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Expressing Anger is a Serious Business

By Sumera Liaquat Ali

Every person in this world has some emotions. Each of us is different from one other and has a tendency to deal the similar situation in the different manner. As a human being, God had gifted us a range of emotions. Out of which the one of the significant emotion is anger .Some people become aggressive more easily as compared to others. This is all because of personality traits and experiences which we inherit from surroundings. It is many time seen that one self becomes angry in a situation while others do not express their anger openly. Anger is an emotion which is present in every individual but every individual expresses it differently. There is a continuum, on which one end there is aggressive behavior i.e. burst out While; on the other hand, there is suppression of anger i.e. aggression inward phenomenon. The both extremes are dangerous and hazardous for the health of individual and end up into serious consequences. So to overcome this problem, there should always be balance and techniques to express anger in a proper way so that the person can stay away from these consequences. In this article we will discuss the consequence of two extremes of continuum

Before we talk about the continuum, it is important to first identify the types of anger. One is controlled anger which means that it is in the control of the individual. Person can express the anger the way they want. This type of anger does not have any hazardous effect on individual health. Contrary, the other type is uncontrolled anger. From the name we can identify that in this type person is unable to manage the emotions and burst out or either suppresses the anger. This type of anger has the harmful effects on an individual health especially on the psychology of the person. Individuals who have uncontrolled anger has born with this personality trait or they have seen this type of behavior since their child hood. Moreover person with the history of abuse and neglect can also have uncontrolled aggression i.e. Burst out or suppression of anger.

First we talk about the suppression of anger i.e. unable to express the anger in front of the group or community instead of that their anger remains inside them. This phenomenon is also described by a scientist name Freud. He said that if an individual is unable to express the anger then this anger will turn inward in the personality and appears in the behavior of person and ultimately the person end up into depression. According to Stuart, 2009, aggression inward is directly referred to hopelessness which ultimately lead to depression because the person unable to express the anger and become isolated from the society. Furthermore research also shows that suppression of anger can lead to cardiovascular disease. Burns, Evon and Saloum, 1999 explained that the repressors of anger have low tendency to express the anger but they are at high risk of cardiovascular reactivity.

Second extreme of the continuum is burst out. It means that individual unable to control their anger and express it in front of people regardless of time, place and person. According to Higuera, 2006 every person in this world had face the burst out one time in their lives. This doesn’t mean that the individual is aggressive person or they require counseling for that. Until, a person have repeated episode of uncontrolled anger. In burst out there is a risk that one can harm the others as well as its own self so the people with burst out require professional health. If the same behavior of burst out and if this continues, then this will end up the person into physical consequences i.e. injury and coronary artery disease because of stress. In addition, individual might also has to face legal action against this act. In addition, uncontrolled anger can also affect the problem solving and decision making skills. Lachmund, DiGiuseppe and Fuller, 2004 explain that anger can interfere in problem solving, psychological adjustment and performance of an individual. Moreover, due to their awkward behavior community starts dislike them and then isolate them from the society and this isolation and exclusion again end up the person into psychological illness.

After listing down all the consequences it is essential to get rid of it by expressing the anger in the right manner. Do not suppress the anger instead of that first identify the cause and source of anger and then try to rectify the problem because anger is the normal emotion and one should express it appropriately. On the other hand, to mange burst out the very common strategy is time out, relax and divert your mind in order to vent off your feelings. In the end I must say that anger is the feeling which is as normal as expression of emotion of happiness so we have to express anger but at appropriate time, at appropriate place and with appropriate technique. I would like to summarize with the quote of Aristotle, “Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose and in the right way... that is not easy.”