It’s natural to get angry! Anger is a normal emotion when you get really upset about something. Everyone feels it. You get angry when you’re scared and you get hurt. You get pissed off when you don’t get your own way, or when people provoke or trigger you.
You’re meant to get angry. Anger serves a purpose in your life. It helps you to speak up for yourself when you feel that something is unfair or unjust in your life. And it helps you to take action for something wrong to make it right.
You have the right to express your anger. It helps to protect you from people who are harming you or treating you badly. Anger tells others to stay away because you have had enough. There is nothing wrong with getting mad when someone has crossed your boundaries.
But some of you have a very difficult time expressing anger. It’s there, but it won’t come out. Maybe you’ve tried to use it when you were younger, but someone put you in your place. So out of fear of being punished, you learned to never express it again.
Others have no problem expressing anger. Maybe you get angry when your favorite sports team loses, or when someone forces you into something you don’t want to do. Maybe you get angry at someone for taking your stuff and not putting it back, or when someone makes fun of you. This is all normal. It happens to everyone all the time, everyday.
Some of you can get really angry and maybe even a lot. Maybe you rage. Maybe you break or throw things, punch walls, say things you regret, threaten others, start fights or get really violent. Or maybe you sometimes get angry at yourself and try to self harm. Some of you may have been in trouble with the law because of your violent outbursts.
So if anger is a natural emotion, and it’s meant to be expressed, and you have every right to express it, then why does it get such a bad rap?
