Anger: Where it comes from, how to control it

Anger is a natural and normal reaction to life’s unavoidable irritations, but uncontrolled, it can escalate and end up damaging one’s health and relationships.

“Generally (anger) is unhealthy coping,” said Jill Calderon, a doctoral student in counseling psychology at the University of North Dakota.

And how we handle our anger is something we learned as children, she said.

“Usually, what we see in people who (express) anger when stressed or upset is that they have grown up in a home where that was modeled.

“If you grew up with abuse, where anger was the predominant emotion in the home, you’ve learned that that’s how you deal with stressors that come up: by getting angry.