If you operate in the world with values, expectations and standards that tend to be rigid, perfectionist, narrow in scope of acceptance, and that fuel the need to be right, you are vulnerable to anger, and very likely to live in a chronic state of agitation. Events that evoke a dramatic reaction, often out of proportion to the present situation, may be due to triggered memories, associations and emotions of past significant, often traumatic, experiences that surge to the forefront. The appraisal process describes how you think about the trigger. If the triggering event is interpreted as a violation, transgression, or as something that is blocking your goals, and then you add the attribution of intent to the volatile mix, you re primed for anger. In fact, anger is often a defense for more primary feelings that exist beneath the surface, such as fear, sadness, profound disappointment and jealousy.
Anger runs along an emotional continuum, from annoyed to enraged.
Initially there is a flood of internal activity. Our physiology engages the fight-flight response, and we experience significant activation rapid breathing, red face, neck ache, blood flowing to the muscles and away from the outer limbs. The cognitive portion of the anger response presents powerful images, memories, and fantasy ideas that involve learned perceptions and interpretations to the triggering event. None of this, however, predicts what you may do with anger. This is where the shaping influence of your life experience and the fascinating complexity of human behavior is so dramatically illustrated.