Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ANGER IS EVERYWHERE.
The year just gone had some notable lightning rods for public ire – notably, the presidency of Donald Trump in the US but also the expressions of anger emanating from his Twitter-happy finger.
On this side of the Atlantic, it was hard not to be bad-tempered at every twist of the Brexit knife or at the continued inequality in an Irish society supposedly in recovery.
Race supremacists, gender-based violence, terrorist attacks, political instability – the world seemed to be seething in all quarters.
When Pepsi released its short-lived ad showing Kendall Jenner apparently disarming a tense police squad with a can of the fizzy drink, it caused serious offence. Even more, there was a sense of disbelief at its naivety.
Add to this the ever-expanding opportunities to be exposed to news and opinions which rile – through the power of social media networks and other digital incursions – and it’s a recipe for what Time magazine branded the Rage Flu. It’s contagious and, as with all stress-based emotions if experienced at a consistent rate and on a deep-enough level, can make you ill.
Can anger be constructive?
An international study published this summer concluded that anger is not always an unwanted emotion. Experiencing anger at what one perceives as an injustice, for example, is key to a child’s development. Lead researcher Dr Maya Tamir said that if you feel anger when you feel it appropriate, then it is as useful an emotion to you as feeling pleasure or grief.
She said: “Someone who feels no anger when reading about child abuse might think they should be angrier about the plight of abused children, so want to feel more anger than they actually do in that moment.” It doesn’t matter that the emotion you want to express is negative, the fact that you want to express it is good for you.
The expression of anger over an injustice has been a parallel trend this year – and one that could be seen as of major societal benefit. Think about the focused outpouring of stories of sexual harassment or mistreatment that was sparked by the rage-inducing revelations about sexual predator Harvey Weinstein. While not every story shared resulted in an investigation, the #MeToo movement on social media gave expression to previously silent voices.
Expressing ire over an unsatisfactory situation is part of the changemaker’s toolkit. Ruth O’Reilly and others from the women’s Ireland rugby team forced the IRFU to take notice of the disparity in resources and attention given to the squad (although the situation is still somewhat in limbo). The growing clamour from Irish society that the rate of homelessness and dearth of affordable housing in the country forced the issue onto the political agenda.
There can be some benefit too to recognising fears and anxieties that might otherwise be expressed in anger (or repressed). First Fortnight, a now annual event in Dublin has this idea at its core – the expression of mental health experiences and issues through art and creativity. It begins this week and also has events in some other locations nationwide (check the programme here).
Dealing with anger in everyday life
This week on TheJournal.ie, we will be sharing insights, experiences and tips on how to manage both the anger coming at you, and the anger you may feel in 2018.
Tomorrow, we will be speaking to one of the foremost neuroscientists specialising in this area and finding out how mindfulness can be more than a buzzword.
We will also be asking YOU, TheJournal.ie community to share your experiences with anger and how you deal with it in aspects of your life.
For now, we leave you with this thought:
Did you feel there was more anger about in 2017 than in 2016?
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Seriously! If some psychologists cannot spot it how do the expect teachers to spot it. Where do they get the time? Maybe it’ll be like the voice training they get in the dip, 1 lesson is highly effective.
How about restoring guidance and counselling hours???
A counsellor only gets to see you for a few minutes during an occasional appointment . The teacher who has six hours a day with the child will be able to document behavioural changes and how they interact with others, and can be of assistance to counsellors other professionals in determining the child’s needs.
It’ll be easy to spot in a 35 min class.
Such a training program should be available to all free of charge. It seems that the teachers will again be burdened with it. Ah! Sure the teachers can solve all society’s ills!!! Very important though for the opinionated to kick their asses when the teachers raise valid concerns at their Easter Conferences.
There seems to be a hypocritical attitude when it comes to laying the burdens of society on our teachers while at the same time denying them a decent wage and leaving our young teachers with years of uncertainty by having them hop from one little contract to another. An effective teacher is of value to a community if the job is permanent. That way accumulated knowledge will enable the teacher to be effective beyond the narrow confines of curriculum. The backhanded compliment that the teacher should solve all ills simply illustrates the critical importance of the teacher’s commitment to society because the school environment gives certainty in a very uncertain phase of a child’s life. Very often the whole area benefits because of the teachers’ value to the society beyond the narrow confines of the classroom. Parents will invariably place more trust long term in the teacher where their children are concerned because they will be treated honestly. The teacher unions advocate yes for better pay but also yes for better benefits for their pupils. They give a service to the state which goes beyond that of the ordinary worker who only seeks personal benefit. Value our teachers.
Why can’t parents do a course surely they have a better chance of spotting these signs than teachers in a class of many student . It’s a terrible responsibility to put on teachers after a few hours training
Very welcome idea,one suicide is one to many
If one is one too many, the true figure 550 per annum is a grim figure indeed.
It’s so important that every teacher is trained that it’s only going to cost you
50 Euro to do a half day course .
If Console were really serious about this idea for teachers why not train them all nationwide for FREE.
Why doesn’t the govt pay
This is wrong on so many levels. It seems like just another “schools should…” initiative but the topic here is far more serious than most such calls.
It misunderstands the role of teachers in society and in the lives of children. It’s not actually like “Waterloo Road” or “Home and Away” where Sir or Miss is always available and spends as much time worrying about their charges’ emotions and home-lives as they do teaching them.
To say that a half-day course enables anyone “to respond effectively” to mental distress serious enough to lead to suicide is ludicrous. It is not callous to say this is not teachers’ jobs; we would be doing children a disservice with amateur intervention instead of referral to fully-trained professionals.
The analogy to CPR is unwarranted. CPR takes place in response to a catastrophic event, in a situation where even a few minutes delay can mean the difference between life and death.
There is also a danger of a pattern emerging where enthusiastic graduates of this course intervene with students on the basis that doing makes the teacher a life-saving hero. The question will soon be “Do I have to say I’m suicidal to get help around here?” Students need teachers to be a calm, approachable presence in their lives and part of being a professional is knowing where your job ends and some-one else’s begins.
Great idea. We need a real focus on suicide prevention in this country.
So a half day course will make teachers experts in spotting a potential suicide? Either do it right or not at all.
No doubt this training will happen while the teachers should be actually teaching rather than doing it during their 3 months holidays.
From your own extensive knowledge on the matter, what other training occurs when teachers should actually be teaching? Enlighten us please
Do you do your training in your own time? It will be part of teacher training and part of CPD as part of Haddington Rd. Hours. 43 hours extra I do a year UNPAID!!! Do you work 43 hours unpaid? Fair play to you.
I take it then that you would happily give up your holidays to do a similar training course. Or maybe you would have the children get four weeks holiday in the year which would mean you cannot bring your child on holiday because of the need for your child to be in school. Which might have the side effect of decimating the tourist industry and any other industry which depends on creating for children out of school!!!! The fact is teachers do not decide how much holidays the children receive. That is done by the Dept. of Education and Science following consultation and agreement between it, the Unions and the parents. During the “great snow closures” parents clamoured for the restoration of the lost days. The “solution” was that three days be in some way held back in case of snow. This meant that parents could not book a holiday for the midterm week in February because if it snowed in January they would lose the three days in February. If they had taken the chance to book a holiday would they then cancel in the interest of not losing three days of their child’s education? Also many teachers give up the first week of their summer vacation to attend a plethora of courses for which they can take some personal leave days at the discretion of their Board of Management. Would you do likewise with your holiday? Maybe if you really envy and begrudge the conditions of service of a teacher you should have become one any tried to change the system from within instead of sniping.
We all experience periods of stress, sadness, and self-doubt. ‘These don’t make us mentally ill, they define us as human.’ ~ Dr Howard Forman
We all have a biochemistry but it requires daily work to keep our physical / mental health in good shape. Starting with a good nights sleep and good nutrition. Lots of other things that can help and that can be worked on in schools ~ Yoga, meditation, mindfulness, exercise, emotional resilience, how to deal with bullying, building self-esteem etc Talk therapy can help. Also being with nature. And getting enough daylight and sunshine (when possible).
I went to a lecture by 86 yr old Prof Ivor Browne last week. The lecture theatre was packed. Such an interesting presentation. If only the mental ‘health’ system could see our emotional well being on a more holistic level. The mind and body are very much interconnected. Instead of the predominant biomedical / drugging approach.
The “Refer” part. Is what I would worry about in QPR. I hope that doesn’t mean where the GP puts a teenager on mind altering psychoactive drugs ie “anti-depressants” instead helps in developing their long term needs. Emotional well being is something that needs a life long approach and not some “quick fix” drug that can have severe adverse effects. Something I learned from experience.
Young people in particular should not be on these mind altering drugs, due to the suicide risk. Hence these psychoactive drugs carry a black box warning in the US ~
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/InformationbyDrugClass/UCM096273
{ Do not stop or change prescribed psychoactive drugs without talking to a good doctor, due to the dangers of withdrawal }
PS Any change that TheJournal could change the stereotypical picture ? Looks like someone who got too much drugs and is hiding in the corner of a mental institution ! That is not really how emotional distress looks like or feels like for most and there are some people who are trying to change the whole “head clutching” culture. Or in this case “shin clutching”.
TED Talk ~ The role of nutrition in mental health by Julia Rucklidge ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dqXHHCc5lA
WRAP App demo ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BK_jLMToeM (Wellness Recovery Action Plan)
About time, this country is MILES behind in relation to spotting mental health issues
Michael ,what is this “holiday” thing of which u speak ,must only b available to the few. Have had such bad experience with “teachers” through my own school years and my children’s school years ,that I think it would b wiser to send teachers on courses to prevent people from becoming suicidal ,by learning to communicate in an agreeable manner , Its so easy for a teacher to wreck a child’s self confidence ,and it’s this lack of self confidence that starts the decline in a child’s mental well being .
Eilish, if a child is a brat then there will be problems with the teacher. There’s your issue I’m sure. A little bit of parenting goes a long way.
Speaking as someone who tried to end my life, the period when I was planning my death I became very calm and content because I knew that the end was coming for the intolerable emotional pain I was experiencing. Nobody could have forseen that I had a plan to end my life. Suicidal people are not always going around with a sad face. this training will not help teachers.
Why don’t parents just give their children to schools after birth so they don’t have to do any child care at all.Schools are for educating your children.Teachers get enough flak for not teaching properly now they must become counsellors aswell – in one day !
For anyone suffering from depression, I recommend the http://destroydepression.com/info.php system. Written by a former depression & PTSD sufferer, it teaches 7 natural steps which help to eliminate depression from your life and the success rate is very high.
This thread appears to have gone viral among teachers… They are red thumbing all over the place…
Shur their on there 2 week Easter hols… With another mid term coming up before their 12 week summer hols I guess it’s only right that they do this course during term time… Bless their over worked souls.
have your say