McMissle and anger Management

'McMissile' Mom Faced Prison Time. This is the most recent road rage incident to hit national news. The case involves road rage the Washington, DC metro area where a woman threw her ice filled cup into the car of another driver who cut her off on a busy interstate. A quick assessment of this situation suggests the potential to create a major accident. A judge imposed a sentence of five years probation for this act. As an anger management facilitator, I wondered about the effectiveness of this sentence.

George Anderson’s model of anger management compelled me to dig deeper. His model purports that four issues can lead to inappropriate anger: Poor communication skills, poor emotional intelligence, poor stress management and poor anger management skills. He also suggests that inappropriate anger is only a symptom of dysfunction in these four areas. Examination of this woman’s situation reveals that she is a single mom of three with a husband in Iraq. Reports also suggest she had other life stressors. Although not an excuse stress appears to have played a role in this woman’s road rage.

Will five years probation resolve stress management issues? Maybe not. Anger is a ticking time boob that has over and over had deadly consequences. The conclusion of this situation speaks to the lack of understanding of the long term consequences of inappropriate anger and the most effective treatments. It has been well established that psychoeducational interventions are effective in managing anger. Therefore it remains important that those who are trained in anger management techniques speak out about what works. High profile anger management providers like George Anderson have been active in the fight to treat anger according to research based techniques. We however need more action on a national level to educate judges, lawyers, schools and workplace administrators and families about the dangerous consequences of anger. So many negative consequences, including death, can be prevented if society targeted the treatment of inappropriate anger in the most effective methods. It does not take billions in pharmaceutical research to accomplish this. We have the tools TODAY which can mitigate emerging problems with anger.

I encourage any reader who has anger management concerns to contact a trained anger management facilitator. Anderson and Anderson has facilitators nationwide who are trained to deal with anger in the workplace, in court, in school, on the road and at home so please visit www.anger-management-resourses.org and let the facilitator know how we can help.

Carlos Todd
www.angerhurts.com