Anger Management in Teens: 10 Effective Ways

Anger Management in teens¹ is a matter of deep concern, and parents and other people should prioritize anger management to mend teens and help them learn how to deal with angry outbursts.

Teenage is a tender age with various hormonal and emotional changes. Teens are often angry as they don’t know how to deal with their unresolved emotions and issues. ²

Due to this, teen depression has become a familiar mental health issue these days. Teens of this age are likely to suffer from depression as social media is a huge source of anxiety and teens spend a huge amount of time on social media. 

It’s easier for a teen to learn to cope with anger than teenagers as they can mend their emotional vulnerability.

When one becomes an adult, all those toxic habits inculcated during the teenage years are hard to give up, even if it’s an emotion, so anger should be dealt with in anger management in teens. 

Physical Signs of Anger

Many times teens are unaware when their anger is on the rise. When their anger is at a peak, they can’t help but have to lash out. When you talk to a teen, you need to help them identify their warning signs of anger. 

The various signs of anger are rapid heartbeat, clenched fists, or flushed face. 

These can be managed by a few deep breaths, taking a break, and counting to 10 in their mind. These are helpful ways for anger management in teens when there are physical signs of anger. ³

Reasons for Anger Feelings

Mood swings are the main reason for anger most of the time.

Hormonal changes can be the reason behind mood swings and emotional imbalance in teens.

Role modelling: Role modelling is when one sees a person close to them in continuous anger, making teens vulnerable to angry feelings. 

Psychological Ways to Prevent Anger Feelings

Teens are much more prone to suffer from anger feelings. It’s normal to feel anger at times, but if this anger feeling is a daily story, one needs to deal with anger.

Anger can be powerful, and sometimes managing it is quite challenging. Anger management in teens always includes management techniques of Self-Awareness and Self-Control. ⁴

1. Self Awareness

It’s the ability to notice what one is feeling and what is the reason behind that feeling. Kids can’t have self-awareness, but teens can be self-aware. 

Next time you feel angry, try to realize what makes you so anxious and angry. Try noticing small things that irritate you, and next time onwards, try to avoid those circumstances or deal with little patience if you are dealing with it.

2. Self Control

This self-control gives you a few seconds between strong emotions and actions taken due to the urge of those strong emotions, which one will regret later. Therapists can teach this self-control through the proper teaching and practice of anger management in teens. 

You can’t acquire self-control in a day, and it takes time to mend yourself. Try relaxing with the help of deep breathing and change the environment that gives you the feeling of anger and anxiety. One can also use humor to tackle anger and acquire self-control.

Relaxation Techniques

Teens can never manage their anger if one is not at mental peace. Anger management in teens can be accelerated when few relaxation techniques are involved in the process.

This is a five-step process. 

1. Exercise

You can go for a run, stroll, or brisk walk in the morning, which might fill you with positivity and a better approach to life. Anger management always involves the process of self-love and nurturing oneself with positive vibes.

When dealing with anger management in teens, they should always give exercise a big thumbs up.

2. Listening To Music

Music is a way to heal souls and drain out your emotions through your music. Teens should hear music through headphones as the music cuts them from the outer world and gives them time to self-realize and retrospect.

Anger management in teens should surely try music because Gen Z is quite fond of music.

3. Maintain A Journal

A journal that holds all your thoughts is a great way to fight anger. You can feel a sudden surge of anger when you cannot express what they are feeling at the moment.

In this scenario, many therapists might recommend you maintain a journal to let out your feelings, capture every tiny detail of your life, and feel relaxed.

4. Keep Trusted People Close

When you have someone with whom you can share your true emotions, it’s bliss. Share your thoughts with whoever you trust, and these pouring-out emotions will help you a lot in controlling anger as you have expressed your feelings already.

5. Distract Yourself

Distraction can be a great escape from anger feelings. You can watch sitcoms or adopt a hobby like drawing, dancing, or anything else to generate positive vibes⁵ and surely leave you with a smile.

Ways to Cope with Anger

Having emotions of anger is completely humane but how to react with anger is the real task. That is, we need to learn and make teens learn how to cope with anger. There are a few ways. Let’s dive into them.

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  Learn Coping Skills

  
  

In public areas, teens can become aggressive when their anger is out of control. Anger management in teens involves the process of learning coping skills to manage anger.

Try not to express anything before you are calm. Prioritize your mental health and realize that saying “no” to something is okay. Take out some me-time where you are just with yourself. Try humor; it often works as a great coping skill too.

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  Teach The Difference Between Anger and Aggression

  
  

Make young adults learn that anger is completely fine but what’s not fine is aggression. Many times teens find out aggression as a way of expressing their anger.

It’s okay to have angry feelings but what is not okay is to show aggression like teens throwing things or often the loud door slams are one of their ways to show aggression. Teach them that aggression is not okay.

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  Become A Better Role Model

  
  

You can’t expect your child to be all gentle if you are always angry. If you throw things in anger and can’t control your anger, then you can’t expect your child not to suffer from anger issues. So try to be a better role model for them.

Parent’s Effort

Parents need to understand their teen’s anger and identify if they are troubled teens. When troubled teens don’t know how to deal with their anger, angry outbursts are quite evident.

Motivate them to do some physical activities and participate in interesting conversations and talks with them. Still, after your efforts, there is no change in the behavioral pattern of anger in your teens; please consult professionals soon. 

Parenting teenagers is never easy. Most of the time, you are exhausted, and sometimes you are not aware of why the argument happened in the first place.

Yeah, it’s hard to go through arguments with your child continuously. Sometimes you don’t feel like attempting to talk to them as the harsh replies break your heart.

Always remember that your teens love you. It’s just they are not well-expressive. The moodiness is hard to bear but try to deal with them with patience instead of acting like their parents trying to be friends. 

Difference Between Troubled and Typical Teens

• Typical Teens will try alcohol and stuff but will not get into addiction. Troubled Teens might get into alcohol and drug addiction.
• Typical Teen behavior is to change due to recent trends, which change with time. Warning signs for troubled teens is when they start doing self-harm. 
• It’s normal to argue with teens once in a while, but if this becomes a daily story with an increase in violence, it’s a warning sign of troubled teens.
• You might feel your teenage kids often prioritize their friends more than you but still need your love and affection. Consider a sudden change in peer groups encouraging harmful activities, and then it’s a warning sign. 

If you prominently observe these warning signs and red flags, then please consult therapists. Along with consulting therapists, be there for your teen and make them feel wanted. 

Anger Management in Teens – Bottomline

Anger management in teens is of great help to make your teens aware of coping with anger. You can help teens by helping them to reduce their screen time. Social media is a huge source of anxiety.

If you are taking care of your teens, it is also important to take care of yourself. Take out some time for your self-care. 

Anger Management in teens is of huge importance as mental peace is important and anger feelings suck it all. Be there for your teens, and you will surely see a change in anger feelings.

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FAQs:

1. Jahnke, Kristine. “Anger Management Programs for Children and Teens: A Review of Eleven Anger Management Programs.” (1998). ↩︎
2. Parke, Ross D. “Progress, paradigms, and unresolved problems: A commentary on recent advances in our understanding of children’s emotions.” Merrill-Palmer Quarterly (1982-) (1994): 157-169. ↩︎
3. Hendricks, LaVelle, et al. “The effects of anger on the brain and body.” National forum journal of counseling and addiction. Vol. 2. No. 1. 2013. ↩︎
4. Gorski, Hortensia, and Diana Elena Ranf. “Study regarding the emotional self-awareness and emotional self-control on managers activity.” International Conference Knowledge-based Organization. Vol. 25. No. 1. 2019. ↩︎
5. Gregersen, Tammy. “Language learning vibes: what, why and how to capitalize for positive affect.” The affective dimension in second language acquisition (2013): 89-98. ↩︎

Last Updated on July 22, 2024 by Sathi Chakraborty, MSc Biology