How being angry can make you ill
Cystitis. Colds. Skin complaints . . .
AFTER repeated urinary tract infections, cold sores and battling constant tiredness, naomi wilkinson knew she needed to make changes. She thought she knew what was causing these problems — they began at the same time as her anger got out of control.
After a lifetime of bottling up her feelings and taking anti-depressants with little effect, over two years her emotions started spilling out, leading to explosions up to twice a day directed mainly at her boyfriend.
She says the problems stemmed from the way she was treated by her father.
‘I perceived the smallest comment by my boyfriend as a criticism and it would send me into a rage, my heart would start racing and I needed a release,’ says naomi, 34, who works in private banking.
‘I would shout and scream at him. My reaction was totally over the top. Half the time I didn’t even know why I was angry. It was also making me ill.
‘As my anger became more and more of a problem, I was getting so many urinary infections I was on continuous antibiotics. I got one cold sore after another and was constantly exhausted.’
According to one poll, 12 per cent of people have trouble controlling their anger, a further 28 per cent worry about how angry they sometimes feel.
Anger is vital for survival — it motivates us to resolve problems. But when it occurs frequently and intensely and interferes with thinking, behaviour and relationships, it can have a detrimental effect on mind and body, say experts.
This month, a Canadian study in the journal Circulation reported that getting very angry or upset more than doubles the risk of having a heart attack within an hour.
This could be because extreme emotions have a similar effect to heavy exercise, raising blood pressure and heart rate and reducing blood supply to the heart.
‘This is particularly important in blood vessels already narrowed by plaque [fatty deposits], which could block the flow of blood leading to a heart attack,’ said lead author Dr Andrew Smyth, of McMaster University.
MEANWHILE, a 2014 study published in the european Heart Journal found that a single angry outburst increases the risk of a heart attack nearly fivefold and triples the risk of a stroke.
what’s more, the risks remain for up to two hours after you have calmed down. People who often lose their temper or have existing heart disease are at greatest risk.
Uncontrolled anger has also been linked to digestive problems, skin complaints, headaches, infections, colds, flu, exhaustion, high blood pressure and early death.
‘The mind and body are not separate entities,’ says Dr Fairuz Awenat, a consultant clinical psychologist at The Priory Hospital Cheadle Royal. ‘The two interact — though the causal mechanism that leads emotional problems to cause physical ones is unknown.
‘when we are angry, the mind perceives a threat and, in response, releases stress hormones such as adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol which cause heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and breathing rates to increase to get the body ready for action.’
These responses are part of the body’s ‘fight or flight’ mechanism, which is designed to deal with acute stresses and is protective in the short term, he adds.
‘However, it is not designed for chronic stress. If people live in a state of constant anxiety, stress and anger, the body wears out and the immune system doesn’t work well.’
If you increase blood pressure even for a few minutes, it can cause plaque in the arteries to rupture, which causes a heart attack or stroke, says Dr James Rudd, a consultant cardiologist and senior lecturer at Cambridge University.
‘Constant stress and anger can mean blood pressure stays raised and this can stimulate inflammation in the arteries and bring out underlying heart disease,’ he says.
‘Compared to something like smoking, the risk of anger or stress causing a heart attack is small, but still real. Some medications to treat heart disease, such as beta blockers, help people relax. So they can be useful for blunting the body’s reaction to stressful situations.’
According to a 2008 report from the Mental Health Foundation, 45 er cent of us often lose our tempers at work, with half hitting or screaming at PCs, or abusing colleagues. while more than 80 per cent of drivers claim to have been involved in road-rage incidents.
Research shows cognitive behavioural therapy (which changes the way you think and behave), anger management courses (one-to-one counselling or group therapy) and meditation can be beneficial.
However, fewer than one in seven people with anger problems seek help, according to the Mental Health Foundation. even when they do, help on the NHS is limited, with only a handful of anger management courses available.
According to Isabel Clarke, a consultant clinical psychologist at Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, simple tactics can help.
‘when you are angry, you breathe in more than out, which messes up the proportion of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the brain. The body does this to concentrate the mind on the threat,’ she says. ‘You can calm down by taking long, slow breaths out.’
naomi paid £645 for a course run by the British Association of Anger Management, consisting of ten weekly three-hour sessions.
‘My boyfriend and I want to get married and have children. I didn’t want my anger to prevent this and I don’t want my children to be terrified of me,’ she says.
After seven weeks, she felt better. ‘My infections have cleared up and I’m no longer taking antibiotics, I don’t wake up exhausted and I am much calmer. now when I start to feel the anger rising, I walk away or go to the gym.
‘I’m so pleased I did something before it was too late.’
Naomi’s name has been changed.