Early recovery has often been compared to living on an emotional roller coaster. After numbing your emotions for so long, you may not remember what it feels like to feel your feelings. All the feelings come flooding back, and it can be challenging to manage the ups and downs. As you work to get and stay sober, you may find yourself going from happy to sad to angry to scared to depressed in just one day. All these emotions can be overwhelming until you learn how to navigate the ups and downs. At Laguna View Detox, we arm you with the tools to work through these feelings constructively.
How Anger Affects Your Negatively
Anger negatively impacts the body in the short-term, and this creates risks for more long-term health issues. Certain emotions, including anger, fear, excitement, and anxiety, set off your body’s “fight or flight” response. This response floods the body with stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol. Your heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate increase as your body temperature rises, and you begin to sweat. Your brain, readying your body, shifts blood to your muscles by moving it away from other areas like your gut and bladder. Over the long-term, repeated anger can increase your risk for heart disease, disordered eating, diabetes, and other chronic diseases caused by inflammation.
Anger affects more than your body. Without an effective way to work through anger, you might find yourself losing friends, ruining relationships, losing jobs, and experiencing less happiness. You might even find yourself committing acts of violence, which could have serious consequences.
What Is Anger Management?
Anger management is more than the title of a movie. Anger management is using or developing a process for working your way through the feelings behind your anger. Different programs of recovery rely on different methods for dealing with anger. Many 12-step based programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous use the steps to enable you to work through your past and develop a framework for difficulties you encounter in sobriety.
Smart Recovery employs “Disputing Irrational Beliefs” (DIB,) which utilizes a series of questions to help you work through your anger at something or someone. The goal is to determine what irrational belief is behind your anger that might be changed. You may find that one of these programs works for you and/or you might also find that working with a therapist enhances your ability to manage your anger. At Laguna View Detox, we can help you find the program that is the right fit for you while you work with our team of licensed healthcare professionals.
Tips to Let Go of Anger in Addiction Recovery
As you find your footing in sobriety, you will be exposed to how different recovery programs suggest you work through anger. You will also learn about various activities that you might choose to do when angry. Many people find it helpful to talk with another person in recovery, journal, engage in physical activity, or engage in a creative activity such as painting. The goal is to work through the anger and emotions behind it rather than engage in numbing behaviors.
Get Help Today at Laguna View Detox
At Laguna View Detox, you will get round the clock holistic care for your addiction. We are one of the leading drug rehab centers in Southern California. We provide luxurious, individualized inpatient rehab treatment in one of the most beautiful areas. We remain dedicated to helping you detox safely and seeing you succeed by providing you with the care you need while you’re with us and setting you up for success with our aftercare. Contact us today and let us help you with your addiction!