Anger Management

Could "having a temper" really be a symptom of emotional repression?

This page is a stub, created on 2020-04-12 (last updated on 2020-06-10). Its contents are notes on the issues and angles I want to address about this topic.

It seems to me that "has a temper" and "anger management problem" are superficial characterizations that have the force of being dispositive, like they're some unchangeable, irreducible primary that describes a person's fundamental nature.

• What would a compassionate approach to understanding someone's anger reveal?
• Is chronic anger (and uncalibrated angry outbursts) really a function of something that's maybe a result of a different stressor?
• I'm not talking about anger that's properly calibrated to a perceived injustice or harm, but anger that seems "out of the blue" or disproportionate to the stimulus. Could it reveal that a person is repressing the expression of emotions more broadly, which then ends up manifesting as angry outbursts because of the impracticality of trying to bottle things up?
• Could it reveal opportunities for self-reflection, growth, and the development of skills to rumble with difficult emotions and learn how to be more emotionally expressive in general (in a constructive and kind way), preventing the build up of pressure that ends up only getting "relief" through hurting other people?
• What is the connection to prioritizing play, fun, and joy? Could a failure of pursuing those manifest in a sort of anhedonia that compromises resilience to life's stressors, which then build up and explode as angry outbursts?
• What is the connection to psychotropic drugs that are typically used in psychiatric contexts to manage anxiety/depression (such as SSRIs)?
• When in the grips of emotional turmoil, why do some people take out their frustration on others, while other people end up manifesting more kindness and compassion?