When Anger Makes Us Sick

Anger is one of the most powerful passions that a human being can experience. It takes several forms: that of resentment, hatred, intolerance, irritability, etc. All these facets, however, have one thing in common: discomfort and the desire to confront others.

It is a feeling that we can all experience and which, in principle, is positive. Anger is a response to what we consider to be a threat. It makes it possible to reaffirm identity, insofar as it gives rise to the expression of personal needs and desires. It also protects: sometimes we need that angry vigor to deal with aggression from others.

We all know there is another very negative side to anger, both for us and for those around us. The problem is not to feel it but to face its intensity, its reasons and its consequences. This passion can be so invasive that it sometimes turns into a permanent state. It also ends up blocking the vital energy and condemning us to stagnation.

One of the most negative aspects of anger is that it involves a strong discharge of reactions in the body. If we experience it very often, it ends up making us sick, both physically and emotionally.

Anger and its manifestations

Anger has impressive effects on the body. When we experience it, we encounter three types of responses: bodily, cognitive and behavioral. It activates when the person feels threatened and prepares to attack. This gives rise to various physiological reactions:

• The heart rate increases.
• Breathing quickens.

• Blood flow skyrockets.
• The muscles tighten.
• The levels of adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol increase.

The following is a decrease in the ability to process  internal and external information (cognitive response). In the end, this results in certain behaviors; one of them can be the activation of verbal or physical aggression. And that’s how violence translates.

It should be noted that three classes of anger have been  detected:  1) The precipitous and sudden anger, which is activated when someone feels harassed or cornered; 2) Stable and intentional anger, which is equivalent to resentment: it manifests itself in episodes and is maintained over time; 3) Recurring anger, which is expressed frequently and becomes a “normal” part of the personality.

Anger makes you sick

Various studies show the harmful effect of anger on our physical health. Research from the Atlanta Center for Disease Control and Prevention (USA) indicates that  those who experience recurring anger are at greater risk of having a stroke or stroke. Experts studied 14,000 individuals and concluded that people who spent more time being angry were more vulnerable to stroke.

It has also been established that the  most angry people have a more fragile immune system and are more prone to infectious diseases. Thus, evidence has been found: the discharge of hormones such as adrenaline promotes the formation of blood clots and weakens the walls of the vessels.

At the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, a study  with 1,100 students was also conducted over 16 years to compare the results with clinical histories of subsequent decades. It was finally concluded  that those who get angry easily are three times more likely to have a heart attack. In another study, it was seen that anger increases the level of fat in the body and causes sensitivity to physical pain to increase dramatically.

A toxic passion

So,  when one gets angry, a virtual intoxication of negative hormones in the body occurs. The physical effects may not be immediately felt, but if this effect is sustained over time, its traces will become more evident in the body.

Feeling rage is not in itself bad; it is an instinctive emotion whose main positive or adaptive function is to preserve us. The really negative side appears when we let the enormous amount of energy with which this emotion is given to us to express itself in an uncontrollable way, without being able to manage it.

Another negative way of dealing with it, besides the one of not doing it, occurs when we go  for full containment. In this case, a “pressure cooker” effect occurs, which will sooner or later explode.

When we feel anger, it is advisable to voluntarily isolate ourselves for at least a minute. Counting to 10 is also useful, and sometimes even to 15 or 20. Getting away from a group for a while and breathing deeply too. When calm returns, we can again speak clearly and without getting excited about what is causing us this state. Finally, in this type of situation, it is also important to try to identify factors unrelated to the situation, in order to make the anger disappear. In case there is, of course.

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