Some people build up a storm when they get angry, while others may suffer it in silence. But no matter what your way of dealing with your anger, the fact is, it is definitely not good for your health.How you react when you are angry and how you deal with it, can have a major impact on your overall health. Not just that, your reaction to anger can also determine the type of disease you will get affected with.
4 Ways Your Anger Is Eating Up Your Health
1. It Affects Your Heart
If you constantly experience an anger that is destructive and explosive, beware. You’re definitely putting your heart in grave danger here. One of the biggest health scare of such type of anger is arrhythmia, or cardiac arrhythmia. It is a condition in which your heart will either beat too fast or too slow. In severe cases, it can also lead to cardiac arrest, and eventual death.
Also, if you already suffer from heart problems, getting angry can worsen your symptoms.
2. It Trigger Or Worsens Pain
If you are suffering from some or the other type of pain, getting angry can make it worse. In some cases, it can also act as a trigger for pain.
According to a research study, professionals tested 94 patients who were suffering from chronic pain in their lower backs. The patients were put in situations that triggered their anger levels. As per the results, those who expressed their anger, as well as those who suppressed it, felt a significant increase in their pain levels.
3. It Causes Sleep Problems
Your anger has a big impact on your overall sleep health. The more you experience anger, the more it can affect your quality and quantity of sleep. Whether you express or suppress your anger, it can lead to a condition known as thermal discomfort from cold extremities, or TDCE. When your body experiences TDCE, your hands and feet will start getting cold, and may also feel chilly to the touch.
TDCE can affect the amount of sleep you get, and even if you fall asleep, it can affect the quality of sleep. As a result, you will wake up feeling tired, and your body will not get the amount of rest it should.
4. It Triggers Or Worsens Depression
It is a known fact that when you are angry, you often also end up feeling low and depressed.
A study was conducted on patients who were suffering from depression from some or the other reason. Professionals helped them channelize their anger in different ways by using various anger management techniques. In the absence of anger, their depression levels became significantly low.
Quick Tips To Control Your Anger
- Remove yourself from the immediate situation that is making you angry and take a short break.
- Breathe in and out slowly till your mind feels calm. Count very slowly from 1 to 10, and then again from 10 to 1, till you feel a difference in your anger level.
- Release any negative emotions you have the moment you feel it, instead of letting it build up.
- Head out in the open air to clear out your thoughts.
- Find a constructive way to deal with your anger and get it out of your system. Write or talk about it in a creative way, put it down in a journal, go for a run, do an intensive dance routine, or try out an exhaustive sport.
- Identify the pattern that makes you angry repeatedly. Avoid the situation as much as possible.