As humans, we are prone to experiencing a wide variety of emotions and feelings, both positive and negative ones. A lot of factors are responsible for how we feel, the people we relate with, what we spend our day doing, the food we eat, the drugs we take, medical history, etc. these emotions we feel are involuntary action controlled by the brains response to stimuli in our environment.
The hippocampus, hypothalamus, and amygdalin located between the brain stem and the central hemisphere govern and regulate the emotions we feel. The type of emotions we feel stems from actions and inactions in our daily lives. Positive emotions like joy, forgiveness, pride, amusement, hope, pride, inspiration, love, gratitude, and serenity are often a result of satisfactory occurrences going on around us. These positive emotions cause a state of relaxation and also helps to boost our immune system.
Negative emotions include anger, sadness, fear, sorrow, feeling hopeless and helpless, distress, and depression. These negative emotions cause damage to our body organs e.g. fear affects the kidney, anxiety affects the heart and sadness affects the heart and lungs
Anger is a strong feeling of annoyance displeasure or hostility. Synonymous words used to describe this feeling are fury, vexation, irritability, ill-temper, road rage, annoyance, and wrath. Common emotions known to trigger anger are shame, sadness, fear, jealousy, hurt, embarrassment, worry, and guilt. There are several types of anger such as verbal anger, violate anger, retaliatory anger, passive anger, annoyance anger, justifiable anger, etc. but there are three main types of anger that determine how we react in certain situations.
PASSIVE AGGRESSION
Is a type of behavior or personality characterized by indirect resistance to the demand of others and avoidance of confrontation. It the indirect expression of feelings of rage and hurt due to the inability to honestly and openly express your true feelings. Some examples of passive-aggressive behavior include:
Making excuses
Fear of intimacy
Evading problems
Sarcasm
Playing the victim
Signs of passive-aggressive behavior
Frequent complaints about being unappreciated
Procrastination
Acting cynical and hostile
Resentment and disagreeing with the demands of others
Performing tasks inaccurately and being very stubborn
Refusal to meet deadlines and follow instruction
Making others take the blames for your wrongdoings
HOW TO DEAL WITH A PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE PERSON
Pay attention to people showing intense signs of passive-aggressive behaviors
Avoid having issues like quarrel and fights with passive-aggressive people
Study your behavior and recognize your own signs and symptoms of exhibiting passive-aggressiveness
Set boundaries and limit the extent to which you can tolerate his or her behavior
Establish consequences for wrong actions and inactions
OPEN AGGRESSION
Open aggression can cause mental disorders if not properly managed. Being very aggressive can be triggered by a lot of factors such as drugs, alcohol, and other pending life issues you might be experiencing. it can also come as a side effect of prescription drugs.
Signs and symptoms of aggression
The hostile reaction to normal daily occurrences
Poor communication skills
Verbally abusive
Lack of concentration and verbal reasoning
Agitation, moodiness, and anxiety
Unwillingness to accept responsibility for actions taken
How to handle hostile and aggressive people
Keep your distance and avoid confrontation as much as possible
Consider inviting a third party to intervene on your behalf in cases of the close relationship
Study yourself and examine signs of hostile reaction to things around you
Communicate and express your concern
Respond to their aggressiveness with calmness and avoid engaging in the chaos they’re creating
ASSERTIVE ANGER
Assertive anger is a way to resolve conflicts in a respectful and tranquil manner while taking into consideration everyone involved in the issue to avoid unintentionally hurting people’s feelings.
Signs and symptoms that a person is exhibiting assertive behavior:
Calm and windless resolution of fight and quarrels
Avoidance of escalation of small issues especially with aggressive and passive-aggressive people
Friendly and easy to relate with
Paying attention to other peoples likes and dislikes
Being straightforward and honest
Some experts believe that anger triggers a fight or flight response in the brain, anger causes physical responses like increased levels of adrenaline and increased blood pressure.
Some experts suggest that an average person gets angry at least once a day, others suggest that we experience anger an average of fifteen times a day.
Anger is not a mental disorder but is considered to be a symptom of other mental health issues.
A therapist can help teach the necessary skills to help manage and control unhelpful thoughts and situations that trigger anger. Some skills and techniques used in anger management therapy include self-awareness, impulse control, breathing technique, meditation, and relaxation strategies.
