”Anybody can become angry-that is easy, but to get angry with the right person and to the right degree, and at the right time and purpose, and in the right way-that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy”- Aristotle

Anger is an intense and physically aroused emotional state which involves a strong uncomfortable and hostile response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. Biologically, it has a functional value for our survival. Probably, it is one of the commonest emotional experiences for many people. 

Anger has potential to activate the psychological resources to utilize it for raising one’s voice against unfair treatment or for the promotion of social justice but it becomes unhealthy when it fails to find its appropriate outlet in expression. Anger in its pathological form impairs one’s ability to process information and exert cognitive control over their behavior. In such condition a person may lose his objectivity, prudence or thoughtfulness and may harm themselves or others. This is why it holds a negative connotation having its association with conflict, aggression and hostility. 

 Anger is not always a response or reaction to the situation or person in question, but is rather a displaced emotion of a possible unlikely situation that has nothing to do with the current situation/circumstance. Displacement as stated by Freud is a psychological defense mechanism in which negative feelings are transferred from the original source of the emotion to a less threatening person or object. For example, the boss yells at the employee, the the employee yells at his wife, who yells at the children, the children harm the dog and the dog barks at harmless strangers. This typically explains the phenomenon of displaced anger in our day to day lives. Children and weak individuals are easy targets of displaced anger. Whenever a person’s efforts to certain goal are thwarted, it causes frustration to him which in turn leads to aggression.Dollard and Miller’s Frustration-aggression hypothesis states that aggression is the result of blocking, or frustrating a person’s efforts to attain a goal, and frustration always precedes aggression.

Anger also symbolizes a kind of sadness within the person. As Freud’s depiction of the psychopathology of depression also states that repressed anger is turned inward causing depression in the person. And when anger is expressed outwardly it takes a form of aggression causing harm to others. Therefore, reactions to anger may be either internalizing or externalizing viz, passive-aggressive, and active-aggressive and sometimes mixed ways. The former one is being submissive to anger and might lead the person to become seriously depressed and suicidal and the later one is being aggressive and might turn the person into homicidal or antisocial. 

 Hence, if one is throwing anger on others quite frequently, it needs a serious contemplation on the part of the person in question, that it requires to be addressed timely before leading to harmful effects of it.

Some people are of the view that anger is inevitable and its expression is must to stay mentally healthy, this is why countries like Germany have come up with a concept called “Rage room freak out” where anger is understood and a space is provided to break anything in it with a sledge, hammer, axe, baseball, or a golf club. However, that cannot be considered as a healthy way because it may cause a kind of compulsion for a person to break things whenever he gets angry on the first hand and on the other it’s a destructive way which can have a negative effects on person’s mind and creates a kind of disequilibrium in brain and body. Basically anger like other emotions is a transient mental state which lasts within some moments only and where a person gets physically aroused due to the activation of corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) and secretion of what is called stress hormone, the ‘cortisol’ which causes aggression or violent acts in those particular moments. This physical arousal can be channelized and violent acts can be thwarted if in that particular moment any harmless physical activity is exercised like boxing, running, jumping or aerobics. This not only reduces the activated cortisol levels in the body, but they can also distract the person from anger and moreover intense physical activities release endorphins in our body which actually help release serotonin ultimately leading to happy state of mind. 

In the long run elevated cortisol level may result into disrupted functioning of prefrontol cortex and hippocampus affecting adversely our judgment ability and working memory respectively ultimately leading to reduced efficiency of our information processing system. Too much release of cortisol not being channelized properly or in adaptive way may cause disrupted or altered blood circulation in brain as well as the reduced levels of serotonin which might lead to depression ultimately and obviously.

Therefore, considering the harmful effects of anger not only for the person himself but for others and society at large, it needs to be addressed and dealt in a healthy way. Unlike other illnesses it is the illness which remains unnoticed or doesn’t come under the spectrum of illnesses but can result into adverse mental as well as physical consequences. The difference between healthy and unhealthy anger would be that in unhealthy anger the demands of the person would be high combined with low frustration tolerance and globally less acceptance of oneself, others and situations and vice versa is the case with healthy anger. The occurrence of anger turned into aggression can be prevented by introspection on the part of the person, working upon acceptance of oneself, others and situations combined with increasing frustration tolerance.  If you find yourself to be a little in an irritable state of mind for considerably longer time and it is affecting and interfering your day to day life and interpersonal relations, just ponder over as to what it is really bothering you which might be driven back by your conscious mind to your subconscious to keep you from facing it. Just identify and face that. If it is not dealt for long, it will be expressed in the form of outward anger or you might develop depression. This could be the preventive measure of anger where you can prevent your frustration turned into aggression by dealing it at the level of frustration only by being aware of your thought process and modifying them. 

Mindful meditation can be an effective and helpful way in this direction. Besides this have a healthy lifestyle by channelizing your frustration into lots of physical activities like exercises, boxing, outdoor games, zumba, yoga and meditation, going to gym and also indulging yourself to the activities where you can utilize your unique abilities like singing, poetry, writing articles, dancing, gardening, or anything which soothes your soul will keep you mentally strong to tolerate stress and frustration you might face in different life situations. Last but not the least, as per cognitively oriented therapists, ultimately our mind is more powerful or master over our body, our bodily process can be modified by changes brought about in our mind. Now enough empirical evidence is there to suggest that the way we think can alter and affect our neuronal activity. So ultimately everything depends on how we think or how we look at our life’s situations.