it with her own car keys!
The moral of these two stories is not just ‘Don’t park anywhere near Cathy’s house’! It is, of course: ‘Never let your anger go joyriding down the Jungle Speedway!’
– respiration deepens
– the heart beats more rapidly
– blood pressure rises
– the pupils dilate
– the sympathetic nervous system diverts blood from the skin, liver, stomach and intestines to the heart, central nervous system and muscles
– the digestive processes are suspended
– glucose is freed from the reserves in our liver
– Cortisol production is increased in order to depress the immune system
– the spleen contracts and discharges its content of concentrated corpuscles
– men have an increased supply of the male hormone testosterone.
We become aware of:
– feelings of warmth (even when it is quite cold)
– a feeling of energy (in spite of any tiredness)
– our heart palpitating
– taking deeper breaths than usual
– not feeling hungry
– clearer and more focused vision
– more acute hearing
– a desire to yell out
– an urge to move our limbs quickly and forcefully.
What other people may notice:
– we are panting
– our pulse is racing (if they are brave enough to try and feel it!)
– our eyes are more widely open than usual and our pupils are dilated
– our facial colour deepens, but then may turn pale
– we are more sensitive to sound
– we have more physical strength than usual
– our voice is louder
– our speech is quicker
– our movements are quicker
– our muscles are tense (fists clenched, face contorted and shoulders arched).
THE DANGERS OF SUSTAINING THE PHYSIOLOGICAL STATE OF ANGER
The state of heightened physical arousal which anger can induce can put considerable strain on our bodies. We should remember that it was designed (by whoever or whatever!) to be a temporary state. In order to function efficiently over sustained periods of time, the body should be in its decompressed state. If we keep our bodies working at emergency levels for long periods we run the risk of damaging them.
A vast amount of research has now established a link between the management of emotions and physical health. The results seem to be proving conclusively that serious damage does occur when the body is maintained in a highly stressed state for prolonged periods.
If we find a way of releasing the tension from our bodies, occasional states of anger will not damage us – indeed they can physically aid us to cope with the trials and frustrations of life. But chronic sustained anger can seriously damage our health. From research evidence to date and common clinical observations, we can say with confidence that it can:
– cause or exacerbate digestive disorders such as ulcers and gastritis through increasing acid secretion
– create hypertension
– raise our cholesterol levels
– damage and block our arteries
– aggravate heart disease
– exacerbate bowel conditions such as colitis
– increase our susceptibility to infection
– intensify pain
– create headaches and exacerbate sinus conditions
– contribute to inflammatory disorders of the muscles
– hinder our recovery from major traumas to the body such as operations or serious illnesses such as cancer or Aids.
I hope that this abbreviated list is sufficiently impressive to convince most of you of the immense potential cost to our bodies if we mismanage our anger.
The Physical Triggers
THE EFFECTS OF CHANGES IN OUR BIOCHEMISTRY
There are many bodily states which may predispose us to use our anger response more than perhaps we would normally do. I am not just referring to the most obvious examples such as brain damage, dementia, severe diabetes or epilepsy, but also of more common everyday conditions such as headaches and stomach pains. (The latter are often caused by the stresses of normal growth transitions, sometimes by disease, and sometimes by self-inflicted habits and practices.) Because our bodies are going through some biochemical change or have their energies already overstretched coping with some internal or external stress, the effect is to lower our resistance to frustration. For example, most people will, in the course of their life, have direct or indirect experience of anger and irritation being ‘nearer the surface’ when:
– over-tired
– very hungry
– going through hormonal changes such as those which take place at puberty, pre-menstruation, the birth of a baby or menopause
– recovering from flu
– physically craving for a substance to which they are addicted, such as nicotine, alcohol, caffeine or any other drug
– ‘on a high’ from over-using any such drug or substance
– suffering from acute pain
– ‘worn down’ by chronic pain
– in a state of sexual frustration.
We must stop blaming our bodies for our anger, for they merely act as vessels for containing it, or vehicles for expressing it – and we can use our head to rule either function!
We commonly hear the physical condition itself being blamed for an outburst of anger or irritability – ‘It’s just her monthlies’; ‘It was the whisky talking’; ‘It’s only the baby blues’; ‘He’ll be alright when he’s had his dinner’.
