then I need to look at other possible ways of thinking about it.
So ask yourself if it is possible that there is another way of looking at the situation. Usually there is, but the person experiencing the fear and anger due to old patterns needs to realize it. When he/she does, then he/she can ask a trusted other person “Well what do you do if someone bumps you in the mall? What do you think that means?”
It is imperative that there be the willingness to see things as possibly different. We’ll continue working on anger next week.
• Hale ‘Opio Kaua‘i convened a support group of adults in our community to ‘step into the corner’ for our teens, to answer questions and give support to youth and their families. Email questions or concerns facing youth and families today to Annaleah Atkinson at aatkinson@haleopio.org.
