Anger

“Laughter is the best medicine” is a well-known phrase. Laughter can improve mood and treatment outcomes, but what about anger?

According to Samantha Reddy, too much anger harms your health. I have heard coaches tell their players, “Get angry!” Does it help win the game or merely increase stress?

Research shows that getting mad is a normal response, but staying mad can cause problems. The secret to non-harmful anger is learning to express it in healthier ways. Anger causes harm to our cognitive functioning. When you get angry, the body’s sympathetic nervous system enters the “fight or flight” mode. Anger can trigger the body to release stress hormones that can affect nerve cells in the brain’s prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, affecting our ability to think rationally. It also shuts off blood flow to the gut and shunts it to major muscles, giving us that sick feeling.

Reddy says it’s important to figure out if you are angry too often. In today’s political climate, it is easy to be angry much of the time. Why doesn’t everyone agree with me? It’s an age-old question. But if we all think the same thing, someone isn’t thinking.

We should all have concern if we are angry more days than not, because getting angry briefly is different than experiencing chronic anger. Anger management requires different strategies for each person, but suppressing anger can backfire. Hypnosis, meditation, mindfulness and music can help defuse chronic anger.

Work to find common ground because life is short.