THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ANGER

 

Anger is an emotion characterized by antagonism towards someone or something you think has deliberately done you wrong. It is a part of the flight or fight response. It could be a helpful emotion as it serves to protect you from real perceived threats causing a loss of a sense of safety and control. 

People with a history of trauma or victimization may be in a perpetual state of hypervigilance, resulting in anger.

In some cases, people may have learned through experience or observation that violence is rewarded. So when they feel invalidated they may drop back to such reflexive behavior that they've seen to work for others. For example, bullying. This is mostly because of insecurity and feelings of inadequacy. Or, because of growing up around people who behaved like this. Apart from this, a huge part of the reason is the media. It portrays multiple emotion sets which might not be realistic. It could also glorify certain aggressive characters which would make them look appealing to the audience. 

HEALTHY ANGER vs UNHEALTHY ANGER

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• Anger is supposedly a toxic and negative emotion, which is not true in all cases. We all experience anger as it is the body's reflexive reaction when something is not right. Though, the way it is expressed determines whether it is healthy or unhealthy. While healthy anger is problem-focused and reason-oriented, unhealthy anger is irrational and is based on emotions rather than facts. 

• Lack of assertiveness often goes along with anger. Individuals who suppress their anger rather than processing their irrational beliefs often end up collecting and storing their anger, until one day they explode and respond aggressively. It is important to recognize the necessity to be assertive. 

• The effects of unhealthy anger can be observed when you notice the discrepancy between the normal-you and the angry-you. As the anger alleviates, the way you behaved while in anger seems foreign and horrifying. It could even leave you with post-traumatic stress disorder. Most of the people that suffer from PTSD related to anger, do so because of something they did rather than something they saw or something that happened to them. 

• As Jordan Peterson quotes, "Part of the reason that we like the circumstances to be normal, is precisely so that we don't see those parts of people we don't want to see."

CONSEQUENCES OF ANGER

Physical:

1. Sleep deprivation
2. Changes in the gut microbiome
3. Blood sugar disruption
4. Immune system suppression
5. Impulsive behavior 
6. Inflammation
7. Exhaustion
8. Rapid aging
9. Hormone disruption
10. Hypothyroid 

Affective:

1. Irritability
2. Apathy

Cognitive:

1. Negative emotional valence
2. Pessimistic perception
3. Overthinking

Environmental:

1. Hypervigilance

Relational:

1. Withdrawal from friends

ANGER INTERVENTIONS

• Breathe: One of the most helpful things in face of a threatful situation is to start taking longer breathes. Slow breathing would help you become self-aware and act as a signal to your brain to remain calm, which might assuage the emotional reaction.

• Muscle relaxation: Unclench your fists, loosen up your shoulders and ease your facial expressions. It might not come out consciously in the face of a difficult situation but it would do a lot of help. 

• Create physical safety: It is important to make sure that one is physically safe at the specific point in time. 

• Journal: It is best if you address your feelings to the person that has made you feel angry in an assertive tone, but if you are not able to due to any reasons, writing it all down will be very effective. 

• Seeking context: For once, try to think more rationally than emotionally. Think about what made you angry, why it made you angry, and how rational was your reaction to the situation.  

• Address sleep issues: When you are not sleeping well or when you are in constant pain, your HPA axis (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis) would remain active. So, your body would perceive the situation as threatening, which will contribute to your vulnerability to intense emotional reactions. 

• Minimize stimulants and alcohol: Intake of stimulants or alcohol tend to ramp up the HPA axis and your cortisol levels, which would contribute to the anger. 

• Meditate: Meditation along with guided visualization can do a lot of help in minimizing stress and anger. 

• Accept your emotions: Accept your feelings non-judgementally. Anger has a purpose to tell you that there is something wrong. However, feeding the anger and telling yourself all the reasons why you should be angry doesn't help the situation. So, accept your feelings and start taking steps.

• Do things that make you happy: You are allowed to feel angry, and there is nothing wrong with it as long as it is dealt with properly. However, you can also experience happiness. You do not need to remain in that state of mind all the time, you are capable of taking steps in distracting yourself from the anger and start doing things that bring you joy. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

Every emotion serves a useful purpose, and so does anger. Anger is inevitable even though it is noisome. It is important to realize that anger is never a solution. It is just a signal that something has to change. That "something" that has to be changed could be you, which is good because we have the ability to change ourselves. It is hard, but it can be done. And we sure can not bring a change in others. 

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