I've posted a new article that talks about Two Ways Your Brain Tricks You into Anger Management Problems. in the Anger Management Special Reports section. See if they sound familiar to you.

I saw that the catcher for the Detroit Tigers, Gerald Laird, recently completed anger management classes. This is not so much another athlete needs anger management story as much as it is on the impact of alcohol on anger management.

It seems that Laird and his family went to a pro basketball game drunk and his grandfather apparently tried to hit on the wife of one of the basketball players and somehow or another the whole thing ended with Laird sucker punching a security guard. Interesting story, but big picture why is it that alcohol and anger management problems often seem to go hand in hand?

Believe it or not, alcohol has the same effect on the impulse control part of your brain that anger does. As you get progressively more angry the part of your brain that controls emotions releases neurochemicals that in essence prevent the thinking part of your brain that thinks things through and controls impulses from functioning. The more angry you get the less able that part of your brain is to function. This is why things ofentimes look so different after you've slept on it - your brain has literally had a chance to reset and the reasoning part of your brain is back on line.

Alcohol does the same thing. It literally shuts down the thinking part of your brain preventing you from seeing all the options in front of you. Add a misunderstanding to alcohol and you've exponentially increased the chances of you lashing out in anger.

When asked why certain things trigger anger management problems and others don't most people will say something like "I dunno, its just always made me angry" or "Anyone would get angry about that". But the reality is that we all have different anger management triggers. What gets me mad may roll off you like water and vice versa.

So why is that? Why do we all have different triggers? I've put an article in the library, "How We Develop Anger Management Triggers" that answers this question.

A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry indicates that online anger management classes are effective as those taken in person. The study used war veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder who also had problems with anger and consisted of 12 live video conference classes. At the end of the study it was found that the people who took the anger management classes through video showed the same decrease in anger problems as the people who took the class in person. The leader of the study, Dr. Leslie Moran, commented that "group psychotherapy video teleconferencing not only is feasible but also produces outcomes that are as good as in-person treatment."

The results of this study are consistent with my experience in that people who take individual online video course (such as the anger management classesoffered on this site) show the same amount of improvement as those who take the class in person.

You could probably come up with a list of signs that you have an anger management problem a mile long. Here are my top ten signs:

1. Do people describe you as two different people - a "Dr. Jeckyl" when calm and a "Mr Hyde when angered?

Would others describe you as "prickly" or "too sensitive"?

2. Have you ever become so angry at someone in traffic that you cut them off, tailgated or rolled down your window to yell at them or made an obscene gesture?

3. Have you ever surprised yourself by how angry you got or what you did while angry?

4. Have you ever broken an object (glass, table, chair, ashtray, punched a wall. during an argument?

5. Have you ever slapped, hit or laid hands on other person when angry?

6. I get angry when I feel criticized.

7. People would describe me as sarcastic

8. I've said things when angry that I later regretted.

9. Most of my problems have to do with the way other people act.

10. I think other people are too sensitive.

Here is my comprehensive list of the Top 23 Signs that You May Have an Anger Management Problem

I think I may have discovered an alternative for anger management classes. As I type we are in the midst of our second major blizzard in 5 days in the Washington DC area in the last 5 days, with the final total between the two storms to be somewhere in the 35 to 40" range. I know this might not seem like a lot of snow for many of you, but we are just not equipped here for weather like this. The city was just starting to return to normal after the first storm and now D.C. is completely shut down again.

So, what does this have to do with anger management classes? I just saw an interview with the D.C. Chief of Police and she said that crime has been virtually non-existent the last week and that there have been no murders. I can understand the low crime rate, but I am a bit surprised at there being no murders because many of them are committed by family members and if there is anything that causes tension to rise in families its being cooped up in the house together for a week or so.

So, maybe the more snow we get the less we need anger management classes.

I hope its warm and sunny wherever you might be.

The actual answer is probably infinite. One of the hardest parts about being a therapist is seeing how anger control problems ruins peoples marriages and lives in general.

Scientific research has actually demonstrated many ways that anger control problems kills marriages. Here's a quick list for you.

1) Belligerent Anger Control Responses
2) Contradictory Responses
3) Domineering Responses
4) Critical Anger Control Responses
5) Defensive Responses

Get the full scoop in detail in my special white page report "Five Ways Anger Control Problems Destroy Marriages"

Frankly, anger management classes might not be a bad idea for many politicians. But this is the first time I'm aware of one actually being ordered into anger management classes.

Washington State Senator Pam Roach was banned from caucus by the Republican Party (you know its bad when your own party suspends you!) with a very strong "suggestion" that she seek anger management classes. This is the second time she was suspended (the first time was in 2003) for verbal assaults on her staff. She has been reprimanded five times for her anger management problems over the last several years.

Roach denies the allegations, stating that "This is a leadership that wants to persecute me". That might set off some bells for you if you've read my free white paper report on "Denial and Anger Management"