Anger: The Stormy Phantom In Your Brain

We all know what anger is. We have all felt and ‘emoted’ it, more or less, on a regular basis, whether as a definitive, or fleeting, embodiment of annoyance, or as full-fledged rage. Anger is, in précis, a normal phenomenon. It is also a healthy human emotion. It becomes a dilemma, a difficult-to-handle emotion, or ‘deliciously evil,’ when it gets out of control, or turns vicious. Homeopathy can help the individual with anger issues and also put them back into balance, or even keel.

- Dr Rajgopal Nidamboor

Anger not only leads to problems at work, home and personal relationships, but it also affects one’s quality of life. When you are besieged with anger, it becomes the skin of your thought process too. You now represent the emotional allegory of a cat on a hot tin roof — in other words, a symbol of its erratic and dominant emotional canvas.

Anger varies in intensity — it can range from mild annoyance to rigorous vehemence and fury. Like other emotions, anger is not only flush with physiological and biological undertones and other changes, but also psychological upheavals. You know them, don’t you — elevated heart rate and blood pressure, not to speak of raised levels of power hormones, or chemicals, such as adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol.

Anger speeds up your heart rate and breathing; it also gives you a whole, new burst of energy. Your blood pressure rises as your blood vessels constrict. The burst of energy also plays an instantaneous protective role. Your body’s muscles tense up. Your face may ‘go red’ as increased blood flow enters your limbs and extremities in preparation for physical action. Your attention tapers; it also becomes locked onto the object of your anger. You now don’t pay attention to anything else. As your brain’s neurotransmitters trigger an enduring state of arousal, you are now ready to fight.

THE TRIGGER EQUATION

Anger is also a result of external and internal events. What triggers anger may be a specific person, or situation, for instance, a colleague, or boss, or traffic jam, or cancelled flight. It may also be prompted by worrying, or brooding, spells — this may often relate to one’s personal or career problems. Memories of traumatic or enraging events, likewise, can also provoke angry feelings.