The Iceberg of Emotions

[anthony]

Anger is an action, which is made up of many other emotions. When you understand the emotions that trigger anger, you can help yourself to control those smaller emotions, which in turn controls your anger. There is no miracle cure for anger control, only your self control and understanding of the situations.

The below image "iceberg" gives some very positive examples of what makes up anger.

[Sunrise]

Saw something yesterday that I found interesting.
That someone has said that the only true emotion is love. That all the negative ones are really fear or stemming from fear. Woh! Let me think about that for a while. Can't really say for now what I think about it but I just found it interesting.

For the moment I would like to add to this old thread by saying chronic or explosive anger can so often be found to have it's root in a past traumatic incident. Exploring this and nailing it would seem to be removing a past thing that impacts on the now, so controlling it would then not be an issue. If one could exhaust these, there may not be any anger left to control (other than normal justifiable anger of course).

If anger results from PTSD as it often does, it stands to reason that traumatic incidents, that don't qualify as being part of PTSD (and we all have heaps of those), will, some of them, also contain the seeds of anger that is restimulated by present time situations or incidents. So, getting rid of all those would surely get rid of a lot of trouble making baggage. Looked at another way, imagine the time and effort trying to control your anger if it's only really troublesome source is past stuff that is triggered by stressors.
Cheers,

[anthony]

That is an interesting bend on this topic Sunrise... well done. I agree that a lot of a persons past does get triggered with the PTSD symptoms and traumas, thus adding more to the efffect of PTSD. I totally believe that incidents need to be segregated in order to get to the roots of PTSD. I guess this is why they have such a stringent methology to get diagnosed with PTSD to begin with???

[Sunrise]

Just a quick reply to that A, to say that keep in mind PTSD, though a vicious reality, is a label. I think it is safe to assume that if we are on planet Earth that we have past traumas that may or may not be negativley affecting our present lives - whether we are aware of it or not.

For our purposes, the PTSD cases can be judged to be the "worse" ones, the more obvious ones. But I know of a case who developed panic attacks at the end of a Uni course. The root of his problem was traced to a traumatic incident in his childhood wich was specifically addressed and the attacks stopped. So I mean to go after traumatic experiences and sort them out, as each one gotten rid of as affecting us now makes us more free and able to that degree. So as I get clients I will be less interested in any offical diagnoses and more interested in gently and efficiently healing each trauma I find.

[anthony]

Yer, the problem with that though, is that some trauma's just can't be healed. I have seen and done enough things to know they will always be in the back of my mind, and occassionally come out to play. The PTSD course I did dealt really well with controlling ourselves when trauma's come out to play, which does really help if one applies the principles. Sometimes with my PTSD though, everything does get quite hard, and only one with PTSD could even begin to understand what it is like. I am ok most of the time if not put near any stress, but as soon as I am stressed or pressured, then I turn to the dark side. I guess it is my past that automatically kicks in, or instinctively as a better word, to deal with things there and then, which generally aren't appropriate out of a war zone.

I think the key to PTSD is to know how to manage it when symptoms get too much for me. It is working, along with medication. Worst is an understatement honestly, as I wouldn't wish this upon even my worst enemies.

[Sunrise]

Hi Anthony,
I know what you mean when you say that some traumas can't be healed.
Has anyone on the board experienced therapy that has healed what seemed to be beyond the standard treatments?

[camry]

I wouldn't say healed ... but providing a non medicative form of control ... would be dolphins.

I was lucky enough to work with dolphins for about 10yrs. Not only did it help me, but we used to have many PTSD & suicidal victems visit within the courses of their treatment. So many of the same individuals returned on a regular basis, and always thanked us for the sense of well being they provided them.

My control factor was completely shot before working there. Which was one of the reasons why I quit the rat race to go do it. After about 6 months I could feel the difference.

I used to attend lots of conventions on the effect that the dolphins have. There are so many studies into it. I'm pretty sure that Seaworld still run programs similar.

Why dolphins can help? Who knows! There have been so many conjectures over why & how, but nothing conclusive.

But I agree with Anthony, it cant be healed. Memories fade, but unless you have dementia or altzeimers, you dont forget. And even if your memory disappears, you have a lifetime of behaviours that have been fashioned on them.

I believe the best we can hope for is being able to control it, and find a way to live with it.

[anthony]

I have wanted to add this for some time now, and finally had some time to quickly draw this up to present. The following image outlines a little further than the basic iceberg, showing how we have our emotional responses, yet between our emotions is a cause to neglect our true emotions. This list is an example, by no means definitive. You could spend days coming up with reasons and emotions that block us all uniquely, though you must adapt this to yourself.

If you do these things, you can find your method to help yourself overcome your anger. If you don't understand your anger, then how can you fix it? You can't, hence why I am outlining this a little further.

Three main components to self analysis:

Your current emotional response
What is blocking your true emotions
Your actual true emotions feltNow #3 your not going to know likely just yet, though the idea is to work from the top down, thus you will understand why you are failing to show, feel or talk about your true emotions.

Emotional Responses

These are typically anger, rage, frustration, violence, etc. If you "respond" then it is an emotional response. You do not respond if you feel guilty. Guilt would be the emotion, anger or avoidance could be the emotional response.

The Gap or Void Between Emotion - Emotional Response

This is typically social pressures, fear of being portrayed as weak if you cry, what others may think off you, male pride, prejudice, and the list goes on.

Emotions

See the list: http://www.ptsdforum.org/thread700.html

http://www.ptsdforum.org/images/iceberg-modified.gif

To fix something you must first understand it. If you fail to understand the problem, then how the hell could one fix it? I hope this for all concerned to understand their problem uniquely.