When Anger Makes Us Sick

Anger is one of the most powerful emotions a human being can experience. It comes in many forms: anger, hatred, intolerance, irritation, etc. What all of these have in common is discomfort and a desire to confront the other person. And believe it or not, anger makes us sick.

It is a feeling that we all experience. In the beginning it is positive. After all,  anger is a reaction to something we interpret as a threat. It confirms our identity, to the extent that it leads us to express our needs and desires. There is also a sense of self-defense. Sometimes we need fierce determination to face aggression.

But we all know that anger also has a very negative side. It is negative for us as well as for the people around us. It is not so much about whether we experience anger, but why we are angry, how intense our anger is, and what the consequences are.

This feeling can penetrate us so deeply that it becomes a permanent state of being. It can really disrupt our lives.

One of the worst parts of anger is that it triggers a chain of reactions in our body. If we experience it often, anger makes us sick, both physically and emotionally.

Why anger makes us sick

Anger has surprising effects on our body. There are three types of reactions: corporal, cognitive, and behavioral. They are activated when we feel threatened and prepare to attack. The physiological reactions are:

• Heart rate increases.
• Breathing is accelerated.
• Peaks in blood pressure.
• The muscles tense.

• Adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol levels rise.

What then happens is that our ability to process internal and external information (cognitive response) is reduced. Finally, all of this translates into behavior, including verbal or physical aggression. In other words, possible violence.

It is worth mentioning that three types of anger have been identified:

• Rapid or sudden anger when we feel attacked or trapped.
• Stable and intentional anger, which is the same as bitterness,  which comes out in ugly words and lasts over time.
• Repeated anger, which is often expressed and becomes part of the person’s personality.

How anger makes us sick

Many studies show the harmful effect of anger on our physical health. A study, from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, shows that people who experience recurrent anger have a higher risk of stroke. Experts studied more than 14,000 individuals and concluded that people who spend more time angry were more vulnerable to having a stroke.

They also showed that the most irritable people have a more fragile immune system, and thus they are more prone to infectious diseases. They also found evidence that the peaks in hormones such as adrenaline cause blood clots and weaken the walls of blood vessels.

John Hopkins Medical School also conducted a study with 1,100 students over 16 years. The plan of this study was to compare the results with their medical history in the following decades. In the end, they concluded that  those who get angry quickly are three times more likely to suffer a heart attack. Another study showed that anger increases the level of fat in the body, as well as sensitivity to pain – to a significant degree.

A toxic feeling

It is easy to see that anger makes us sick, that it practically poisons our body. We may not feel the physical effects right away, but if we stay angry for too long, we will feel them.

It’s not necessarily bad to be angry: it’s an instinct whose primary positive or adaptive function is self-preserving. The negative side of anger is when we let all this energy express itself and we are out of control. The real problem is when we fail to do it at all.

Aside from not dealing with it at all, there is also a negative way to do it. This is when you  keep your mind inside you. In this case, you are like a pressure cooker, ready to explode at any moment.

When we feel angry, the best thing we can do is to voluntarily move away from the situation.  Counting to 10 helps, or sometimes we need to count to 15 or 20. Go aside for a moment and take a deep breath. When you feel calm again, speak clearly without being too concerned about what made you angry.

Finally, in such situations, it is important to try to identify some underlying factors that may have nothing to do with the current situation, but that feed you with anger.