Why should you be less angry?
By: Jzl Ck
Tags: Anger, Anger Management, Personality, Mental Health, Psychology

There are a ton lot of articles out there on how to control our anger; ‘anger management tips’, ‘3 easy ways to control your anger’, ‘the secret to never being angry’, the list goes on. Probably, ‘HOW to control anger?’ has been asked more than ‘WHY should we control anger?’.

And it’s perfectly fine to want to know ‘the shortcut to eliminate anger from your life. But if you ask me, all these readings will amount to nothing if you are not sure why the hell you are taking the trouble read it. So, here I am trying to answer a question that nobody asked, but everybody should ask; “Why should we be less angry?”

Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash

If you have completed at least 18 years of the journey of your life, it is highly probable that you have had an experience where you struggled to control your anger until you were forced to give in. These anger outbursts; for some might be an acquaintance, and for some, an occasional disaster. Whichever the case, let me tell you how it’s ruining your life.

Anger takes a toll on your physical wellbeing. According to Chris Aiken, (MD, an instructor in clinical psychiatry at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine and director of the Mood Treatment Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) In the two hours after an angry outburst, the chance of having a heart attack doubles.

And if you look it up in medical journals or ask an expert, which I am not, you’ll see that anger can lead to all kinds of physical frustrations like headache, indigestion, respiratory issues, and so on. Most of these bodily reactions are caused due to the fight-or-flight reaction ( adrenaline surge) that is initiated during an outburst; blood flowing fast into our lower extremities, prepping our legs to dash if we were to choose the flight and pumping us with extra energy to punch through the opponent’s stupid nose if we were to choose fight. Whether you choose to fight or flight, the damage is already done. So, in short, for the sake of your physical health, you should be less angry.

If anger does damage our physical wellbeing, there is no doubt it’s digging a grave for our psychological health. In a 2012 study published in the journal Cognitive Behavior Therapy, researchers found that anger can exacerbate symptoms of a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a condition characterized by an excessive and uncontrollable worry that interferes with a person’s daily life. It’s like a never-ending cycle; the angrier you are, the more anxious you become, and the more anxious you are, the angrier you become.

And the only way to break out of this spell is to eliminate or at least minimize the factor from the equation that we have some control over. But that’s not it, anger can even be associated with depression. We all knew depression to be a state of limbo where we are as inactive as dead. But passive anger can actually be one of the defining features of depression for some people. “In depression, passive anger — where you ruminate about it but never take action — is common,” says Aiken. So, in short, for the sake of your mental health, YOU SHOULD BE LESS ANGRY.

Go around your town (if the lockdown has lifted) and ask random people to name a friend who is always angry. I bet you would get fewer names than if you would have asked to name friends with weird earlobes. Why so? Because, goddamn it, nobody wants to befriend an explosive. A person injected with anger is most likely to annoy everyone around, find some way to be angry at everyone, and eventually cut the last thread of every single relationship. A moment of intense anger can make you decide on things that you would regret for the rest of your lives. It can destroy things that you have gained with the effort of a lifetime. It can scar you and your loved ones beyond repair. So, in short, for the sake of your social wellbeing, YOU SHOULD BE LESS ANGRY.

These are the reasons, I think why you should try and control your anger. And when I say control, I don’t mean to repress your anger or any feeling for that matter. Rather, find a creative outlet. Now that you know ‘why’, it’s time you search the ‘how’. And trust me, there are more than enough out there. And I truly believe that the world would be a better place if people were at least a bit less angry. So, in short, for the sake of the world we live in, WE SHOULD BE LESS ANGRY.