Dr LeCrone
03-30-2006, 09:24 AM
You have seen anger’s destructive power. Perhaps you have felt anger to the degree that you wondered whether you would be able to deal with it so it would not hurt a relationship. Perhaps you wondered how you might react to similar experiences in the future. Lots of other people wonder, too.
Medical and psychological research conducted in the past few years shows that anger has specific psychological effects on the angered individual.
In the research, two areas – suppressed and expressed anger – have been associated with heart disease. Suppressed anger seems to be strongly linked to hypertension, or high blood pressure.
Displaying intense anger has been found to be more damaging than other ways of expressing anger. People who fly off the handle and go into rages frequently seem to be, according to research, more likely to experience heart disease than those who “moderate” their anger. Other research indicates ways to handle anger:
• A person can learn to de-attribute and depersonalize anger.
For example, John’s boss comes in and reads a riot act to him. John feels the situation didn’t warrant the reprimand. His boss brings up situations with which John was not involved.
At first John is hurt, then he becomes angry. The attack was unfair and constituted a complete character assassination. But he doesn’t explode. After reflecting on the situation, he begins to realize his boss is under a lot of pressure because of economic factors – pressures and frustrations from his superiors that are impinging on him.
John is able to reframe the situation. He attributes his boss’s anger to factors over which he has no control. By doing this and be de-attributing the causes of the anger attack, he is able to respond in a less negative manner, to go on with his activities and consequently to work more smoothly.
• Another way to help dissipate anger is to consider the level of responsibility attributed to the frustrator.
An example of this would be a bigoted individual who frequently makes uncomplimentary comments, displaying his prejudice in an insulting and demeaning fashion.
To prepare a healthy response to this situation, a person should consider the intellectual and emotional makeup of the individual making the jibes. While this approach does not excuse the attacker, using it may help explain why he or she is acting in an unacceptable manner. The person who is tempted to resort to an angry rebuttal – knowing the situation probably will be aggravated – may instead say to himself that the attacker was acting out of ignorance, or that the person may even be emotionally disturbed.
This will help depersonalize the situation and may allow the frustrated victim to walk away. Having controlled his anger, he has guarded his health and saved his body some wear and tear.
In future columns, I will discuss how to handle this often misunderstood and complex human emotion.
Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1987
Medical and psychological research conducted in the past few years shows that anger has specific psychological effects on the angered individual.
In the research, two areas – suppressed and expressed anger – have been associated with heart disease. Suppressed anger seems to be strongly linked to hypertension, or high blood pressure.
Displaying intense anger has been found to be more damaging than other ways of expressing anger. People who fly off the handle and go into rages frequently seem to be, according to research, more likely to experience heart disease than those who “moderate” their anger. Other research indicates ways to handle anger:
• A person can learn to de-attribute and depersonalize anger.
For example, John’s boss comes in and reads a riot act to him. John feels the situation didn’t warrant the reprimand. His boss brings up situations with which John was not involved.
At first John is hurt, then he becomes angry. The attack was unfair and constituted a complete character assassination. But he doesn’t explode. After reflecting on the situation, he begins to realize his boss is under a lot of pressure because of economic factors – pressures and frustrations from his superiors that are impinging on him.
John is able to reframe the situation. He attributes his boss’s anger to factors over which he has no control. By doing this and be de-attributing the causes of the anger attack, he is able to respond in a less negative manner, to go on with his activities and consequently to work more smoothly.
• Another way to help dissipate anger is to consider the level of responsibility attributed to the frustrator.
An example of this would be a bigoted individual who frequently makes uncomplimentary comments, displaying his prejudice in an insulting and demeaning fashion.
To prepare a healthy response to this situation, a person should consider the intellectual and emotional makeup of the individual making the jibes. While this approach does not excuse the attacker, using it may help explain why he or she is acting in an unacceptable manner. The person who is tempted to resort to an angry rebuttal – knowing the situation probably will be aggravated – may instead say to himself that the attacker was acting out of ignorance, or that the person may even be emotionally disturbed.
This will help depersonalize the situation and may allow the frustrated victim to walk away. Having controlled his anger, he has guarded his health and saved his body some wear and tear.
In future columns, I will discuss how to handle this often misunderstood and complex human emotion.
Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1987