College Notes for today (September 29th)

From now on I will be sharing the inner workings of my mind whilst in college, its from these that I work out the occasional counselling related post and also use them to actually do some studying. I am not that great at making notes and tend to doodle a lot, so lets see if I can string a few sentences together.

Notes from college: Anger Management! grrrrr. Monday is when we work on the personal development side of our studies, so it s very much based on what I personally would do in a situation relating back to the theory work that we do on a Wednesday. At the moment we are focusing on the CBT style of counselling, CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

*Research anger management techniques that work for you and what you think would work for others.This means I get to search the web for relevant sites and ask my readers what works for them.

The main focus of tonight's class was what actually makes you angry, what physical/emotional responses do you have etc. Coping strategies will be discussed in next week's class and then I will post something here.

Question time: Discuss the following questions in pairs (me not thee)

1. What makes you angry?

First a lot of hmmm and haaaa, I don't really get angry at all. No I really am a chilled out person, ask anyone. Well except when I am really annoyed, but that takes a lot honest! Okay I will get back to the point. What makes me angry?Anger ranges from mild irritation to bubbling boiling red mist rage, so it depends on the situation really. Hot topics for me are racism, two-faced people, extreme anti- abortion people, religious zealots, corruption, poverty, ignorance,bigots.

2. Who makes you angry?

Parents, sisters, racists,idiots, religious zealots, extreme right folk, anti pro-choice, myself, extended family, in laws.

3. What are your physical responses?

Raised blood pressure, adrenaline rush, feeling sick (Knot in tummy, sick to the stomach).
4. What are your emotional responses?

Compulsions like: toe tapping, messing with hair, nail biting, 'smile', sigh, quiet, eyebrow raising and eyebrow scrunching, mumbling under breath, flushed. Depression, feeling frustrated most likely to cry then.Obviously not all at once

5. How do you behave when you are angry?

How I behave when I am angry is dependent on the situation and where I am. I would be more likely to something irrational like break a plate in frustration at home, than I ever would out about in public.

6. Do you think there is a difference between healthy anger and unhealthy anger? What are these?

Didn't really cover this so will have to address this next week and will probably add more to the other questions too.

Personal Journal:

First day back for me, so was excited! Also a whole other host of emotions but the over riding one was excitement. Two weeks late is never a good way to start back at college, but hopefully I haven't missed too much. I wasn't drowned in a bucket of new paper work, just reminded that I still have a lot left over from the first year (bleck).

There was a chair shuffle, always amusing to see what happens when someone sits in 'your' chair. As I was away for the first two weeks, my prime location has been taken. Which actually didn't bother me at all (maybe a wee bit), poor Mary is my new victim. Lins use to sit next to Mary but unfortunately she has decided not to carry on this year. I was rather sad to hear that, as I have enjoyed working with her (lins) a lot. Working maybe strecthing it a bit, laughing a lot is probably a more accurate description.Never fear I am more than sure we will be keeping in contact.

Met the new tutor Lee or Leigh, not sure how to spell it. She has taken over from Chrsitine who I am still gutted about leaving, but Lee/leigh seems really cool so far, very direct and looks like she wont take any of my bullshit, always a good sign.

Useful websites found so far:
1. BBC-Health Anger Management.
2. Mind - How to deal with Anger.
3. APA-Controlling Anger.
4. Mental Health Foundation- Anger and Mental Health.
5. BAAM- Anger and Wisdom.


PS: Tweet,Email and facebook responses for future use, thanks guys, twas helpful and will be used in a future post.


Book recommendation: Women who love too much As mentioned in doodle above, even though I wrote the wrong author and title down. I have not read it myself, but when/if I do I will review it on here. My counselling tutor rates it highly so if the title strikes a chord then check it out.