Helping teens manage their anger is an important component to their well-being. In a way, it's also important to keep the peace and safety of the family and community. Troubled kids who have severe anger management issue often make their home life incredibly difficult for other family members and are threats to the safety of other people around them.
When teaching teens effective anger management techniques, it's important to keep things into perspective. The fact is that it's impossible to completely get rid of anger. A troubled teen becomes even more frustrated when they try to not feel angry because it's an impossible feat. They tend to feel guilty and more angry towards themselves because they don't understand that getting angry is a normal human emotional process. There are therapeutic programs for teens that can teach effective techniques on controlling one's reaction to feelings of anger.
When you notice that your teen is struggling with anger management, it's important to stage early intervention to avoid inflicting further damage on one's self. Some parents who are tired and fed up of having to deal with an angry teen think that boot camp for teens may be the answer. The problem is that juvenile boot camps use methods that encourage repression of anger in order to avoid punishment. Most teen boot camp programs are originally intended as a replacement for juvenile facilities, hardly an environment for a struggling teen to get the kind of help that he needs.
There are other troubled teens camps and boarding school where therapy is part of the program. During thearpy, teens can find out what triggers their angry feelings. Introspection and guided explorations can reveal what each person's unique trigger is. During therapy, teens can identify and confront these anger triggers and understand further why this is such a sensitive issue for them. Awareness is a very important part of learning to deal with an issue. It also gives teens a positive means of dealing with the emotions that they feel. Oftentimes they don't really understand it themselves, and understanding leads them to more constructive action.
Teens can also learn to recognize signs that they are beginning to lose control of their anger. People have physical responses to powerful emotions. Some people feel their heart pounding, their jaws clenching, their back aching, or their fists balling up. The more aware teens are of the signs that they are beginning to lose control, the better their chances of being able to step back and pull themselves together again.
Teens should also be aware of the repercussions of uncontrolled anger. Other than the harm that it could inflict on others and other people's property, there's also harm inflicted on one's self. Uncontrolled anger is like acid bubbling over in a container. The first thing it destroys is the container itself. Uncontrolled anger can lead to hyperacidity, ulcers, back pain, hypertension, and more. Not to mention the emotional damage it does on the person.
