Managing emotions: anger, frustration and body-image pressure
Emotions are not the problem; not knowing what to do with them is. This guide explains what emotional regulation is, how to recognise when anger, frustration or pressure about your body are running the show, what genuinely helps and when it is time to talk to a professional.
Updated: September 12, 2026
What emotional regulation is
Regulating an emotion is not switching it off. It is noticing it, naming it, understanding what set it off and deciding what to do with it, instead of letting it decide for you. Nobody is born knowing how: it is learned, and adolescence is exactly the stage when the brain that feels runs ahead of the brain that brakes.
Anger and frustration are the most misunderstood emotions. They are not bad and do not need eliminating: they signal that something matters and that something is not going the way you wanted. The problem appears when their only outlet is to explode at other people, or to turn inward and stay there.
Body-image pressure takes a different route but ends up in the same place. Comparing yourself with bodies that do not exist outside a screen, measuring your worth by what you weigh or how you look in a photo, is a way of letting one emotion, shame, govern what you eat, what you do and who you are with.
How to recognise that something is off
- You go from zero to a hundred in seconds, and afterwards feel ashamed of what you said or did.
- Any small obstacle overwhelms you: a change of plans, a no, a criticism.
- You hold anger in until it comes out all at once, often at whoever is least to blame.
- You struggle to name what you feel: you only know you feel bad.
- You avoid photos, mirrors, the beach or the pool, or dress to hide your body.
- You eat differently depending on how you look that day, or make up for what you eat with exercise or fasting.
- After a while on social media you feel worse about yourself, and you go back anyway.
What helps
Naming it. Saying "I'm frustrated" or "I'm ashamed" already lowers the intensity. What has no name feels like one enormous thing; what has a name can be looked at.
Pausing before acting. Between what you feel and what you do there is a gap, and it can be widened: leaving the room, counting to ten, breathing more slowly. This is not suppression; it is buying the time the emotion does not give you.
Finding the need underneath the anger. There is almost always something you wanted that did not arrive: respect, autonomy, being heard. Asking for it directly works better than shouting it.
Changing your diet of images. Unfollowing the accounts that make you feel worse and following the ones that show real bodies is not trivial: it changes the comparison your mind measures itself against every day.
What therapy does. In therapy you learn to spot emotions in time, to tolerate frustration without exploding or swallowing it, and to question the rules about your body that crept in without you choosing them. It is practised on concrete situations from your life, not on theory, and what is changing gets reviewed.
What it does not do. It does not turn anyone into someone who never feels anger or insecurity. What changes is the relationship with those emotions and what you do when they arrive.
When to seek help
Feeling anger, frustration or insecurity about your body is part of living. It is time to talk to a professional when these emotions are costing you relationships, when you break things or hurt yourself when angry, when food or exercise have become a form of punishment, or when you have felt for weeks that you cannot control what you feel.
If you have hurt yourself, or think about doing so, do not wait: call 800 911 2000 (Línea de la Vida). If there is immediate danger, call 911. We Are Psycho does not handle emergencies.
Who you would talk to
Licensed professionals on our team who work on this. You choose, and you can change if it does not fit.
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Ainhoa Corbera
Licensed psychologist · Clinical director
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Jack Díaz Ponce
Integrative Wellness Psychologist
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Melanie Olvera Ventura
Child and adolescent clinical psychologist
Frequently asked questions
- Is it bad to get angry?
- No. Anger signals that something matters or that a line has been crossed. What does harm is what is done with it: shouting, breaking things, going silent for days. Learning to express it without hurting anyone is a skill, and it can be trained.
- How do I know if my relationship with my body is a problem?
- When what you see in the mirror decides how your day will go, when you avoid plans because of how you look, or when eating and exercise stop being care and become punishment. If in doubt, a professional can assess it with you.
- What happens in the first session?
- You talk about which situations overwhelm you, since when, and what you have tried. You do not need to explain it well or have it clear. The first session is for understanding what is going on and deciding together how to continue.
Sources
An informational guide prepared by We Are Psycho from reference bodies and guidelines. It does not replace an individual clinical assessment.