Let’s be honest, the prospect of returning to work after Christmas is unlikely to fill you with anything other than dread. In fact, when you team wet and windy weather conditions with heightened workload, increased demand for performance and practically no job security – it is no surprise that January is identified as the most stressful time of the year.

Recent statistics produced by the British Association of Anger Management (BAAM) have found that the extra stresses of the season are having particuarly detrimental effects on the UK’s female workforce.

The survey concluded that stress in women has increased dramatically with 80% of women feeling unsupported, over-worked and insecure in their positions. Worringly, these increased stress levels have resulted in feelings of depression in 60% of cases and anger issues in 43%.

These peturbing statistics raise the question – is the workplace ill-equipped to deal with the needs of women and is this lack of empathy for the female workforce creating the increased stress which leads to depression and anger?

Mike Fisher, BAAM’s Founder, highlights the dramatic...

PRESS RELEASE

Anger is considered by many to be the scourge of the 21st Century – with over-stressed, time-hungry lives and increasing expectations leading the average person to fly into a rage four times a day.

But one anger management expert is not only helping to call time on fiery tempers, he’s also offering crucial help to the victims of anger, thanks to a series of innovative workshops being launched across the country.

The British Association of Anger Management (BAAM) and their nationwide Beating Anger Clinics have just launched the End of the Line – Enough is Enough courses in several cities including Newcastle, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, London and Brighton.

The one day courses help men and women who are living with angry abusers learn coping strategies and a greater understanding of the situation they are dealing with.

They are aimed at real people like Alison *, who lived 18 years with a verbally and emotionally abusive husband before finally having the strength to leave the volatile relationship after he turned his aggression on their teenage daughter.

As Alison...

This subject was brought to mind when an article on anger in sports was run on BBC TV last Saturday (25^th August). Essentially England’s Rugby team coach was saying anger in sport is not good. The journalists were asking whether a certain amount of anger and aggression is necessary in sport.

What they were really saying was “does removing my anger take away the secret of my success?” This is a question that hangs in the mind of a lot of my clients.

Lets deal with sport first. There are sports where controlled aggression is important. Sports such as Boxing and Rugby spring to mind. Even when I watch Tennis I see aggression on the court as Andy Murray clenches his fist when he wins a crucial point. That, however, is all part of the sport psychology and is well controlled. Even when John McEnroe was famously losing his temper it was all part of the way he controlled the game and his opposing players timing.

Before I go any further lets remember that a crucial part of anger is Stress and the physical components of stress are adrenaline and cortisone. The combination of these two hormones, which are produced as part of the body...

I am often asked this question. What the questioner often really means is, are men more angry than women?

I’ll tell you what I know to start with. Our courses are made up of about 40% women. I also know that in terms of the root causes of a person’s anger they can affect men and women alike.

So why are there proportionately less women on our courses?

My informed opinion is that it is a mainly social or societal factors that cause this. Despite the emancipation of women caused by the likes of Emily Pankhurst and the revolution in women’s rights led by those including Germaine Greer true equality does not exist. Women will find it difficult to justify payment and time away from their family for course like ours when compared to their male counterparts. Also, despite theoretical equality is in play, it is viewed differently for a woman to explode with anger as opposed to a man. In reality, simply in terms of whether they are able to express themselves as freely...