Anger Management Class – Cognitive Distortions and Anger

One thing an anger management class should help you to understand is that we all use what are called cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are basically ways that your brain automatically processes information to keep you from getting overwhelmed by the vast amount of information you are continually taking in. Most of the time they are very effective, but every so often they can cause you to misperceive a situation and get angry about it.

Cognitive distortions are so much a part of who we are so that most people aren’t even aware that they use them.. When taking an anger management class most people have an “a-ha” moment when distortions are discussed as they recognize how often they do use them.

Scientific research has identified a dozen or so distortions or misperceptions that people use with most of us using two or three more than the others.

Anger management classes teach how to deal with misperceptions in three steps. Step number one is to become aware of which misperceptions you most frequently use.Step two is to come up withquestions that challenge the automatic thought. Step three is to remind yourself several times a day of the shortcuts you use and what questions you should use to challenge them.

If you practice this  anger management technique you will be surprised at how easily you begin to catch yourself and how quickly you can begin to change. With practice, you will literally begin to see a difference within a week or so.

Lets take a quick look at one of the most common cognitive distortions I’ve seen people use in  my anger management class:

Shoulds are when you think something or someone “should” be a certain way or there is something wrong. How many times have gotten angry and thought to yourself: “I wouldn’t get mad if s/he would do it my way”? Even though the word should is not used the implication is that there is only one way to do something and any other way is wrong or upsetting.

Learning and changing your automatic thinking can very quickly help you with an anger management problem.

To learn what the other shortcuts that cause anger problems are and how you can begin to change them you should check out my anger management course.  Lots of good stuff here!