Born This Way?
Emotions like anger trigger our body’s “fight-or-flight” response, driving the release of hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which speed up heart rate and give us the boost of energy we need to confront or escape from a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, our bodies can’t distinguish between the fight-or-flight response needed to evade, say, a giant predator, and the response needed to react to an obnoxious coworker. And while this stress response is an evolutionary advantage in an emergency, it causes harm to the body when activated on a regular basis.
Science suggests that some of us may be hard-wired to react to stressful situations in healthier ways than others. According to a study published in the Public Library of Science journal, approximately one in 20 children and adults exhibits clinically significant anger, hostility and aggression, and these outbursts may be associated with impaired neural circuits that regulate emotion, cognition and inhibition.
The Angry Lifestyle
In addition to our genetic predisposition to anger and learned anger management skills, frequent anger can lead to poor lifestyle choices that can cause health problems, including smoking, drinking and recreational drug use. A 2012 study by Northeastern University also showed that, among study participants, anger led to riskier decision-making, which can lead to dangers such as car accidents triggered by road rage.