Anger Management Is A Treatment For Mental Illness

Anger is not an illness according to the American Psychiatric Association. Rather, anger is considered to be a normal human emotion that is problematic when it is too intense, occurs too frequently, lasts too long, impacts health, destroys work, school or personal relationships or causes personal or property directed aggression. In contrast to the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association has fought unsuccessfully to include anger as an illness or Pathological disorder with a category in the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of Nervous and Mental Disorders. Since the new DSM-5 will be in effect for the next 15 years, there is no chance that anger will be officially listed as an illness any time soon. Currently, anger management is not a licensed intervention anywhere in the United States. Therefore, there are few guidelines or protections for the public nor professionals who provide anger management counseling, coaching or psychotherapy. In the absence of regulatory legislation for anger management, the California State Superior Court has established informal guidelines for providers of anger management classes in California. These guidelines require that all Anger Management Providers who wish to offer services for Court Mandated clients must have 40 hours of anger management training as well as a written curriculum with client workbooks along with a Pre and Post Tests. In many judicial districts throughout the United States, anger management is a dumping ground for persons exhibiting unacceptable behavior for which there is no precedence for sentencing guidelines for the judges presiding. Last week, Anderson & Anderson, APC received a referral of a client who was mandated to complete and anger management class as a result of smashing an office machine at his workplace. The Emotional Intelligence Pre Assessment suggested that this client’s scores were in the deficit range for reality testing, optimism, self-regard, empathy, self-awareness, social awareness and relationship management. These scores coupled with the clients bizarre behavior indicated a need for a formal Psychosocial Assessment. This evaluation revealed that this client was actually unable to benefit for anger management coaching based on “psychiatric impairment”. In summary, Anger Management is an intervention designed to teach skill enhancement in self-awareness, self-control, social awareness and relationship management. These skills can be successfully taught to motivated clients.

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