The Pros And Cons Of Anger

Anger is often associated with negative connotations. Yet is it not all bad.

Some of the most successful people I’ve personally met have little to no reservations to unleashing their anger. The is management and how to harness the power of it.

Everybody experience a bout of anger every once in a while. And many feel embarrassed and even ashamed whenever they display it.

It is important to understand that anger is not all bad. There are good elements to it as well.

Positives of anger

If given a choice, I would bet that people would choose to feel angry rather than depressed.

And that is not without reason.

1) Feel alive

As perverse as this sounds, anger can actually make you feel alive.

Your senses heighten. Your fear of being judged diminish. And you are suddenly not afraid of telling what you think as it is.

You become… in the moment.

2) Feel powerful

As a lot of people have either a hold on their anger or a high ceiling of tolerance, most people will not challenge your anger with anger in return.

In fact, somehow we tend to assume that the sensible response to an angry man is to stay calm and be accommodating.

This lack of aggression by other make the angry person feel powerful like an alpha male gorilla thumping his chest.

What a wonderful feeling.

3) Get results from intimidation

As mentioned previously, most people would accommodate those that are angry.

Just look at the customer service centers for mobile phones. The louder a customer argues and the bigger the scene is made, the more likely the store manager would be to offer a truce discount of maybe 10%. 😀

When things don’t go your way, throwing your rattle out of the pram can often work in your favor.

4) Not a pushover

I always felt that standing up for yourself is an important aspect of life in every area.

But a lot of people determine that standing up for yourself is about getting angry!

There are various ways to present yourself when standing up for yourself. But evoking angry while doing it can often serve as a warning to others not to try taking advantage of you again.

This behavior is rampant in corporate offices. I can attest to that.

Negatives of anger

As you can see, there are some very convincing reasons why anger is embraced by some people especially in the line of work.

But even so, the negative aspects of anger greatly outweighs the positives that can be extracted from it.

1) It can make you sick

Getting angry can trigger a flurry of physiological reactions. And not only can is cause an immediate problem in extreme circumstances, it can also have long term effects on the body.

  • Cardiac arrest
  • Passing out
  • Stroke
  • High blood pressure
  • Mental conditions
  • etc

There is actually a lot of science behind this.

Ever heard of the saying “Making my blood boil”? Maybe there is some story behind it.

2) Heart problems

The cardiovascular system becomes vulnerable whenever we get angry. I don’t think we need proof to conclude that.

But if you want to know the specifics, anger increases blood flow to muscles, spike levels of adrenaline, jacks up cortisol, etc.

Even though heart diseases are usually attributed to cholesterol levels and unhealthy habits like smoking, having anger issues does not exactly give you a good base to work with.

3) Causing pain to people around you

It’s bad enough is you have a tendency to physically hurt people when you get angry. But the more painful part is the emotional and psychological damage you put on family and friends.

It’s no fun being around people who gets angry all the time over minuscule issues.

Friends and colleagues start to avoid you and gets too uncomfortable in your presence to be themselves. You start to strain relationships that would take a lot of time to mend, if ever.

That’s just your friends. You family has it worse.

You wife or husband is stuck with you. And the only way to cut ties should you continue with your ways is a divorce.

And what about your children? Is your anger creating a conducive environment for them to grow up into responsible adults?

Your family would be suffering so much pain. Yet have limited options for action. Even you probably won’t want to live under these conditions.

4) Shorter lifespan

Research has shown that people suffering from anger management issues have a shorter lifespan.

Is that not enough to convince you that a change might be necessary?

Appropriate use of anger

Anger is a very powerful emotion that can cause complete chaos.

But if you learn how to channel that anger into a drive to achieve, you could find all the motivation you would ever need to be a stand out success in life.

And in the world of negotiation, sometimes anger can be a very effective tactic to slip onto the negotiating table.

This is probably why counselors and professionals treating victims of anger often don’t go about trying to totally eliminate anger from a sufferer. They only attempt to train him or her on managing it.