The Healing Anger Newsletter (skip to where the new issue starts) brings you a refreshing, helpful and upbeat approach to anger management and how it can work for you in every aspect of your life. Here is your chance to keep up with my (Dr. DeFoore here) latest discoveries and insights on anger management and how you can heal the anger in yourself, your family, your school and your workplace. If you like this ezine, please do a friend and me a big favor and "pay it forward" by forwarding it to them. If a friend did forward this to you and if you like what you read, please subscribe by visiting the Healing Anger Newsletter subscription page. This newsletter and the web site, AngerManagementResource.com were built and are maintained through a program called SiteBuildIt!, which is now offered as an eLearning course you can take from home! It's the best way I know of to deal with the economic stress that so many are facing right now. Find out how you can start your own successful Internet business by watching these great videos about why so many people love SiteBuildIt! Would you like to lend a helping hand? If you have purchased a book, CD or audio download, I would very much like to hear what you thought of your product! With your permission, I will publish your comments, with your name, on my web site to help other visitors like yourself learn more about the products. This would be a big help! Oh! By the way, did you get your free E-book? If so, after you've had a chance to read it and try some of the Anger Management Techniques, write to me and let me know what you think! April 1, 2009 Healing Anger Newsletter, Issue #011 Contents of this newsletter What's happening on AngerManagementResource.com? What Exactly Is PTSD? How Does Anger Show Up In PTSD? How To Heal From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder The EmWave Personal Stress Reliever

What's happening on the web site? Four new topics for you to review--check them out! New stories by site visitors like you--There are now 125 new pages on the site, each one a story, testimonial or question contributed by other site visitors. Check out some of the latest contributions right here. Some of my favorites that you might enjoy are Difficult People and Excessive Anger Outbursts. In that last one, you will hear a distraught mother asking for help. I offer some counseling, and some concerned mothers also provide some excellent support and encouragement in the comments--be sure and read them! All of the products we offer can now be found on one page! Books, CDs (or audio downloads), HeartMath books, the emWave and Legacy Publishing's The Total Transformation® program and US: A Program For Couples. A new page on all types of post traumatic stress disorder--last month we launched our page on PTSD specifically for military vets, and now we have a page for anyone dealing with PTSD from other types of trauma such as child abuse, rape, violent crimes, etc. Each of these pages has a place where you can tell your story and get feedback from me and other survivors. Read the most recent stories here. A new category for stories about childhood memories and self discovery. This is very helpful to the whole process of anger management, because the better you understand yourself the better you will be able to manage your anger. Read what others have contributed here. What Exactly Is PTSD? Post traumatic--that means after a trauma, or anything really bad happens. Stress--you know what that means...anxiety, frustration, fear, anger, trouble sleeping and extreme reactions to things that otherwise are not that big. Disorder--that means that it doesn't just happen once, it keeps happening over and over. A disorder has become a "condition" that won't seem to let go. Now, here's what I want you to think about. I'm not trying to convince you that you have PTSD, but I do want you to be aware of how common it is and how it might relate to you. Here are some things for you to consider: You know how your mind goes over and over a scary, sad or frustrating situation after it happens? This is not a bad thing, it's just the way your brilliant mind goes about trying to help you heal from the emotional trauma. It's been found that children who witness mass shootings will spontaneously play games that include a shooter and victims--for a while, and then it stops. Why? Because they have healed their emotional trauma by revisiting it. I was at a conference with a friend who had just been through a major San Francisco earthquake. He was literally feeling internal "aftershocks" every few minutes to the point he had to look out the window to see that the earth wasn't moving. He's fine now, meaning he doesn't have PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder occurs when someone keeps having the same reactions over and over, and they don't go away over time. This is when therapy is needed. Here is a description of PTSD symptoms: PTSD Symptoms Diagnostic symptoms include reexperience such as flashbacks and nightmares, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, increased arousal such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger and hypervigilance. Per definition, the symptoms last more than six months and cause significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (e.g. problems with work and relationships.) This is from Wikipedia.com. So, whether you actually have PTSD or not, it's a good idea to know what it is because it is more common than most people realize. Far too many people give up to a life of suffering and strong medication, thinking there is no healing possible. Far too many people with PTSD commit suicide. It just doesn't have to be that way. How Does Anger Show Up In PTSD? Anger is the emotion that often shows up when you're literally at your wit's end--meaning you can't think of anything else to do but to blow up! Extreme fear, pain, anxiety and total frustration leads us to extreme anger outbursts in which we usually make our problems worse instead of better. That's why healthy anger is so very, very important! People with PTSD sometimes use anger as a way of feeling powerful, because their symptoms make them feel powerless. The problem is that unhealthy anger is not powerful at all--it is more about fear and helplessness than anything else. So, you might see PTSD symptoms as a pot boiling on a very hot fire. Something's got to give, and if the person does not have a healthy release for all of that built up stress, they will blow their top and the pot will boil over--or more accurately in some cases, the volcano will erupt. As you can see, good anger management is key to PTSD recovery, and also key to keeping the people around PTSD sufferers safe! How To Heal From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Here is the healing process for PTSD, as I see it from my 35 years of experience as a counselor: The trauma has to stop. When the spouse is still being abused, the soldier is still in battle or the molested child is still in the presence of the perpetrator, it's not post trauma at all--it's present trauma! That means all of the guards are in place, and hypervigilance prevents emotional examination and healing. The story must be told. As Dr. James Pennebaker points out in his book, "Opening Up: The Healing Power Of Emotional Expression," emotional trauma needs the benefit of language--meaning when the story just lives over there in the emotional part of the brain without being told, it takes on a life of its own and is not affected by rational thought or reality. When the story is told (the memory is connected to language--the verbal part of the brain), it allows you to process what happened, sort it out, heal it and finally put it to rest. You can tell your story on AngerManagementResource.com and it will become your own web page. This is the link to tell your story, and if you're a military vet, go here. Some kind of imagery process must occur which allows the person with PTSD to imagine (bring the image-in) and ease the emotional stress connected with it. Think of the children playing their mass shooting game. The created the images of the shooter and the victims in their game, nobody got hurt, it kept happening in their game, they even got to be in the "power" position of the perpetrator, and eventually their emotional trauma subsided. Other kinds of imagery processes that are usually done in therapy but can also be done on your own can be reviewed here for military vets, and here for other PTSD sufferers. Finally, it always helps to offer help! And here is your opportunity to do just that. Just read the PTSD stories here, and the military vet stories here. Then make a comment on the story offering your insights, suggestions and/or support for the brave folks who have told their story. You may have noticed I haven't mentioned medication. That's partly because I'm not a medical doctor, and partly because medication has been found to be only partially helpful in some cases for treating PTSD symptoms. And that's just what medication does--treat symptoms. It doesn't get to the cause. The healing process I just described DOES get to the cause, and I have seen many people benefit from these techniques and live happy, healthy lives. You can do it too! The EmWave Personal Stress Reliever This great little device is excellent for teaching you how to relax, reduce stress, and bring your heart rhythms into alignment with your breathing. It is a highly sophisticated piece of equipment that is very easy to use. My wife and I both have one, and we use them a couple of times a day. The company offers a 30 day money-back guarantee which really amounts to a 30 day free trial! Watch the video on this page to learn more! You can also become an affiliate of HeartMath and sell the EmWave and their other wonderful products yourself for a 15% commission! Get started now at no cost at all. Next Issue Developing Empathy Skills The Key To Anger Management In Relationships

Let me hear from you! Comments? Ideas? Feedback? I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this ezine and tell me what you think! If you have ideas for future Healing Anger Newsletter issues, I'm open to considering them. Here is your opportunity to get involved--I might even include your comments, story or link in a future issue of this ezine. Also, as I mentioned above I would very much like your testimonial or endorsement if you have purchased a product--or if you downloaded our free E-book! Don't forget! We want to hear your story, and when you submit it you get your own web page on the site! Take a look at the categories you can write in now. It's easy! Thanks for being here! William G. DeFoore