If the questions brought you to this page, then your anger is likely to be a problem;
You may well have signs of an ‘angry personality’. You may get angry quickly, often, express your anger inappropriately and stay angry for a long time. Start by reading the information below on why anger is bad for you.
Why anger can be bad for you
Most people know that anger is invariably ‘bad’ for us but without really knowing why.
Anger is ‘bad’ when:
It is experienced too much (i.e. if we get angry too often)
and/or
It is experienced with too much intensity (i.e. we feel excessively angry)
and/or
It is expressed inappropriately (e.g. by being aggressive)
But, assuming that one or more of the above conditions is in place, what exactly does anger do to us?
Anger, like stress and other powerful emotions, has a powerful effect on the body.
As our anger rises, our brain releases a range of hormones that affect every part of our body in one way or another.
The main hormones are adrenaline and cortisol.
Adrenaline causes the heart to beat faster and blood pressure to rise; this allows oxygen‐ rich blood to flow more quickly to the areas of the body that are responsible for reacting to the source of anger.
These areas are those that need extra energy :
for example, the arms (to fight)
or the legs (to flee)
and the brain (to think quickly).
When we are responding to a threat that causes us to get angry, an immediate reaction is required so whilst blood rushes to the limbs and brain, it is diverted from less important areas of the body like the stomach or skin; now is not the time for the body to be worrying about digestion or maintaining healthy skin. Instead all resources are diverted to concentrating on dealing with the immediate problem. It is just like a workplace coping with a crisis; all non‐essential functions would stop whilst the employees would be required to deal with the immediate emergency.
All this anticipated extra activity requires extra energy and the other important hormone, cortisol is responsible for this bit of the anger reaction. The release of cortisol in the blood causes the liver to convert its emergency stores of energy (in the form of glycogen) into the more readily usable form of glucose. This extra glucose provides the surge of energy needed to beat the source of the anger.
The net effect of all this activity is a rapid heartbeat, breathlessness (as the lungs struggle to take in more oxygen), raised blood pressure and a raised body temperature (you feel hotter). All this made our angry ancestors ideally placed to deal with the sources of their anger by either fighting their opponent or running away.
Nowadays, however, these responses are less useful. Rarely do we have the chance to respond to the sources of our anger in the way that our body reactions were designed for – in fact, if we did, we may well find ourselves in trouble with the law. So, instead of us making use of the extra energy and resources our bodies have provided us with, we are left with all this anger reaction – and nowhere to go with it. This can leave us with a range of short‐term symptoms.
Symptom
Why does this occur?
Headache
Blood supply increase to the brain too to enable us to think more clearly, but build‐up causes headache.
Neckache
Again, we tend to tense our neck muscles when stressed, causing pain.
Tiredness
We feel tired because we have been burning up so much extra energy
Dry mouth
Flow of saliva is reduced to mouth.
Stomach ache/butterflies
Blood is diverted away from this area so digestion is reduced ‐ this can lead to digestive problems and discomfort.
Dizziness
Although we breathe more quickly when we are stressed, we tend to take more shallow breaths and thus we do not breathe in as much oxygen as deeply as when we are not stressed. This can lead to a slightly reduced supply to the brain, causing dizziness.
