When you are in a challenging situation with an aggressive person, most of the time you don’t really know how to react. Under the influence of emotion, someone who is not properly prepared can panic and put himself in an awkward position towards the “attacker”.
Logically, your stress level increases and you lose your nerve. In spite of the fear, you should not remain tetanized in such circumstances. How do you react in such cases, when you are faced with verbal or physical aggression? We will find out more about how to defuse aggression in this article.
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Identify aggressive behavior of a potential assailant
Nowadays, you can be confronted with an aggressive individual at any time of the day. Insecurity is at the heart of our society and you must learn to live with it every day.
Let’s quickly see who can be aggressive, and under what circumstances:
- an aggressor in the street who aims at stealing your personal belongings,
- a manager who becomes violent because he doesn’t achieve his goals,
- an unhappy client who requires you to reimburse him immediately
- an angry driver,
- an impatient individual in a queue,
- a manipulative, abusive colleague at work who threatens you,
- or anyone who got up on the wrong side of the bed…
In any case, your abuser has no intention of relaxing. So trying to calm him down could make the situation worse. Making one of the following two mistakes could be detrimental to the outcome of the conflict.
2 mistakes you should absolutely avoid during a conflict
The first mistake you could make, and which is really inadvisable in conflict situations, is to respond to aggressiveness with aggressiveness. Getting angry in your turn will only increase the anger of the aggressive individual, but also yours. You might as well say that this does not help, it is a vicious circle that feeds itself permanently.
Unfortunately, this is often the “normal” or “logical” reaction that most people have in such situations. Remember that physical or verbal abuse will not solve anything in these situations.
The second mistake is the opposite extreme, that is, not reacting to the point of not uttering a single word. Obviously, if you do this, the attacker gets your “weak point” and takes the upper hand. He is in complete control of the situation. On the other hand, you may become even more stressed, which leaves two possible outcomes:
- You slowly start to lose confidence in yourself,
- You may lose your temper and repeat the first mistake: being aggressive.
How to react in the event of an aggression?
At first glance, it is difficult to judge the outcome of a conflict properly. In addition, most people tend to overreact when they come into contact with someone who has behaved badly.
First, make sure you always listen to your abuser and pay attention to each of his words. If you can, try to remain calm and patient so as not to escalate the conflict.
Then, don’t let yourself be stepped on. That’s where the difficulty lies, because you have to “dot the I’s” without being aggressive in turn. A lack of assertiveness on a daily basis can slow you down in your acts, even the most benign.
On the other hand, in certain conditions, it is useless to expect to answer your aggressor, especially if you are potentially threatened by a weapon, whether it is a knife or a firearm…
To defend yourself in difficult situations, there is a more radical solution.
Self defense, a determining tool against your aggressors
Whether you are physically assaulted or just afraid of being assaulted, you need to adopt defensive reflexes that are essential to your survival. Even worse, in case of a serious problem, you don’t know how to protect your loved ones… It’s time to react to incivilities!
First of all, you should know that self defense is not a combat sport, quite the contrary actually. This discipline allows you to defend yourself or a loved one. The objective is to know how to neutralize an aggressor, not to attack him in turn. This is one of the main rules of self defense, because it should only be used to counterattack an aggression.
In the same way, self defense can give you back your self-confidence thanks to techniques that are quite simple to remember, as well as a much simpler way of managing aggressiveness. You will get a greater sense of security from this.
Learn to do the right moves!
Whether you are a victim of daily aggression or you want to learn how to defend yourself, you must learn self defense in depth. As professionals, we offer fun and simple training sessions to help you learn the right moves.
Do not hesitate to contact us if you need more information.
