Why are we so Angry? (E40)
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Gill discusses anger. There is a strong connection between anger, substance abuse, and relapse. You'll learn what happens in the body when we feel anger and what it really means when you're angry. Gill explains her experience with anger in sobriety and gives you some tips for how you can start working on your own anger.
Key Takeaways
Anger is classified as a secondary emotion because it never occurs by itself without any other feelings. It’s usually preceded by pain, and becomes anger when this pain is combined with an anger-triggering thought. It can also be a substitute emotion, which means we feel anger so we don’t have to feel pain. This is a way to protect and distract ourselves from the pain. We think about the target of our anger instead of thinking about why we’re in pain.
Physiologically, anger has a widespread effect on the body. It increases our heart rate and blood pressure, decreases the number of some of our immune system cells that protect us from infection, slows down blood flow and metabolism in the digestive system, increases the incidence of migraines and headaches, and even increases intraocular pressure, which is the fluid pressure inside the eye.
Therapy has helped me the most with my anger, so I recommend working with a therapist. I try to pay attention and get curious about my anger. Why am I feeling this way? What set me off? When I try to trace it back to an event, it helps me identify my triggers. I go back through my day event by event and try to remember if I was angry or not, I can usually pinpoint the moment that the anger got worse. Once we identify our triggers we can learn to avoid them.
Cite this episode
Tietz, G. Episode 40: Why are we so Angry? Sober Powered. 2021
Sources
Coping with Anger in Addiction Recovery. The Recovery Village Drug and Alcohol Rehab. 2020.
Serafini K, Toohey MJ, Kiluk BD, Carroll KM. Anger and its Association with Substance Use Treatment Outcomes in a Sample of Adolescents. J Child Adolesc Subst Abuse. 2016;25(5):391-398.
What causes anger issues? Mind.org.uk. 2018.
American Addiction Centers. Physiology of Anger. Mentalhelp.net. 2015.
