The Fatal Aspects of Anger
Since anger is such a prevalent emotion in our high-stress
societies, we tend to take it for granted. We even consider it a
healthy release of pent-up emotions. Yet, at its extreme, anger
can kill you or someone else.
When you are angry, adrenaline floods your body, thus stressing
all your bodily functions to the maximum. Biologically, this is
an emergency situation. It may have saved your ancestors by
impelling them to use a club to ward off a charging saber-tooth
tiger. And in a war-zone, it might be useful, too. But, as an
aspect of daily life, it is a sure way to ruin the smooth
functioning of your metabolism.
When you further consider how your blood pressure rises as well,
you are talking coronary heart-failure as well.
Anger is deadly. And when it is expressed towards others, can
quickly escalate into homicide. In fact, most cases of murder
are due to an uncontrollable resentment toward someone else.
Even unexpressed anger has lethal side effects. It can escalate
into all sorts of worse mental aberrations and unpleasant life
experiences.
Anger, expressed or unexpressed, can ruin your life. It can kill
you or someone else. It is not something that you should mistake
for a mere character flaw.
Even at lower levels of hostility, anger can cause major upsets.
It can ruin your mental and physical health over time, and it
definitely ruins all your relationships. Eventually, it can even
hurt you financially, create substance abuse, or involve you in
a deadly accident.
Anger is nothing short of a brief insanity. After your rage has
passed, you are looking at some form of devastation. During your
episode of anger, you literally lost your mind--your bodily
sensations completely overwhelmed any sense of intelligence.
We laugh when we watch movies like "Anger Management." Yet the
final joke may be on us if we permit anger to control us. Unless
we take care of our anger it is going to ruin our lives.
Anger, like suicidal depression, is a mental illness. It is a
brief loss of reason, an overwhelming desire to strike out and
hurt someone, a manic lust for revenge at any cost. Like any
mental illness, it needs immediate attention.
If one is subjected to uncontrollable bursts of rage, then this
needs professional intervention. A professional healer will help
you identify and remove the traumatic conditions that have upset
you. Some of them may be so deep-rooted that you are even
unconscious about them.
If anger is merely due to high-levels of stress, anxiety, and
frustration, then a course of stress-relief is necessary. There
are many books on how to reduce your stress through such simple
measures as taking walks, having hot baths, getting a massage,
doing deep breathing, visualization, exercising, listening to
soothing music, or taking on some form of spiritual practice.
It takes a great deal of effort to build anything--a business, a
relationship, or a life--but it takes a few outbursts of anger
to have everything collapse into ruin. Can you really afford to
take for granted an emotion that can result in either utter
failure or death?
Saleem Rana is a psychotherapist in Denver, Colorado. You can
learn more ways on how to improve your life at
http://theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html. You will receive many
valuable gifts when you sign up.