Dealing With Angry People – Door County Pulse
Community book club tackling combative behaviors
The Door County Civility Project is offering 200 free copies of the book “How to Deal with Angry People” written by University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (UWGB) professor Dr. Ryan Martin to the Door County community.
Martin, also known as “The Anger Professor” on social media by his hundreds of thousands of followers, offers insight into anger and research-based strategies for coping with the anger that people regularly encounter. His book dives further into understanding where anger comes from and offers techniques to de-escalate uncomfortable and potentially violent interactions.
“Dr. Martin reminded me of the significance of the little decisions we make every day in our interactions with others,” said Shirley Senarighi of the Door County Civility Project. “Dealing effectively with angry people is about those decisions – deciding to actually use one or more tools we already know how to use.”
Earlier this year, the Door County Mental Health Focus Group – which is a coalition of providers and others who work in the mental health space – organized a community book club around the National Alliance on Mental Illness book, “You Are Not Alone.” The Door County Civility Project had worked with Martin in the past and sought out the Mental Health Focus Group to partner on another community book club, this one around anger and angry people.
The Mental Health Focus Group had recently discussed the need for de-escalation training for a variety of professions.
“We hear first-hand that people are angrier,” said Shauna Blackledge, a Public Health Educator for Door County and a co-facilitator of the Mental Health Focus Group. “Our librarians report taking the brunt of these combative behaviors, which perhaps not so ironically, is the opening of Dr. Martin’s book. We see online harassment running rampant, rude behavior toward our service industry workers, disobedience toward law enforcement, explosive behaviors towards flight attendants – the list goes on.”
Starting Sept. 1, the 200 free copies of the books will be available at the following locations while supplies last: Fish Creek Library, Forestville Library, Sister Bay Library, Sturgeon Bay Library, and United Way of Door County in Sturgeon Bay.
The Civility Project and Mental Health Focus Group will then host three book discussion events: Tuesday, Oct. 24, 5-6 pm, at the Sister Bay Library with Martin joining the discussion via Zoom; Thursday, Oct. 26, 5-6 pm at the Sturgeon Bay Library with Martin joining the discussion in-person; and Wednesday, Nov. 1 from 5-6 pm with an in-person presentation by Martin at the Sturgeon Bay Library.
