How to Control Anger (IED)?

What is IED?

IED which is an acronym for Intermittent Explosive Disorder is a form of anger disorder where the one who is suffering from this disorder gets a sudden and violent impulse. Here the one with this Disorder is a bit helpless against his or her destructive impulses for the most part and due to this, IED also comes under the Impulse disorder category along with Mood disorder as well. They can be controlled with a few steps and in a few ways. Some of the easiest ways will be mentioned below but before that one has to follow a few preemptive measures as well.

Preemptive Measures

Since this disorder is a mental one, there will be signs and patterns that will show that one has this Disorder. So the first preemptive measure is to understand and recognize this disorder.

As with most mental disorders, the signs and symptoms can be divided into three types which are

Behavioral Signs

Physical aggressiveness
Verbal aggressiveness
Angry outbursts
Physically attacking people and/or objects

Cognitive Symptoms

Low frustration tolerance
Feeling a loss of control over one’s thoughts
Quick random thoughts

Psycho-social Symptoms

Random anger
Uncontrollable irritability
Short periods of emotional numbness

Triggers

loud noises
behaviors like bumping without warning, surprise from behind
words like swears, names of a person, name of a place, words related to anger and sadness.

Control Measures

There is no fully verified control measure and the best way to end this disorder is to go through behavioral therapy and psychotherapy as well as take appropriate medications. But with that being said, it will take a considerable amount of time for this to lessen and go away to be functional so the one affected with IED can use the following techniques for immediate control. The only prerequisite is that the one who is affected with an IUD should be fully aware that “s/he has to control this disorder and that s/he can’t let this control his/her life”

5 Steps to Grounding

This is a method used to re-calibrate the scenes and to give the feeling of control back to you. More often than not, when a person experiences an IED episode, they lose a sense of control so doing this is a good way to gain control of the impulse.

The first and foremost thing that you have to do is control your breathing as soon as you feel the destructive need and once that is done

5: Acknowledge FIVE things you see around you.
4: Acknowledge FOUR things you can touch around you.
3: Acknowledge THREE things you hear.
2: Acknowledge TWO things you can smell.
1: Acknowledge ONE thing you can taste.

Clenching and Releasing

This is a technique that focuses on stress relief rather than control. The method is rather simple. When the impulse forms, you just have to clench your fist as hard as you can. It will start to be uncomfortable within a few seconds and soon the muscles will cramp a bit. When that happens release the clench and by that time the impulse should have calmed down enough for you to think logically.

The logic behind this is that when you clench the fist as soon as the impulse starts, you are intercepting the impulse with a conscious decision to clinch the fist. This can also be used in the long term in the form of behavioral conditioning and there has been some success in containing IED through this method.