Everyone can relate to the feeling of anger, but what’s really happening when your temper explodes? Discover what’s going on in your body when you get angry, and the positives and negatives of this.
Anger can be useful, but when you hold onto something that makes you angry it can get out of control, damaging your relationships and other areas of your life.
Anger is the ‘fight’ part of your ‘fight, flight, freeze’ fear response. When you get angry your body responds by releasing hormones and signals to increase your heart rate, energise your muscles, and raise your blood pressure. Your brain also adjusts memory functioning when you’re angry, and this can lead to impulsivity.
These responses are great when you need to fight, but if you stay angry for a long period of time your body is damaged and your brain finds it harder to figure out when there’s an actual threat and when there’s an imagined threat.
