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How does anger affect your mind?

Anger is an instinctive human emotion, a warning sign that something is not ‘OK’, you are being blocked in your goals or your beliefs are under threat. Anger is natural, ranges from annoyance to deep rage, manifested in body and mind and filtered through the soul. There are many triggers for anger that are universal to mankind, but some are soul based, that part of you that is unique, where your character, cultural experiences or religious beliefs and feelings come together.

Triggered in the amygdala, the instinctive emotion centre of your brain, anger can temporarily overpower the cognitive or logical thought process in your mind. Your thinking can become irrational, accusatory, prejudiced, and risky. Your memory and creativity are blocked. In anger, your brain and body are prompted into an instinctive immediate ‘fight or flight’ response which clouds the mind. Here are seven ways anger affects your thinking. 

Anger blocks your logical thinking in your brain

Anger arises in your brain, in the amygdala, the area that identifies threats and works so fast that it can prompt the body into action before your cortex (the part of the brain responsible for cognitive thought and judgment) has time to process the information. In his book ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’, Daniel Khanneman notes that the more overloaded your brain is, the more likely you are to revert to his term for thinking ‘System 1’, the instinctive thinking from the amygdala than ‘System 2’, the system for our logical thinking in the cortex.

System 1 has more influence on behavior when System 2 is busy… People who are cognitively busy are also more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language, and make superficial judgments in social situations

If your mind is overloaded, anger is easily triggered

When your mind is overloaded and you have too many things to think about, anger tends to be triggered by the smallest of things and you can find yourself overreacting to something quite irrelevant that would not normally induce your anger.

 

In anger, your mind can lose control 

The ‘instinctive fight or flight’ reaction prompts your brain and body into action. Through societal conditioning, most people can avoid physical aggression but openly aggressive anger in the form of verbal attacks is more common. You can say hurtful, judgmental things to others which provokes a cycle of anger and resentment, damaging relationships, and emotional health.

There are three types of anger reactions:

  1. Passive Aggression – used to avoid confrontation, you become silent with the target of your anger, sulk and procrastinate while pretending everything is OK. This can be annoying to others. However, it can be useful to take time out when you are in a heightened state of aroused anger in order to give your mind time to get back to logical thought.
  2. Open Aggression is complete confrontation when you act on anger, fighting, attacking, accusing, launching verbal attacks on the target of your anger or yourself, which can be very damaging. Always avoiding and internalising anger can be unhealthy as you never find a release and emotion, with all the associated stress hormones fester in your body and mind.  Allowing your mind to process why you have anger helps unnecessary damage. 
  3. Assertive Anger is when you can express your anger in a measured way which limits the damage to others. Understanding your triggers, finding ways to get your cortex in your brain active into more logical thinking before confrontation can be a much more successful way of facing your anger and letting it go.

 

Anger arises when our goals or beliefs are blocked.

Anger is a basic human emotion triggered when our goals or beliefs are blocked. We all feel it, wherever we come from. For a happy balanced life, the first step is to understand our emotions, our triggers, practical steps to take in order to avoid destructive situations.

For more information about Anger you might be interested in these other articles:

What is Anger? Understanding Anger/Anger Explained

How does anger effect the body?

How does anger affect the mind?

How does anger affect the soul?

What hormones are connected to anger?

Instinctive aggressive anger hurts relationships

Anger is instinctive, it can override the logical thought process in your mind. Letting yourself be openly aggressive in a state of anger and verbally attacking others can be harmful to others, who take offence and often reciprocate themselves, causing offense to you. It can damage your relationships. Similarly, always directing angry thoughts at yourself hurts your self-esteem.

Anger can block memory in your mind

Neurotransmitter chemicals known as catecholamines, which include dopamine epinephrine (adrenaline, also defined as a hormone) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) are released in the brain causing a surge of energy in your body. It is also known as the adrenaline rush. Your attention narrows as your brain is solely focused on the target or your anger. Your memory can be blocked. As the heightened sense of emotion subsides, some do not recollect the event as it has not been processed through the mind.

Anger makes your mind more biased and judgmental

Incidental anger (anger not necessarily directly linked to another person, e.g., created through memories of anger inducing events, films or external factors) can affect how you judge others, you are slower to see their positive side.

Anger makes your mind less trusting

Incidental anger (anger not necessarily directly linked to another person, e.g., created through memories of anger inducing events, films, or external factors) also erodes your trust in others.

Instinctive emotions are like the weather, beyond your conscious control. For a balanced life, the first step is to understand human instinctive emotions, how they work and practical steps to take in order to avoid situations that are destructive to emotional wellbeing. Not every instinctive emotion that is acted on has positive consequences. Sometimes, it may be best to take shelter from the storm, for example, if you are so angry, it may be best to take time out to allow your mind to take back control of logical thought.

Anger arises when our goals or beliefs are blocked.

Anger is a basic human emotion triggered when our goals or beliefs are blocked. We all feel it, wherever we come from. For a happy balanced life, the first step is to understand our emotions, our triggers, practical steps to take in order to avoid destructive situations.

For more information about Anger you might be interested in these other articles:

What is Anger? Understanding Anger/Anger Explained

How does anger effect the body?

How does anger affect the mind?

How does anger affect the soul?

What hormones are connected to anger?