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"Why Are We So Angry?"By Michele RosenthalWhat is the cause of anger after suffering trauma? What is the link between Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Anger?Well, Do you notice how angry you are and how often? I lived in that angry state for so long I never thought twice about it. In my world... Well, that is the mood I was so often in. It seemed normal. And now I am no longer angry and I am amazed by what a different world it is when I'm not feeling like a combination of The Grinch, The Wicked Witch of the West and Darth Vader. Recently I started looking around for anger information to better understand why it is such a common stress-related symptom. You might find the reasons, and how anger functions on our behalf, pretty interesting: Defining Anger We have to begin somewhere; may as well start with the source. What is anger, anyway? In this great article by Harry Mills, Ph.D. he explains that, "Anger is a basic human emotion that is experienced by all people. Typically triggered by an emotional hurt, anger is usually experienced as an unpleasant feeling that occurs when we think we have been injured, mistreated, opposed in our long-held views, or when we are faced with obstacles that keep us from attaining personal goals...." "At its roots, anger is a signal to you that something in your environment isn't right. It captures your attention and motivates you to take action to correct that wrong thing." So this can potentially be a good thing! In reaction to experience we sense something's wrong and we should be motivated to take a corrective action. The trick is to take the right corrective action. Unfortunately, too often the psychological unraveling after an unsettling experience gets in our way. This leaves us unable to experience the benefits of anger. We are overwhelmed, and so we don't immediately take constructive steps. But I mean, really, how could we when you consider the role of anger in trauma.... Anger and Trauma Initially, anger is a really useful tool for us. Theories suggest that high levels of anger are actually related to a natural survival instinct. Take heart, depending on how we use it and how we perceive it anger could be viewed as a healthy emotion: We survive experiences and are bolstered in our survival efforts by this driving internal force. (Remember this for later: We have a healthy, instinctive driving internal source for survival. That's a good thing!) This great @health.com 'Anger and Trauma' article offers this explanation of the role of anger: "Anger is usually a central feature of a survivor's response to trauma because it is a core component of the survival response in humans. Anger helps people cope with life's adversities by providing us with increased energy to persist in the face of obstacles." "However, uncontrolled anger can lead to a continued sense of being out of control of oneself and can create multiple problems in the personal lives of those who suffer from PTSD." (This article also offers a guide to finding relief, to anger in post traumatic stress disorder so you may want to take some time reading through the entire page.) Adding to the mix in explaining the post-trauma emotional environment, take a look at this article about 'Common Reactions after Trauma' on the National Center for PTSD web site. As in everything with PTSD, anger is another one of those coping/survival mechanisms that gets out of control. What began as something to help us cope and keep us safe outlives its usefulness. We are so far gone emotionally we do not stop to consider what is happening or how we can stop it. We get so used to being angry! And we lose sight of who we were before the trauma... it becomes so distant and unfamiliar, that we don't even realize we are living in an altered state. We accept this is who we are now. After my trauma I knew I had been changed and I accepted that. But that was wrong! Yes of course we are changed, but those effects do not have to be negative and dysfunctional forever. We can be changed in good ways: we have experienced something that taught us things about ourselves. Things like: 1) our large capacity for inner strength, 2) our survival tools, 3) our deep reserve of will, 4) our incredible amount of courage, 5) our ability to face fear and transcend adversity. When we get lost in anger we fail to appreciate our survival of circumstance. We see only the bad that happened; the cause of anger. We lose sight of the fact that WE ARE SURVIVORS, and surviving means more than just struggling through the trauma and the aftermath. Literally, surviving means we 'outlive' an event. But when we feed our anger, what part of us lives? Not all the good, the possible, the amazing... In feeding anger we keep the trauma alive, which means the trauma wins. Now that's something to be angry about! |
Michele Rosenthal is a survivor of trauma and chronic-extreme PTSD. She the founder of a PTSD organization, Heal My PTSD, LLC, which advocates for PTSD education, awareness, treatment, and healing.
Here is Michele's excellent blog. Contact her via email at parasitesof.themind@yahoo.com. |
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