The Little Blue Book

Anger, abuse, humiliation, threats or acts of violence, and punitive control in the home endangering partners and children is a betrayal of trust, can have terrible consequences leading to injury and death and is against the law. Children exposed to dysfunctional, abusive or violent adults can carry lifelong psychological injury. They are at elevated risk of chronic anxiety and trauma-related mental disorders. The frightened, humiliated, emotionally neglected or abused child can progress into adulthood with profound difficulties with their own emotional control, can become severely withdrawn, distrustful or overly dependent, have difficulties establishing mature relationships, and are at elevated risk of lifelong battles with anxiety and depression, with addiction disorders and self-harm and suicide. 4 So, look yourself in the eye and ask yourself if this is the person you want to be. Resolve now to find ‘the better self’ within. An inability to control anger is symptomatic of deeper psychological problems and mental ill-health. It is associated with severe anxiety disorder, chronic insomnia, thoughts of self-harm and suicide, stress-related headache and cardiovascular risk. So, why not use this period to seek and get professional counselling for managing your emotions and controlling anger? (These services can be found online, or by calling your GP or health professional.) By learning to control your anger (rather than it controlling you), you can use this time to rebuild relationships, and, with patience and persistence, to find again the love and respect of your family. Surely, that’s worth doing. (1) Control Yourself: Alcohol and Impulsivity. Marc N. Potenza, MD, PhD1 and Harriet de Wit, PhD US NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov (2) Australian National Council on Drugs Report (ANCD) 2013 (3) www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au (4) Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg D, et al (1998) Department of Preventive Medicine, Southern California Permanente Medical Group (Kaiser Permanente), San Diego 92111, USA https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov To reach out, Call : MensLine 1300 78 99 78 mensline.org.au Lifeline 13 11 14 lifeline.org.au 1300 RESPECT 53 ADA Australia PostScript Section 1 Section 3 Section 2