When We Get Sick With Anger

Anger is one of the most powerful feelings a person can experience. It appears in many forms: resentment, hatred, bigotry, annoyance and so on. All these expressions have one thing in common, a feeling of discomfort and a desire to confront the other person. And you may not believe this, but you can get sick with anger.

We all experience this feeling. In the beginning it is positive. After all, anger is a response to something we interpret as a threat. It reinforces our identity to the extent that it is an expression of our needs and desires. It is also an emotion of self-defense. Sometimes we need fierce determination to deal with aggression.

But we all know that anger also has a very negative side. Moreover, it is negative for both ourselves and the people around us. Nor is it so much about whether or not we experience anger. What is important is why we are angry, how intense our anger is, and what the consequences are.

This feeling can overwhelm us so deeply that it becomes a permanent state. So it can really affect our lives.

One of the worst aspects of anger is that it triggers a series of reactions in the body. If we often experience anger, it can make us sick both physically and emotionally.

Why can we get sick with anger?

Anger has surprising effects on the body. There are three types of responses: physical, cognitive, and behavioral. They are activated when we feel threatened and prepare for an attack. These are the physiological responses:

• The heart rate rises.

• Breathing speeds up.
• Blood pressure goes up.
• The muscles get tense.
• The level of adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol rises.

Subsequently, our ability to process inner and outer information (a cognitive response) declines. Ultimately, all of this will manifest itself in behavior including verbal or physical aggression. In other words, this means that there may be violence.

It is important to note that three types of anger have been defined:

• Rapid or sudden anger when we feel attacked or trapped.
• Steady and purposeful anger, which is basically the same as resentment. This form occurs intermittently and can last for a long time.
• Recurring anger that manifests itself regularly and begins to become part of a person’s personality.

How can we get sick with anger?

Many studies show the damaging effect of anger on our physical health. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta investigated this. Their research shows that people who experience repeated anger have a higher risk of stroke. Experts have examined more than fourteen thousand individuals. They found that people who are more often angry are also more vulnerable to eventually having a stroke.

But they also made another discovery. People who are more irritable have a more vulnerable immune system. This means that they are more susceptible to infectious diseases. The researchers also found evidence that hormone spikes such as a rise in adrenaline levels cause blood clots and weaken blood vessel walls.

The John Hopkins Medical School also conducted a study. Over a period of sixteen years, they studied 1,100 students. The plan was to compare the results with their medical histories over the next several decades. They eventually came to the following conclusion. People who get angry easily are three times more likely to have a heart attack. Yet another study found that anger significantly increases the amount of fat in the body. The sensitivity to pain will also become noticeably greater.

A toxic emotion

It’s easy to see that anger actually poisons the body. We may not feel the physical effects immediately. But if we stay in this state of anger for too long, we WILL feel it for sure.

Being angry is not necessarily bad. It is an instinctive response with an initially positive or modified function. The purpose of this function is self-preservation. Anger becomes negative when we allow all that energy to manifest and we lose control. The real problem is when we can’t control this feeling at all.

So it’s not just about the fact that we don’t deal with it at all. But it’s also about how we approach it in a negative way, which is by completely hoarding the anger. In this case, you are just like a steamer. You can explode at any time.

When we feel angry, the best thing we can do is to voluntarily withdraw from the situation. It helps to count to ten. Sometimes we even need to count to fifteen or twenty. Stand to one side and take a deep breath in and out. When you feel calm again, try to speak clearly and clearly without getting worked up about what made you angry.

Finally, it is also important that you try to identify the underlying factors in these types of situations. Because some of those factors have nothing to do with the situation but only fuel your anger.