Known for her diva-style tantrums, super-model Naomi Campbell has revealed she is finally dealing with her anger problems after battling with a 5 year cocaine addiction.

In 2000 she was arrested for striking her assistant with a mobile phone and forced to do community service. In 2008 she attacked a police officer at Heathrow airport over a lost bag. The award-winning fashion icon was banned from travelling with British Airways and given a second round of community service for her outburst.

The super-model has said that her volatile temper could have something to do with being abandoned by her father before she was born.

Campbell describes how, before overcoming her drug addiction in 1999, she lost many friends, had no motivation to work and felt emotionally and physically drained. Eventually she knew she had to face herself and deal with the consequences of her actions.

The model says that she has no regrets about what she did and believes she is finally moving on from the “baggage” of the past.

“It’s work in progress. I’ve apologised, accepted responsibility, I did my community service,” she told interviewers.

Campbell has since developed a close relationship with Nelson Mandella, describing him as a huge inspiration and a person to go to when she needs help.

There are a number of different counselling techniques used to help manage anger. Counsellers can help to explore underlying issues from the past in order to deal with intense emotions and uncontrolled outbursts. If you have a problem managing your anger, you may wish to consult a counsellor. Please visit our homepage to find a qualified counsellor working near you. If you would like more information about how counselling could help with anger management, please feel free to visit our page about anger management. 

View the original London Evening Standard article here.

According to the British Association of Anger Management which operates clinics throughout the UK, there has been a huge number of bookings in recent months with website hits also increasing.

“This could mean more people are seeking help, but we know that domestic violence is increasing: eight women on average are killed a month. Workplace stress is also rising, and where there’s stress, there’s anger,” commented director of BAAM, Mike Fisher.

BAAM have seen a particularly large increase in the number of individuals calling who are in relationships with rageaholics – an individual who is addicted to adrenaline release of intense anger. Research has estimated that an alcoholics behaviour effects an average of around 17 other people, including friends, family and colleagues with rageaholics now having similar repercussions.

Eighty per cent of people who call BAAM are in relationships with rageaholics and the majority of them are looking for advice on how to convince their partner that they have an issue which requires professional help.

Further to this, a BAAM study recently revealed that of the 715 participants, 84 per cent had been subject to verbal and emotional abuse in the last two years and 36 per cent more women had been abused than men.

It would seem that anger is an issue which has played on most of our minds at some point, with a 2009 survey from the Mental Health Foundation finding that 28 per cent of adults felt concerned about how angry they felt at times and 32 per cent had a friend or relative they considered to have ‘problems dealing with anger’.

Unfortunately today’s system of dealing with anger issues has more than a few loop holes, with GPs often turning patients asking for help away until they have actually committed a crime.

In a bid to improve mental well-being the government has recently announced that it will be pumping £400m into improving modern psychological therapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy. If you would like more information on counselling for anger management and how it may be able to help you then please visit our fact-sheet.

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The effect of violent imagery has long since been the centre of a heated debate so scientists have now begun various studies looking into how our brains react on a physical level when processing emotional responses

The study, published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience involved showing 22 boys aged between 14 and 17, 60 violent scenes from videos involving street brawling and fist fights.

After the participants had viewed all of the clips their response was then measured used a variety of techniques. The boys were first asked to rate whether they thought each clip was more or less aggressive than the one which preceded it and were brain scanned using magnetic resonance imaging, which records which areas of the brain are active in real time.

In addition to this the participants were also hooked up to an electrode monitor which detected increasing sweat which is a known sign of emotional response.

The results showed that the longer the boys spent watching the videos, in particular those featuring mild to moderate violence, the less they responded to the aggression within them.

The magnetic resonance imaging showed that a specific area of the brain known as the orbitofrontal cortex which is thought to be involved with emotional response, showed a reduced amount of activity to each clip as time went on.

Dr Jordan Grafman believes that frequent exposure to violent videos over a prolonged period of time will eventually result in adolescents feeling fewer emotions over time and could actually produce more violent reactions from teenagers.

“The implications of this include the idea that continued exposure to violent videos will make an adolescent less sensitive to violence, more accepting of violence, and more likely to commit aggressive acts since the emotional component associated with aggression is reduced and normally acts as a brake on aggressive behaviour.” He said.

However other experts have argued that the reason behind violence were too complex to be explained by this kind of laboratory research and have suggested that violence is a social problem with multiple contributing factors as opposed to being a matter of how the brain functions.

A new study has found that over a third of people caring for relatives with dementia have reported experiencing abuse such as being shouted at insulted, sworn at, screamed at and some had even been hit or slapped.

U.S research looking into dementia has found that approximately a quarter of sufferers exhibited aggressive and agitated behaviour and U.K research has found 1 in 5 patients to be aggressive.

The most recent study involved interviewing 220 individuals who spent at least four hours a week caring for a family member with dementia. In the interviews experts would ask questions about types of behaviour and questions about relationship satisfaction between themselves and the person they were caring for were also asked.

Those who experienced the most abuse were unsurprisingly the least happy in their relationship and were the most likely to report deterioration since the onset of dementia.

If you are taking care of someone with dementia and you are finding it difficult to cope with aggressive and upsetting behaviour then it is important to remember that it is not a reflection on you. Talk to your doctor and find out what help is available for you. A few of the options available could include some help around the home, respite care or changes in the treatment for the person you’re caring for. Talking to another carer may also provide you with some helpful insight as would talking to a counsellor. Have a look on the Alzheimer’s Society website (www.alzheimers.org.uk) which has a fantastic section offering tips for carers.

Read the original article here.

Anger is a natural response if we feel there may be a threat, humans in danger are found to have an increase in heart rate and blood pressure and often become hyper vigilant, responding to an immediate threat without really being aware we have responded at all.

If you ever feel like your anger is so overwhelming that you may do something you later regret then it is important that your recognise this feeling and diffuse it so you can assess the situation logically before choosing the best course of action.

A good tip is to breathe through your nose steadily, hold that breath to the count of five and then exhale through your mouth steadily ten times. After you have done this really think about whether what has made you angry is really that important and if it is, what is the most effective reaction, physical, verbal or walking away?

Secondly try to think about the consequences your reaction could have in a few days time and not just in that moment. In today’s society physical violence does not have the standing it once did when strength indicated power.

Learn to brush aside petty insults and reserve your energy for things that really matter. If you are unable to do this and you feel your anger has become so overwhelming it is effecting all areas of your life then it may be time to consider anger management. If you would like to contact a counsellor specialising in anger management in your area you can do so using the homepage of this site.

Last month 9%, which was the highest amount of searches, were conducted on bereavement. This month has seen quite a change with less people searching for bereavement and more people seeking help for relationship issues. The top five keyword searches are as follows:

Relationship issues 5%
Bereavement 4.8%
Anger Management 4.6%
Couples Counselling 4.6%
Depression 4.1%

One particular way we do this is by taking a look at our keyword searches. By looking at the most popular search terms the team at Counselling Directory and our registered counsellor’s are able to see which areas of counselling are most in demand. This then means we can tailor the website content to make sure the right information is readily available and easily accessible to our visitors.

Listed below are April’s five most searched for terms.

These figures provide important information about what we should be including in this section (News) and its also a great help to our counsellors who want to make sure they have the most helpful information on their profiles.

Later this week we will be taking an in depth look at Bereavement and how counselling can be of help. Until then, additional information can be found in both the Types of Distress and News areas of the site and if you would like to contact a counsellor specialising in this area then simply type your postcode into the search box which appears on the homepage and then select bereavement from the types of distress drop down box to refine your search.

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of probation officers union Napo expressed how he feels there is overwhelming evidence that ex servicemen and women are simply not receiving enough support upon returning to civilian life.

“The levels of post traumatic stress disorder and depression are alarming. If these men are brave enough to risk their lives for their country then surely they deserve proper care afterwards.”

Although no official figures have been assembled regarding the exact number of veterans in prison or on probation, the Napo study conducted this summer indicates that at least six percent of the 243,000 people under supervision in the community are ex servicemen.

The new study of 62 probation offices in England and Wales highlights 90 case histories of servicemen sentenced to community penalties, with almost half of them suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or depression.

Tory Shadow Justice Secretary Dominic Grieve said of the report: “It is a disgrace that so many who have served their country are languishing in our prisons.

Tracey Johnson, of Veterans In Prison, said: “Not enough is done to help former servicemen and women adjust to civilian life. When you train someone to kill you have to put a mental switch on to enable them to do it. But the trouble is they are not switched off again when they arrive back in civvy street.”

The Samaritans are reporting a rise in the number of calls, mainly from people worried about money. One in ten calls are related to financial worries, with over half of these being from people worried about job security.

Drinking has also risen, with many people turning to the bottle to help forget their problems. A survey of those who had recently become unemployment or made redundant, one in ten admitted to drinking more to cope with stress.

Relationships are also under pressure due to the recession. Extra stress causes more arguments, and in some cases couples who have broken up and forced to continue living together because neither can afford
to move out.

It’s feared that the psychological stress is only beginning to show in people, and could continue to increase. It seems that it is fear and worry that is causing the most problems – people are most stressed whilst waiting for a decision, rather than when the announcement is made.

Read the feature here…

Reviewing previous research, the team from Oxford University said too much emphasis had been placed on mothers’ mental health rather than fathers, as mothers are considered to provide the most childcare. However, with shifting roles within the family, fathers often now have more of an impact on their child’s upbringing.

The children of parents who are depressed after the birth are more likely to experience emotional or behavioural problems. A child is also ten times more likely to develop bipolar disorder if their parents suffer from it.

It’s also thought that boys are affected more by their father’s mental health than girls, particularly if the father suffers from alcohol addiction.

Professor Paul Ramchandani, who led the team re-analysing the research said: “Fathers are more involved in child-rearing in countries including the UK than they used to be. In years gone by, if fathers were depressed and distant it may not have made much of an impact. We now need a more general understanding of what effects psychiatric problems in fathers can have on children.”

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