Anger outbursts due to a traumatic experience

Anger outbursts due to trauma

In all kinds of situations people have to deal with certain emotions. There are four basic emotions here: anger, sadness, fear and joy. No matter what kind of emotion you show, an emotion can come unexpectedly. This depends on the event, but it is also possible that a certain emotion is erupted by repression. You have suppressed the emotion for a long time and a situation triggers you to let go of the suppression. So during an emotional outburst, you can just burst into anger. Not nice for yourself, but certainly not for your surroundings.

What are outbursts of anger?

Everyone gets angry sometimes. This has everything to do with certain situations. Getting angry or raging are quite different emotions. Getting angry can be seen as a reasonably normal emotion. Anger, on the other hand, does not arise for most people in a normal situation. There must be something really terrible going on for you to burst out in anger. People can also become angry, but have never been angry before. An anger outburst is often an explosion of anger at an often unexpected moment. Often something has preceded it and when the proverbial drop falls that makes the bucket overflow, all the anger comes out and you become angry.

What are the symptoms of an anger outburst?

Getting angry is still somewhat civilised, but an anger outburst can mean anything. It is the short fuse that explodes. Often there is loud shouting, so loud that it frightens bystanders. It is not uncommon for objects to be smashed and, in severe cases, you may even hurt someone in an anger outburst. Many people who experience anger management are out of control and do not understand reality. This can be dangerous because they are not aware of what they are doing. It is therefore wise to seek help if you experience such outbursts of anger frequently.

An anger outburst due to an unresolved trauma

An underlying cause for frequent outbursts of anger is an unresolved trauma. If this is the case, you have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is accompanied by all kinds of symptoms, including becoming angry quickly and bursting into rage. With PTSD you constantly try to avoid all stimuli that could evoke the thought of the traumatic event. If this does not work and you keep seeing the images of the trauma on your mind, you become frustrated and an anger outburst can quickly follow. Anger can also arise because you are totally exhausted by your PTSD. You live under constant stress and tension and this can build up to an anger outburst.

Help with anger management

There are all kinds of training and courses that can help you control an anger outburst. But whether such training helps depends on your own attitude and the cause behind it. If the cause is clearly an unresolved trauma, it is better to focus on this than on the anger you sometimes experience. When you have dealt with the trauma, the chances are that you will not have anger attacks again. An effective method for trauma treatment is EMDR. What the effect of EMDR in the brain is, is still food for thought for scientists. Though science does confirm that EMDR helps.

How does EMDR work?

The philosophy behind EMDR is distraction from the thought of the traumatic event. During the session with the therapist, you have to recall the event. This may not be pleasant, but it is necessary for recovery. During the reliving you have to follow a hand movement of the therapist. Sound signals for distraction are also possible. Suddenly your thoughts are no longer with the trauma, but somewhere else. After several repetitions and sessions, you will notice that the trauma can be parked more easily and with less emotion. When the trauma has been dealt with, the PTSD, including the anger attacks, will also be a thing of the past.

Psylaris makes EMDR more accessible

Psylaris develops products, which make mental health treatments more accessible for clients and easier for practitioners. Think of the developments of Psylaris with EMDR-plus. This is EMDR via virtual reality. With a pair of VR glasses on, the client enters a completely virtual world. Here, the practitioner can start distraction tasks at the right moment, so that distraction definitely has an effect. With VR glasses at home, the client can also be treated here and thus more frequently.

Another form of remote EMDR is the platform developed by Psylaris, EMDR-remote. This allows client and therapist to video call each other for an EMDR session. This is a useful addition for clients who do not easily leave their homes. They can still receive treatment for their trauma in their own safe environment. The practitioner can start various types of distraction tasks via the platform.

EMDR therapy with modern methods

As a developer of modern methods and tools in mental healthcare, Psylaris has also made EMDR easy with modern techniques. Virtual reality, for example, plays an increasingly important role in the mental healthcare sector. With EMDR-VR and EMDR-plus, Psylaris has developed a VR-module. The module can easily be used by the practitioner and has many distraction possibilities. The client gets a more intense distraction than during a regular treatment. The VR glasses can be used both at home and in the treatment room. This makes both the practitioner and the client more flexible.

If the client is unable to come to the treatment centre, Psylaris uses EMDR-remote to make it possible to receive EMDR treatment at home. EMDR-remote is the online EMDR platform of Psylaris, where the practitioner and the client can conduct an EMDR session via video calling. Again, the practitioner has many possibilities to distract and the client, who is chained to the house, is still being treated.

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