Anxiety and Anger: What is the Relationship and How to Manage the Symptoms

/

Anxiety and anger are common emotions that have a notable impact on well-being and mental health. Anxiety is usually characterized as feelings of worry, fear, and discomfort while anger is characterized as an intense feeling of displeasure, annoyance, and hostility.

Humans are hardwired to experience anger and anxiety. These emotions are survival mechanisms that are activated in highly stressful situations. Anxiety tends to be a precursor to anger which alerts a human to potential threats. Anger typically triggers a more active response to confront a potential threat.

How are Anxiety and Anger Connected?

When you experience anxiety or anger, your body goes into fight or flight mode. During this time, excess cortisol is produced and shuts down the part of the brain responsible for reasoning and logic.

Common Physiological Symptoms of Anxiety and Anger:

  • Chest tightness

  • Elevated blood pressure

  • Increased heart rate

  • Tight muscles

  • Tension headaches

  • Surge in stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol

  • These reactions are part of the fight or flight response that prepares the body for perceived threats.

Some researchers suggest that anxiety is more closely related to the flight response in a flight-or-fight response while anger is associated with the fight response. Anger usually emerges as an automatic response to menacing triggers, while anxiety develops into a pattern of avoiding triggers that produce uncomfortable emotions.

Some people with an anxiety disorder can become frustrated and angry about the impact that their disorder is having on their lives. Typically, they tend to direct this anger at themselves.

Furthermore, an anxious person’s body and mind tend to be overwhelmed with worry and can feel stressed and depleted of energy. This can make an anxious person struggle to shrug off or ignore things that normally would be manageable to do. As a result, an anxious person can become more irritable and angry quicker.

In addition, anxiety might be a core emotional state underlying a person’s expression of anger. Unaddressed anxiety can increase frustration with yourself, which you may express in an aggressive or hostile manner. Likewise, ignoring or suppressing anger can increase anxiety.

Psychologically, both anger and fear have a common root: a sense of threat. Whether the threat is real or perceived, both emotions help to focus the mind and quickly assess the situation.

Chronic experiences of anxiety and anger are harmful to health. The prolonged stress response to these emotions can lead to conditions such as high blood pressure, pain, headaches, and heart disease. Research indicates that long-term physical effects of anger and anxiety disorders may include:

  • Insomnia and sleep issues

  • High blood pressure

  • Frequent headaches

  • Increased risk of heart disease

  • Prolonged fatigue

  • Worsening asthma or lung issues

How to Better Manage Your Anxiety and Anger:

Physical exercise is a powerful stress reliever that can help you effectively manage your anxiety and stress. Exercise helps you release the tension in your body. Ideally exercising outdoors is a well-known mood booster. Physical exercise stimulates the release of neurotransmitters including serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin which can leave you feeling more positive.

Breathing exercises can help help calm your nervous system. Slow and deep breathing are powerful tools to activate the body’s relaxation response. Practicing controlled breathing exercises can help reduce anger and anxiety.

Mindfulness practice helps you to be more in the present moment. Anchoring your breath can help reduce your heart rate. Focus your attention on moment-to-moment, and notice your senses by attending to sights, sounds, smells, and tactile sensations.

Journaling is a healthy way of managing anxiety and anger. Writing can be a helpful way to release any anxious or angry thoughts. The act of writing your thoughts helps to create some distance between you and your emotions. Expressing thoughts and feelings on paper helps you learn to let go of the feelings.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps you understand how your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and bodily sensations are interconnected. CBT helps you to focus on what is in your control, your thoughts and behaviors. Therapy can help you identify what triggers anger and anxiety, develop more self-awareness, and notice negative thoughts that you can reframe.

Anger and anxiety are valid feelings. If the feelings seem to be lingering longer than usual or impacting your physical and mental health, please consult with a mental health professional. Therapy can be a safe space to understand your emotions better and learn effective coping skills. With the support of a therapist, you can learn to redirect strong emotions in healthy and constructive ways.

If you’re looking for mental health support, please contact me to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation.