How Being Angry Can (Sometimes) Be Good for You

When we talk about anger, the conversation usually revolves around how and why we release our emotions. Anger, as is commonly believed, is bad for our health and fuels negative emotions. But that emotion can do more than turn you into a red-hot angry monster. As Charles Duhigg points out in his The Atlantic, sometimes it's okay to be angry, and sometimes it's healthy. Would you describe yourself as angry? Not always, but at some point in our lives, we all have experienced blind and furious anger at real or imagined injustices and attacks. If you're not angry, you're not human.

It's easy for anyone to get angry, but getting angry at the right person, in the right amount, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way is not something everyone can do, nor is it easy. Many of us tend to think of anger as a frightening, destructive, and unwanted emotion. We may think of the potentially disastrous consequences of experiencing or expressing anger. Indeed, anger can be dangerous if it leads to destructive or impulsive behaviour. It's important to understand that the emotion of anger itself (like all emotions) is not necessarily "good" or "bad." The likelihood of a positive or negative outcome depends on how it is expressed, the context, and the outcome.

If you take a moment to think about the potential benefits of being angry, what comes to mind? Your intuition may tell you that the emotion of anger exists. It should only be feared, frightened, or avoided if it is. Emotional experiences of anger can serve constructive purposes in a variety of surprising ways.

Anger Helps You Speak Clearly

Sure, you might want to say a few kind words to your roommate while listening to music without headphones, but you probably won't get away with being scolded. Use filters to avoid being rude or insensitive. But when you're angry, you can remove that filter and say what you're feeling, says LISW, PhD, clinical director of the Stress, Trauma, and Resilience Program at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Ken with No. He says, Jaeger.

Anger provides insight into yourself.

Taking time to consciously slow down the moment and reflect on the emotional experience of anger has great potential to increase self-awareness in meaningful ways. One study (Kassinove et al., 1997) found: We investigated how participants' recent expressions of anger affected them, and 55% of participants said their anger ultimately led to positive outcomes. One-third of participants found that their anger experiences provided useful insight into their own mistakes and shortcomings. If you choose to use your emotional experience of anger constructively, take a watchful, inquisitive attitude to your emotions...What is this anger experience trying to tell me? What information does my anger provide?

Anger can reduce violence.

Indeed, we often experience anger just before a violent act occurs, but anger can also be a tool to reduce violence because it acts as a very strong social signal that something needs to be resolved. . Those who actively observe the emotional expressions of anger in others often see these signals as strong social cues that something is wrong and needs to be corrected. Mentally healthy people do not actively seek violence or interpersonal discord. As such, seeing subtle or overt signs of anger in others often motivates us to understand and resolve potential problems.

Anger Helps You Negotiate

Surprisingly, angry conversations don't usually lead to shouting matches. Duhigg's article cites the findings of James Averill, a professor of psychology at Amherst, Massachusetts, who studied anger and reactions in the late 1970s. Averill asked people how often he got angry, and he was asked to describe one particularly annoying experience. Averill discovers that angry people can do good. Case in point: his angry teen changed the stay-at-home order after yelling at his parents.

Anger can be motivating.

Anger can give you the energy you need to take proactive action toward important goals or to correct difficult or unjust situations. Consider how feelings of anger increase physiological arousal. Your heart rate and breathing speed up and your muscles tighten. These physiological changes help prepare us to take on important behaviours that are not offered in more passive or calm emotional states. They want what they think will be useful. Used wisely, anger can give you a powerful motivation to get what you want.

Anger and Control

By making changes like this, you can take back control of yourself, but if all you were afraid of was letting your kids out to play near a speeding car, you wouldn't be able to take it back. . The physical response to anger is similar to the response to fear. They start releasing chemicals to prepare the body for action. This is known as the fight-or-flight response. Anger triumphs over fear in dealing with situations. A 2005 study showed that responding to stressful situations with anger instead of fear increased feelings of control and optimism [Source: Lloyd]. In this study, researchers analyzed facial expressions to encode fear and anger. Those who showed more anxiety had higher blood pressure and stress hormones. Another study by the same psychologist found that people who responded to the attacks of 9/11 with anger rather than fear were at greater risk of another attack the following year. found to be more optimistic and realistic about

But these people may not think clearly that anger clouds their brains. Anger changes your thinking, but recent research suggests it can change for the better. A 2007 study showed that angry people are better at distinguishing between strong and weak arguments [Source: Wenner]. Those who were not angry were equally convinced of both claims. The research seems to suggest that anger helps you focus on what's important to you and make decisions that suit your needs.

Now that we have a better understanding of how anger works for us, perhaps we can harness its frenzied energy to serve us in some way. Learn how to aim for your goals. One way to make anger work is to direct it toward a specific goal. "Making goals has the effect of limiting anger and keeping you focused on future goals," he says. or give you enough courage to vent your ailments. So the next time you overeat for a little something, keep that in mind. Perhaps you feel this way for some reason. And the reason can evoke a moment of clarity that allows you to demand more rational and better results.