CGH’s Division of Psychological Medicine held a series of mental health talks, workshops and a public forum to celebrate World Mental Health Day on 10 October 2005.

Relaxation technique workshops in Mandarin and English were held for staff on 10 Oct and 17 Oct. Talks on managing insomnia, stress in children and dealing with anger at the workplace were also held for staff on 11, 18 and 21 Oct 2005.

Besides our staff, a public forum on anger management, “When Anger Can Kill”, was also held on 8 Oct 2005, Saturday. The talks were very well received with nearly 400 participants attending the forum.

Ms Tan Li Jen, Senior Clinical Psychiatrist, shared with the audience that anger is a normal human response. If expressed appropriately, anger can motivate us to make changes, take corrective action or to right a wrong. However, uncontrolled anger that happens too often or lasts too long is destructive.

According to Dr Tay Woo Kheng, Head and Senior Consultant Psychiatrist, recent research suggests that there is a direct correlation between anger and an increased risk of coronary heart disease. People with high hostility and anger scores (quick tempered with frequent rages and urge to hit people) had higher risk of developing high cholesterol and heart attack.

To have better control over one’s anger, Mr Choo emphasised the importance of adopting a “3-A” management approach: Awareness, Acknowledgement and Actions. Having an awareness of your anger symptoms (e.g. muscle tension, faster breathing and heartbeat) and triggers (e.g. hunger, when feeling tired after your night shift, deadlines) is the first essential step because you can then decide to take steps to prevent a situation from escalating into an uncontrolled anger episode.

With an increased awareness, it is then logical to ask yourself if anger is a problem for you and if so (i.e. acknowledgement), are you willing to being proactive in dealing with it? If your answers are both affirmative, you can then take one or more actions or strategies to tackle your anger problem head-on. These are known as the “ABC” (Affective-Behavioural-Cognitive) strategies.

The Affective (or emotional) strategies include exploring creative or spiritual avenues (e.g. music, drawing, meditation, praying), being appreciative and grateful for what you have, and seeking emotional support from other people. The Behavioural strategies include the “Time-Out” procedure (i.e. remove yourself from the potentially explosive situation and then return later to talk about the issue, if appropriate), slow breathing, the time-tested 10- count method, or other distraction methods. Cognitive strategies include using calming self-talk (e.g. When waiting in a long queue to make payment, instead of saying in your mind: “I can’t stand this delay. This cashier is so incompetent! “, try making
yourself less agitated by saying: “I don't like this situation. It is frustrating but it’s not the end of the world. I can see that the cashier is trying her best.”)

If you tried the above strategies and your anger continues to be frequent, chronic and destructive (i.e. causing verbal or physical harm to yourself and other people), there is a strong possibility that “deeper” issues may be involved (e.g. serious marital problems, abusive family background, unhealthy work environment). In this case, consider seeking help from mental health professionals to deal with these issues.

For appointments to see the psychiatrists or psychologists about anger management, please call CGH Appointment Centre at Tel: 6850 3333.