Anger is a naturally occurring emotion in humans as well as animals. Although the survival significance of aggression cannot be denied, there are drastic impacts of out-of-proportion anger. It is absolutely normal if you are angry about a situation where a person is supposed to be aggressive.
However, being more aggressive and destructive than the problem is itself a problem. Sometimes your aggression is justified, but the environment around you makes you aggressive often, and it will still have long-term disastrous health consequences.
Being in an aggressive state of mind for a prolonged period makes you vulnerable to other mental and physical disorders. If you are already suffering from some diseases, they are worsened by aggression.
Anxiety
A major problem with anger is that it stimulates your fight or flight response to make your body physically ready for a threat. This connection to the endocrine system makes anger harmful to the body, especially if you are angry all the time. Whenever you feel mad even about a little thing, your body will prepare for a fight, and when there is no fight, your body will keep consuming excessive energy.
Excessive release of stress hormones increases anxiety levels in aggressive people because hyper-vigilance is required during a threat. Thanks to this endocrine connection, people with anger issues often suffer from anxiety disorders.
Insomnia
As with anxiety, anger also causes sleep disturbance. Do you remember having an exam the next day when you couldn’t sleep because you were anxious? When the body prepares you for a fight, you become hyper-vigilant, and this hyper-vigilance does not let the body come to a resting position enough to feel sleepy.
People who are often angry are unable to have a sound sleep, and they do not feel fresh after they wake up. This can worsen over time and turn into insomnia.
Hypertension
When you enter a fight, your body increases blood pressure to provide extra oxygen to the muscles. If you are angry without any significant reason or are mad all the time, your blood pressure will be raised. Having elevated blood pressure will damage your circulatory system and heart.
With the passage of time, your body becomes used to increasing blood pressure, which is how you develop hypertension due to being overly aggressive. High blood pressure and pulse rate are the roots of many cardiovascular and muscular disorders. It stresses your circulatory system when blood passes through blood canals with a lot of force.
Depression
You might be wondering how anger can cause depression. Anger may not directly lead to depression, but it has its ways. Frequent anger outbursts cause legal consequences and relationship breakups. People with anger issues cannot keep working at the same company and are often fired. Being fired often gives them financial stress, and all these stressors lead to depression.
Anger may not be equipped with the resources to cause depression on its own. However, it creates circumstances that lead to depression. Issues in occupational, intimate, and financial life can make any person depressed. Staying sad and facing unbearable loss for a prolonged period can cause major depressive disorder.
Stroke
Aggression makes you feel anxious and stressed. A study has found that normal people are 33% less likely to have a stroke than people who face emotional problems. Emotional problems like aggression need to be considered significant. People typically see aggression as a momentary problem, while it can become an important health concern.
Eczema
Inflammatory skin conditions can be a cause of irritated mood and vice versa. Emotional issues can worsen or trigger inflammatory skin conditions if they already exist. Aggression and eczema are a vicious loop you can be stuck in without knowing. That is why students enrolled in challenging degrees often face skin issues.
Getting a hold of your temper can also help ease your skin conditions. Mindfulness and relaxation exercises can be a promising therapy, along with other skin treatments. Good mental health keeps you safe from many skin and organ inflammatory problems.
Conclusion
Short temperament and aggression can directly or indirectly cause multiple health issues. These health issues worsen over time if you don’t seek professional help.