Feeling intense and frequent anger (especially when it outsizes the trigger) can have consequences on your physical and mental well-being.
Anger is not only an uncomfortable feeling, but spending too long being angry can have ill effects on your health.
At its best, anger alerts us to danger and inspires action. But anger is an emotion characterized by feeling antagonism toward someone or something that has wronged you, according to the American Psychological Association (APA).
When anger experiences are too frequent, too intense, last too long, or are out of proportion to the triggering event, the emotion can have problematic effects on our well-being and our health, according to Raymond Chip Tafrate, PhD, a clinical psychologist and professor at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain.
“Anger is part of the fight, freeze, or flight response in which the adrenal glands flood the body with stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol,” explains Dr. Tafrate.
We experience physiological effects like an increased heart rate and blood pressure, rapidly pushing blood to the heart. The body is physically preparing to fight to defend itself or flee from danger.
While this stress response system in our body has evolved to protect us, in most cases, we don’t need that extra energy boost to deal with whatever is causing our anger (unexpected traffic, a child acting up, or a terse email from a coworker).
And chronic activation of stress hormones leads to serious physical and mental illnesses. Here are some health effects of anger to know about:
1. Anger Stresses Out the Heart
Experiencing anger triggers the body to release stress hormones, which over time can take a toll on heart health. Research shows that anger (even momentary anger measured by changes in facial expression) results in changes in the heart that worsen the muscle’s ability to pump blood, which can lead to high blood pressure and subsequent complications (like heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and metabolic syndrome).
Research, accordingly, shows that people with higher anger (those who tend to perceive situations as hostile and are less capable of controlling their hostile thoughts and feelings) are at greater risk of coronary heart disease. Another study found that higher trait anger was also linked to higher risk of death from coronary heart disease and complications.
Anger also impacts people with arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats), according to Rachel Lampert, MD, the director of the Sports Cardiology Program at Yale Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
“We’ve shown that if you're prone to having ventricular arrhythmias (abnormal heartbeats that originate in your lower heart chambers) — or you're prone to having atrial fibrillation (abnormal rhythm in the upper chambers) — the odds of having one of these arrhythmias are higher during times when you're angry or stressed,” Dr. Lampert says. This is because adrenaline, which increases when you’re angry, can cause electrical changes in the heart.
2. Anger Increases Risk of Heart Attacks
Evidence also suggests that anger is specifically linked to higher risk of heart attacks.
In a systematic review that looked at studies with a total of nearly 4,000 participants from more than 50 medical centers in the United States, researchers found a more than twofold increase in heart attacks within two hours after an anger outburst, an association that was also found to be stronger with increasing intensity of anger. This suggests more intense anger is indeed worse for your heart, the researchers noted.
3. Anger Can Disrupt Digestion
Much research shows that the brain and gut are in constant communication and influence each other. One role of our autonomic nervous system (which regulates involuntary bodily processes) is to help regulate digestion.
But that can be disturbed when the body goes into fight-or-flight mode, as can happen in response to stress.
“You can expect some changes in the function and performance of the gut,” said Pankaj Jay Pasricha, MD, the chair of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona. Research shows, for example, that stress can lead to unpleasant symptoms in gastrointestinal tract (including abdominal pain, stomach upset, and diarrhea) — and over the longer term chronic stress has been linked to the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
4. Too Much Anger Hinders Mental Health
Being in a state of anger strains can take a toll, too, on mental health. Studies show that anger is often elevated in emotional disorders, such as anxiety and depression, and is associated with both worse symptoms and a lesser response to treatment.
Anger (especially prolonged anger) can also affect our concentration and thinking patterns, according to APA. It can make us more hostile or cynical, which can take a toll on our relationships and ability to form bonds. All of this can certainly be damaging to wellbeing.
“Our anger reactions can cause harm to our most important relationships,” Tafrate said. Humans are social creatures, and we need social connections to thrive. “Anger can set the stage for nasty verbal rants or even violent behavior.”
5. Anger Can Mess With Your Sleep
People who struggle to control their anger or feel angry more often have been shown to experience worse sleep. One study looked at the correlation between higher anger and sleep disturbances, such as difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep in middle-aged Korean men and women. Moderate-to-high levels of anger were significantly associated with 40 percent to 70 percent increases in the risk of sleep disturbances in adults studied.
Other research suggests that feeling angry increases psychological arousal and mental unrest, which subsequently makes it more difficult to fall asleep.
The Takeaway
Anger isn’t just a fleeting feeling — it affects your body and mind in serious ways.
Chronic anger can increase your risk of heart disease, disrupt digestion, and negatively impact mental health and sleep.
Finding healthy ways to manage your anger can significantly improve your overall well-being.
