Type A Personality

Type A Personality

You know the Type A person all too well. He's the guy in line behind you at the supermarket who fumes as you fumble through your pockets looking for the exact change. She's the woman who nags when you arrive five minutes late for an appointment. He's the fellow who glares at you if you beat him playing golf.

By now you've probably figured out the A in Type A stands for anger. But there are other Type A traits that many researchers believe increase your risk of suffering a heart attack, including hostility, competitiveness and impatience.

"Trivial things--like waiting a few extra moments for an elevator--that don't bother a calm Type B get some Type A's very angry," explains Meyer Friedman, M.D., a cardiologist who is director of the Meyer Friedman Institute in San Francisco and author of Treating Type A Behavior and Your Heart.

If your Type A outbursts are getting you frazzled and ruining your health, here are some ways to keep your feelings under control and soften your image as a raging bull.

Be a good actor. Ask yourself what personality traits you'd like to shed in the next year. "If you want to be less hostile, then just for a day pretend that you are a person who isn't hostile," Dr. Friedman says. "Do the things that the person you want to be a year from now would do. Then keep doing them day after day. By the end of the year, you may find you're no longer pretending."

Create a thinking pot. "Find a place where you can think out loud," says Joanne Babich, Ph.D, a psychologist in Phoenix. "By talking out loud to yourself, you learn to take a second look at your reactions to situations, and it will teach you a lot about what you're really feeling."

Jot down your feelings. Keeping a record of times and situations in which you typically get angry helps you realize how frequently in a day you blow your stack. It also helps you sort out the real cause of that anger, which often is something you have no control over.

"The elevator may be slow, so you get angry because you think that a person on a floor above you is deliberately holding it up. But in reality, you can't possibly know that. If you write down that feeling, it may help you talk yourself out of your anger," says Redford Williams, M.D., professor of psychiatry and director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and author of The Trusting Heart: Great News about Type A Behavior.

Don't take the bait. Imagine that you're a fish that swims downstream each day, says Lynda Powell, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut. "When you wake in the morning, there is clear water ahead of you, but as you start swimming downstream, all of a sudden, a hook drops," she says. The "hook," she points out, could be any annoying event--like getting in your car in the morning and discovering it's on empty because your teenage son was driving around the night before. That's a hook--and you can make a conscious decision whether you're going to bite it or just swim by it.

"Life is a series of hooks--unexpected minor things--that you can choose to tangle with or pass by," says Dr. Powell. You can expect that these unforeseen but irritating events will occur every day. Type A people really can choose to shrug off those irritants.

Pick the longest lines. It may seem odd, but one good way to cure a short-fuse temper is to stand in the longest lines at grocery stores, post offices and banks. "It teaches you patience and that the world won't come to an end if it takes a few minutes longer than you expected," Dr. Babich says. "It may even give you a chance to strike up a conversation with someone."

Check your image. Look at your facial expressions in a mirror several times a day. Do you look cheerful, or are you scowling? "Looking at yourself in a mirror gives you an idea what kind of image your face is projecting to the world," Dr. Powell says. "So if you're scowling, practice smiling. That will give you a chance to sense what a smile really feels like, and you'll also see how much better an image you project by doing it."

Keep your cool. It's true that counting to ten or deep breathing can do wonders to reduce anger. "I'm treating an executive who loses his temper quickly. So whenever he feels himself getting angry, he has learned to take several deep breaths," Dr. Babich says. "After each breath, he says to himself 'I'm feeling a little more calm than I did a moment ago.' Then he is able to face the situation with a new perspective."

Practice saying "I'm wrong." "Type A people have difficulty apologizing, because it would mean that they would have to admit they are wrong," according to Dr. Babich. "Some mental health professionals require that Type A's apologize at least once a day, even if they're not sure they're wrong. It's good practice to learn that you don't have to be perfect."

Burn the rule book. Many Type A's expect others to follow their rules, and they get very upset when those rules are broken. Being on time is a special bugbear. "It's important for Type A's to learn to be flexible and realize that some people don't value time as much as they do," says Jane Irvine, Ph.D., director of the Behavioral Cardiology Program at the Toronto Hospital.

Sweat away your anger. Moderate aerobic exercise such as bicycling, running or walking may reduce stress and relieve anger, but don't overdo it. "People with Type A personalities, particularly when they're angry, may actually exercise to a point that they hurt themselves," Dr. Babich says. She suggests exercising in the morning before the stresses of the day overwhelm you.

Slow down, you're going too fast. Make time for the three Ps--people, plants and pets, Dr. Friedman suggests. Have a long, thoughtful chat with your children, stroll through a botanical garden or play with a pet.

"Take time to observe them, learn from them, grow with them," he says.