For children, anger issues often accompany other mental health conditions, including ADHD, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Tourette's syndrome. Genetics and other biological factors are thought to play a role in anger/aggression. Environment is a contributor as well.
The trauma and shock of early childhood abuse often affects how well the survivor learns to control his or her emotions. Problems in this area lead to frequent outbursts of extreme emotions, including anger and rage.
What causes anger issues? Many things can trigger anger, including stress, family problems, and financial issues. For some people, anger is caused by an underlying disorder, such as alcoholism or depression. Anger itself isn't considered a disorder, but anger is a known symptom of several mental health conditions.
Anger expression and life events were correlated (r = 0.28), and bivariate genetic modeling showed that 61% of this correlation was mediated by common genetic factors.
Development of Anger Issues in Young Children
What is this? Scientists have found that anger can appear in infants as young as 4 months old. Anger reactivity increases over time and peaks at around 18-21 months of age10. This period in toddlerhood is commonly known as the “terrible twos”.
Although everyone experiences anger in response to frustrating or abusive situations, most anger is generally short-lived. No one is born with a chronic anger problem. Rather, chronic anger and aggressive response styles are learned. There are multiple ways that people learn an aggressive angry expression style.
Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is a mental health condition marked by frequent impulsive anger outbursts or aggression. The episodes are out of proportion to the situation that triggered them and cause significant distress.
The meta-analytic research by Ackerman and Heggestad (1997) reported a negative association between general intelligence and general aggression as a personality trait (effect size = −. 19), and the same direction of relationship between trait anger and cognitive ability was found by Austin et al. (2002).
Children who have older brothers become more aggressive over time, on average, than those who have older sisters. Older siblings with younger sisters become less aggressive.
events in your past – people who experience traumatic, frightening or stressful events sometimes develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which can lead to angry outbursts. substances such as drugs and alcohol – which make some people act more aggressively than usual.
Increased anger with age is a common problem, but you don't have to feel angry all the time. Blue Moon Senior Counseling offers therapy for anger management, stress, anxiety, and other common problems affecting older adults.
Childhood trauma in adults also results in feeling disconnected, and being unable to relate to others. Studies have shown that adults that experience childhood trauma were more likely to struggle with controlling emotions, and had heightened anxiety, depression, and anger.
As the oldest daughter enters adulthood, she may experience sadness and depression without identifying a reason for either. This state can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as personality disorders and free-floating anxiety.”
A toxic sibling relationship is a relationship that is unbalanced in its power dynamic and may involve sibling abuse and dysfunctional sibling rivalry. Sibling estrangement can be caused by parental favouritism, having immature parents, parental or sibling abuse and psychopathy.
The short answer is that anger can run in families, and genetics can indeed play a role—which might help to explain your angry inclinations. However, there's another significant factor that can lead to kids adopting angry tendencies from their relatives: learned behavior.
According to an article called "Where did my IQ points Go? in Psychology Today, when we get angry the light goes out in the prefrontal cortex, which is the excutive functioning and decision making region of the brain. It's like we're operating with 10 to 15 less IQ points when we're angry.
Stress, financial issues, abuse, poor social or familial situations, and overwhelming requirements on your time and energy can all contribute to the formation of anger. As with disorders such as alcoholism, anger issues may be more prevalent in individuals who were raised by parents with the same disorder.
There are three types of anger which help shape how we react in a situation that makes us angry. These are: Passive Aggression, Open Aggression, and Assertive Anger.
While you can't cure anger, you can manage the intensity and effect it has upon you. Effective therapeutic strategies exist for managing anger and can help you become less reactive. You can even learn to develop more patience in the face of people and situations you cannot control.
Fear and anger are not problematic emotions in and of themselves. However, how some people choose to handle these emotions is what sometimes becomes problematic. Fear ultimately breeds anger out of the innate human instinct for self-defense.