How to Deal With Extreme Frustration

Frustration is an emotion that affects most people from time to time. However, certain individuals deal with extreme levels of frustration. This can be detrimental to your health, leading to problems with your heart, stomach, reproductive organs and skin, according to WebMD. For these reasons, learning to deal with extreme frustration is important to you and your well-being.

Instructions

• 1

  Recognize the signs you're getting frustrated. These can include shortness of breath, dizziness, knots in your stomach, chest pains, headaches, feelings of aggression or excessive smoking and drinking. Knowing how you react when you deal with extreme frustration is the first step to learning how to control it.

• 2

  Calm yourself down by taking few deep breaths to center your thinking and your body energy. The act of deep breathing has a calming effect on your body and can help to relax any tense muscles. It also slows your heart rate and breathing rate, which are likely to be elevated due to the stress of being frustrated. Continue breathing slowly and deeply until you feel more relaxed and able to deal with your frustrations.

• 3

  Make a list of your triggers or the things that set you off when you become frustrated. The more triggers you can identify, the better you can control your frustrations. Writing down every trigger helps you come up with a plan for dealing with those triggers and frustrations. For example, you might get frustrated any time you have to wait at a red light when you're driving and running late.

• 4

  Look at the list of frustrations and triggers you created. Circle all of the frustrations and triggers you're able to control through your actions. For example, if you become frustrated by every red light, there are a number of ways to alleviate this. You can drive on an alternative route without an abundance of traffic lights or be sure to leave a few minutes earlier to eliminate being late should you get caught at a light. These simple lifestyle changes may be enough to alleviate the extreme frustration you feel in certain situations.

• 5

  Learn to challenge any negative thoughts that lead to frustration. For example, if you continuously believe that people don't like you or want to spend time with you, you may go through life miserable and frustrated. Challenging that thinking pattern by telling yourself there are people who like you and that it's OK if someone doesn't can help you to feel better about yourself and the people around you.

• 6

  Learn effective communication skills. Being an assertive communicator may help alleviate frustrations tremendously. Statements that begin with "I feel" or "I would like" are effective ways to let someone know how you're feeling without attacking them or expressing negative emotions. For example, "I feel upset when you talk to me in that tone of voice" lets someone know that you're uncomfortable with her tone without attacking her personally. It keeps the focus on you and your frustrations.