Anger Diary

Describe an event that recently made you angry.

What happened that gave you pain or made you feel stressed?

What was provocative about the situation?

What thoughts were going through your mind?

On a scale of 0-100 how angry did you feel?

What was the effect of your behavior on you, on others? What did you do?

Were you already nervous, tense, and pressured about something else? If so, what?

How did your body respond? Did you notice your heart racing, your palms sweating? Where did you feel anger in your body?

Did you want to flee from the pressure or perhaps throw something?

How did you feel immediately after the episode was over?

Did you feel differently later in the day or the next day?

What were the consequences of the incident?

Triggers often fall into the following categories:

▪ Other people doing or not doing what you expect them to do
▪ Situational events that get in your way, such as traffic jams, computer problems, ringing telephones, etc.
▪ People taking advantage of you
▪ Injustice
▪ Disrespect
▪ Labeling, shaming, blaming
▪ Lying
▪ Lack of control
▪ Being angry and disappointed in yourself
▪ A combination of any of the above

What category(ies) did your incident fall into?

Anger is typically triggered by a particular theme:

▪ The perception that you have been victimized or harmed.
▪ The belief that the person who provoked you meant you deliberately harm.
▪ The belief that the OTHER person was wrong, that they should have behaved differently, that they were evil or stupid to harm you or others.

What theme(s) did your incident fall into?