Anthology of Psychology. Part III. Anger, a Destroyer of Our Health

We all know very well that it is not good to express anger and that it affects health in a negative way. And you even have no idea how strong this influence is! So here are some examples: 

ANGER CAUSES A HEART ATTACK 

Impulsive outbursts are strong stress for your heart. According to Chris Aiken, a professor of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina, “you are most heavily exposed to a heart attack for two hours after a sudden outlet for anger”. He also says that rage can become the reason for serious cardiovascular diseases. The university undertook a study and it showed that people who immediately lose patience take a higher risk of heart attack by contrast with more reserved individuals of the same age. 

IT PROVOKES A STROKE 

Anger also can cause a stroke. Here you can observe the same situation: for those two hours after the outbreak the risk of suffering from stroke is almost three times higher. And, most importantly, those who have a clot or some problems with cerebral circulation are in more serious danger. And if you have a kind of ticking time bomb in the form of aneurysm inside of you, it’s important for you to understand that a person expressing anger is six times more likely to suffer a stroke! 

IT AFFECTS IMMUNE SYSTEM 

The more you feel anger, the more you’ll get different diseases. According to researches of Harvard University, for almost six hours after the outburst the level of antibodies, or immunoglobulin, drops and remains at a low level. And, more than that, these antibodies have a crucial role in controlling your health. It means a direct connection: you express anger, then the level of immunoglobulin drops, then you get a disease. So if you want to feel good and live longer, just stop feeling anger all the time. 

IT IS A REASON FOR ANXIETY AND PANIC ATTACKS 

Anger and anxiety depend on each other.  According to the research first published in Journal of Cognitive Behavior Therapy in 2012, it was stated that anger can become the reason for symptoms of anxiety. To sum it up, you feel not only a mad rage but also experience collateral panic attacks and anxiety. 

IT CAUSES DEPRESSION 

It has been shown time and again that aggression and anger are connected with depression, especially if you are a man. According to scientists, at work we are likely to feel so-called “passive” anger meaning that we can’t express it. For instance, imagine the following situation: your boss reprimands you publicly but it is not your fault, and you understand that you can do nothing because then the boss will just continue to swear. Your anger accumulates, hides inside of you and can not break away. This is the way it becomes depression.  

IT AFFECTS LUNGS 

You may think that if you are not a smoker, you won’t have problems with your lungs. But if you often lose your temper, your lungs are in great danger too. Researchers of Harvard carried out an experiment in which almost seven hundred people took parts and, according to its results, a person who often feels anger has lungs of lower capacity. It is considered to be connected with stress hormones which provoke inflammatory processes in your respiratory tracts.  

ANGER SHORTENS YOUR LIFE 

It is absolutely true that happy and calm people have a longer life. It is because they don’t get a stress and, as a consequence, don’t use this source of irritation. But Chris Aiken from University School of Medicine states that “there is a direct link between stress and health, and if you suffer from frequent stress and aggression, you shorten your life yourself”. 

Anger in Terms of Christianity

In Christianity anger can be righteous and unrighteous. Anger exists in human life from birth and serves a person as immunity to fight with passions and sins.  The righteous anger is that anger we express towards us and our sins. The unrighteous anger is that anger we express towards people around us. Here is what saints said about anger:

Reverend Ephraim the Syrian:

“Anger destroys, kills the soul and isolates from God. He who is angry… kills the soul because he lives all his life feeling confusion and deep concern… He who is angry loses peace and health because his body constantly wastes away, and his soul mourns, and flesh fades, and face is so pale, and sense is so exhausted, and thoughts flow like water, and everyone hates him.   He who is angry is very far from patience and love, he is perturbed by empty rhetoric, and he starts quarreling because of trifle; he interferes and incurs the heavier hatred where nobody needs him”.

Sainted Tikhon Zadonskii:

“Look at anger, at the signs of its cruelty that it leaves. Look at what a person does when he is angry, how he complains, makes noise, curses and swears at himself, torments, beats and hits his head and face, and he shakes like in fever, in short, he resembles a possessed one. If his appearance is unpleasant too so what is happening in his poor soul? How this demon excruciates is! Look what the terrible poison hides in his soul and how painfully it tortures him! So fathom this pestilent poison hidden in your soul with diligence and experience it! Its cruel and harmful demonstrations speak for themselves. Anger as well as rage is born from immense selfishness. A selfish one searches profit, glory and honour everywhere. And if he notices something that prevents him from expressing his intensions and wishes, he feels confused, disappointed, and he is mad at those who prevent. And so he tries to do something expressing anger, or just to revenge, and it characterizes rage”.

Upon advice of saints, one can avoid passions with the help of virtue, on the contrary. The anger’s opposite is mercy. 

Thus, be merciful as the Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)