describe as ‘the calm after the storm’
WHAT HAPPENS IN OUR BODIES WHEN WE ARE ANGRY?
When we start to become angry, a whole chain of events automatically takes place inside our bodies. We are prepared physically to meet the threat which we perceive confronts us. Exciting new developments in the field of neuroscience have now made it possible to track this anger response even during its very earliest unconscious phase in our brains. As with all brain activity, the process is mind-blowingly complex. I can assure you that ploughing through all the latest literature on the subject has been tough going for a non-scientist like myself. But I am glad I persevered, because not only did I find the knowledge fascinating in itself, I found that having a little more insight into the physiological workings of anger has made it easier for me to convince some cynics that anger can be managed. In the following section I have tried to summarize the most relevant aspects of the knowledge we have to date. I hope you will also find it interesting and helpful. Should this whet your appetite for more detailed information, there are now many good books on the subject which will explain the process in much more detail (a selection is listed in the Further Reading section).
Anger’s Physical Journey
Once we have perceived a threat, either externally through our senses or in our mind through our imagination, there are two routes the anger response can take. The first is the one I have called The Wisdom Way. This route is the one which has been evolved for humans to use in everyday situations. It travels through our sophisticated, thinking brain centres. It is the route anger takes when we have (or imagine we have) time to reflect on the nature of the threat and choose an appropriate response.
The second route which the anger response uses I have called The Jungle Speedway. This is one designed for emotional emergencies. Our anger response will travel down this route if we need (or imagine that we need) to react instinctively and instantly in order to protect either ourselves or someone in our care, such as a young child. It is the fast-track to the primitive fight/flight/freeze response.
Let’s now take a look at each of these routes in action. In the following examples you will see how either of the two routes could be taken in the same person, even when the very same anger trigger is present.
Please note: this illustration does not give the full, complex picture of Anger’s Emotional Journeys. I have selected the stages in the process which are relevant to our anger management work.
RESPONSE 1 – VIA THE WISDOM WAY
Cathy is standing at home doing some washing up at her kitchen window. She is feeling relieved that her busy day has ended and is looking forward to a relaxing evening watching TV with her partner.
She hears the noise of a car approaching. She glances through the window which overlooks her drive. She notices a strange car has parked at the end of her driveway, blocking her exit.
– She perceives the parked car as a mild ‘threat’. (She is, after all, safely inside her home and does not need to leave it again until the morning.)
– A signal is sent to her neocortex (our thinking brain’s
processing centre situated in our pre-frontal lobes just behind our foreheads).
– Her brain starts to do a search in the archives of its stored wisdom and memory. (Cathy is consciously thinking about what is happening.)
– Cathy decides that even though she doesn’t need to go out tonight, the parked car is a sign that someone has not respected her rights. (She may have said to herself They could have asked me first, even if they are desperate to park for just half an hour and it is pouring with rain.’)
– Her neocortex sends (via neuro transmitters) a request for ‘irritation’ to her amygdala (our emotional command centre in the more primitive part of the brain situated just above its stem).
– A small extra supply of the hormone adrenaline is ordered.
– Cathy’s face screws up and her stomach tightens.
– She becomes consciously aware of feeling irritated.
– Her partner comes in and asks: ‘What’s up? Are you worried about something?’
– Cathy replies: ‘No, I’m just a bit irritated – someone’s just parked across our drive.’
– Her partner says: ‘Oh, I think that’s the doctor’s car. I told you yesterday Marie next door said she was worried about her new baby’
– Cathy responds, ‘Oh – how awful, I forgot – oh dear, now I really do feel guilty. What on earth must she think? – I didn’t even pop in to ask her how he is.’
– Cathy’s thinking brain responds to this new perception of the situation and immediately sends another message to her amygdala to produce a biochemical cocktail of anxiety and guilt!
RESPONSE 2 – VIA THE JUNGLE SPEEDWAY
Cathy once again is standing by her kitchen window, but today she is highly stressed. She is just about to drive off to a megaimportant emergency business meeting. She is late and has a headache. She has just had a row with her partner about having to work another evening this week. Now this parked car at the end of her drive is going to delay her even more. She thinks ‘How selfish and inconsiderate some people are. What right have they to block my private exit?! I’ll make sure they don’t do that again in a hurry!’
Cathy, on this occasion, is perceiving the threat as severe, so a variation on the above sequence takes place:
– A signal is sent directly to her amygdyla. (This also houses the ‘control centre’ for our fight/flight response. When a signal by-passes our thinking centre and travels down this fast track it is often referred to as an ‘Emotional Hijack’.)
– An impression of the trigger situation is scanned through a special emergency emotional ‘memory bank’. It is then rapidly matched with one of a limited number of neural blueprints for action. (These are sets of pre-coded instructions. Although it is not absolutely clear how these blueprints are formed, it is thought that both our genetic inheritance and our previous experience of highly charged emotional experiences play important roles.)
– Cathy’s brain immediately sets in motion biochemical changes designed to put her nervous system instantly into a state of high arousal and produce an emotional state of rage. (In effect, her body and mind is being prepared for a physical ‘fight’, even though in modern society this might be quite an inappropriate and dangerous way to respond to the threat.)
– Cathy feels furious.
– Her face goes white, her heart beats faster and her muscles contract. She is propelled into instant action.
– She ‘charges’ out of the door to deal with the offending car and its driver. With the sound of the banging door ringing in her ears, she doesn’t, of course, hear her partner calling
