“Sarah,” a physician, was angry. In fact, she reported feeling angry most of the time. It finally reached a point where family members (including her husband) had had enough. She realized that the trajectory she was on would lead to profound consequences. She was especially concerned over her marriage; her husband had threatened to divorce her if she did not change.
They’d been married for over 25 years.
For many practitioners, anger stems from the cumulative effects of issues like falling behind schedule, bureaucracy, and high caseloads. Unfortunately, they don’t leave their frustrations at work. They often become increasingly intolerant of the normal fallibilities that exist in their relationships and tend to personalize inconvenient events such as car trouble or a long wait at a restaurant.
Sara sought help in the past, but she had only been given techniques in anger management.
While taking a deep breath and counting to ten can be helpful, to address her anger she needed to identify the underlying beliefs that caused it. After learning a systematic approach, she was able to reduce the frequency and intensity of her anger experiences. She is often able to eliminate it altogether.
And her marriage is back on track.