Anger Management Activities for Teens

The teenage years can be difficult. They have so much to cope with, including changes to their bodies, along with huge leaps in their mental and cognitive abilities. Unfortunately, their emotions have a tough time dealing with it all, and they frequently express themselves in ways that an adult considers inappropriate. This is a hard thing for parents to deal with. Their kids are starting to resemble adults physically, but emotionally they can act like small children at times. Oftentimes, they will express their frustrations through anger. If the situation is serious, it might become necessary to try some anger management activities for teens so that they can learn to cope with their underlying problems rather than masking them through an angry outburst.

One anger management activity for teens is to use a journal where they can work on writing out or drawing the entire situation which led to the angry outburst. Usually they will need to start with the words that came out of their mouths at the time (beware, it may be ugly) and then work backwards to the incident that occurred and then work on what really bothered them about the incident. Often they will draw a pain in a certain part of their body or will draw a symbol that represents the deeper issue that is going on below the anger. Often, the core issue is that the teen's feelings were hurt and the only way they knew how to deal with that pain was to become angry and lash out.

Once the core issue can be defined, then the anger management activity for teens can move to the problem solving phase. In this phase, the teen can sort out different solutions to the underlying problem rather than inappropriately acting out in anger. They need to be taught how to express anger and pain appropriately. If they are not taught these anger management tips in teen years, they are likely to either become an angry adult, or they will be belittled so much for becoming angry that they will stuff the anger and turn it inward so that it manifests in self destructive patterns.

Other anger management activities can include exercise, since this can help teens to expend some of their emotions in physical activity before sorting out the core issues. If the teen anger management activity only includes the exercise without including the cognitive part of the process, then the teen may end up using exercise inappropriately which can lead to other issues in the future.