The Connection Between Anger and Stress

When I was pregnant with my son, it was a very happy time. Unfortunately, it was also quite a stressful time. I was put on bed rest from about 20 weeks until the end. The stress of the hard pregnancy definitely led to more angry outbursts from me than the norm. I had my two daughters already, three and five. During this period I had to self monitor with a blood pressure cuff and a contraction belt. After the monitoring period, I would plug the cord into the phone line and a nurse would receive my information.

One time I got a call back immediately. Her first question was what I was angry about? I had yelled at the girls for being bad right before I did my monitoring, but had already forgotten the short lived incident. The nurse explained that since my blood pressure was usually good, the spike she just saw had to have been caused by an "incident". What was the spike you may be asking? My usual 120/60 was now 180/105.

This was not only dangerous to my own health, but that of my unborn child as well. I had no idea that being angry could stress your body to such a degree, especially for a seemingly minor incident. It was from that point on that I decided to learn to control my temper, my anger. I very rarely get angry, and when I do, I try to think of something else, give myself a "time out" and get back to my mellow self. Anger isn't worth the stress it produces within your body, particularly the heart.

Danger To The Heart

The Journal of the American College of Cardiology did a study on people who had been hospitalized with a heart attack. All of the patients were asked what they were doing at the time of the heart attack. The most frequent answer was that they were angry. Furthering the study, to prove their hypothesis that anger induced heart arrhythmia's, patients were hooked up to a monitoring device. They were then asked about any moment of anger over a short period. Lampert the doctor heading the study was proven correct when each of the patient being monitors had more electrical activity in the heart. This is what causes arrhythmia's. So even thinking about something that makes one angry cause stress to the heart, and mental anguish.

What We Can Do To Manage Anger And Stress

There are mental health doctors, like counselors and anger management that teaches us coping mechanisms. This can help keep the person form stressing out, and in turn, getting angry. Mental health help can also help us manage our anger before it puts our health in danger. Please see the blue pages in your phone book to find a place in your area that helps with matters of stress and anger.

We could also do this on our own, like I did. You just have to realize what anger and stress can cause to your body, and control is learned easily and quickly. Then before you know it, it is a way of life. You just remain laid back and don't sweat the small or even the big stuff because deep down, you know it could eventually kill you.

Personal experience
http://content.onlinejacc.org/