Advisory for EPISD.

2. How to deal with
Teenage Anger
“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is
stored than to anything on which it is poured” –Mark Twain

3. Teenage Anger
• Teen anger takes many forms: It may be expressed as indignation,
rage and/or resentment
• Repression of anger and teen starts to withdraw from others or
may be defiant and destroy property.
• This behavior will continue to escalate, until the teen decides to
look within him/herself to the roots cause of the anger.

4. Teenage Anger
• Sometimes Teenage anger is usually a secondary emotions brought
on by fear such as:
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Grief
• Abuse
• Alcohol or substance abuse

5. Teenage Anger
• These negative expressions of teenage anger can devastate lives,
destroy relationships, harm others, disrupt work, cloud effective
thinking, affect physical health, and ruin futures.
• So what can teens do?....

6. Method One
• Go for a hard workout.
• One way to deal with your anger is to vent it in ways that
ultimately benefit you. Use the negative energy of your anger to
your benefit by going for a long run or hitting the weights.
• Rigorous exercises can help you reduce your anger and help you
cope with stressors that trigger anger in the first place.
• Try listening to music that pumps you up; this will help you endure
when your workout gets tough.

7. Method One

8. Method Two
• Talk to a friend.
• Tell your friend or significant other what is making you angry. In
many cases, simply venting your frustrations will help you to cope
with your anger, even if there is no solution presented from the
conversation.
• You may find that your friend or significant other is going through
the same problems as you, and it can help to not feel like you are
the only one dealing with the issues making you angry.

9. Method Two

10. Method Three
• Take deep breaths.
• When you find yourself trying to deal with anger, try to calm
yourself down. You can accomplish this by breathing deeply.
This will help you to initiate your body’s calming response.
Breathe in for a count of four, hold for a count of four, and
exhale for a count of four.
• Make sure you are breathing with your diaphragm rather than
with your chest. When you breathe with your diaphragm,
your belly extends out (you can feel it with your hand).
• Do this as many times as necessary until you start feeling
calmer.

11. Method Three

12. Method Four
• Go for a walk.
• If it is possible for you to escape the anger-inducing situation
that you are in, do so and go for a walk. You will be able to
calm down easier if you distance yourself from the situation
that made you upset.
• If you absolutely cannot leave the situation, try to remove
yourself from it through your imagination. Imagine you are on
a vacation to your favorite place in the world. Try your best
to picture all the sights, sounds, and smells to make your
vision more vivid.

13. Method Four

14. Method Five
• Think about something funny.
• Although easier said than done when you are angry, if you can get
yourself laughing, you can change your emotional state. You can
use your brain and imagination to create all sorts of ridiculous
situations that can get you laughing.

15. Method Five

16. Method Six
• Count to ten.
• If you feel yourself getting angry, remember that you don’t have
to react right away. Tell yourself you will let your anger show
itself after a ten second delay if you still feel angry after those
ten seconds. Counting to ten can help you put off your feelings for
the moment.
• It might feel a bit silly at first, but counting really can distract
your long enough to calm down.

17. Method Six

18. Method Seven
• Engage in perspective-taking.
• If someone made you angry, do your best to consider things from
her perspective. Ask yourself whether she might have done the
behavior on accident, or whether her behavior was constrained by
the situation in some way (e.g., maybe she had no choice) or
whether she may have had reason to do what she did. Also ask
yourself whether you have ever made a similar mistake. If you fail
to take her perspective, this may contribute to your anger, since
we tend to underestimate situational influences on others’
behavior (this is called the fundamental attribution error).
• If you take her perspective you might realize that sometimes
people make mistakes, just as you do, or you may realize that she
didn’t have mean intentions, either of which can reduce your own
anger.

19. Method Seven

20. Method Eight
• Replace your angry thoughts with more productive ones.
• The method of “cognitive restructuring” can help you replace old, dysfunctional
thoughts with thoughts that will help you function better throughout your day.
Anger can distort our thoughts, making us think that something is way more
important than it really is. When we exaggerate the importance of an event, our
anger can get out of control. For example, if you get a flat tire on the way to
school, it’s annoying and inconvenient. Out of control anger might lead you to these
thoughts: “I can’t believe my stupid tire went flat! Now my entire week is ruined.
Everything at school is going to be horrible.”
• We can change these thoughts by challenging them. Life usually doesn’t meet
extreme conditions, such as always and never. You got a flat tire. Things like this
happen in life, and things happen that you can’t control. There could have been
glass in the road or sharp rocks to cause the flat tire.
• Use your reasoning before your body gets out of control. Before anger takes over
your mind, you can “talk yourself down.”
• Challenge your thoughts by asking, "how will my whole week really be ruined by this
flat tire?" "Do I still have good things to look forward to, despite this inconvenience?"
"Last time something bad happened, did I get over it eventually?"

21. Method Eight

22. Method Nine
• Try to find a solution to the problem.
• With problem solving, you are doing everything in your power to address
the problem. You need to figure out your own feelings regarding the
situation. Then you need to express them in the most productive way
you can. You might have to accept the fact that at this time, there isn’t
a solution to the problem. You may not be able to control the problem,
but you can control how you react towards it.
• For example, you might be angry with your parents because they won’t
let you attend a concert with your friends. You can still be angry, but it
is also productive to talk with your parents calmly to figure out a
solution.

23. Method Nine

24. Song

25. Questions
• Do you often find yourself in trouble because of anger?
• Do you react to situations and later regret how you behaved?
• Does you’re anger cause problems with other people?
• List two positive ways to react to you’re anger.
• Anger is a secondary response to _________?
• What did Mark Twain mean by “Anger is a acid”?