Sometimes it's embarrassment, loneliness, depression, or fear. Other times, it's a combination of several feelings.
Some mental health professionals refer to anger as a secondary emotion. According to Dr. Harry Mills, anger is the emotion we are most aware we are experiencing. However, anger usually just hides the presence of deeper and less comfortable emotions like sadness, guilt, embarrassment, hurt, fear, etc.
Anger is a Secondary Emotion
Typically, one of the primary emotions, like fear or sadness, can be found underneath the anger. Fear includes things like anxiety and worry, and sadness comes from the experience of loss, disappointment or discouragement.
Anger: fury, outrage, wrath, irritability, hostility, resentment and violence.
People often express their anger in different ways, but they usually share four common triggers. We organize them into buckets: frustrations, irritations, abuse, and unfairness.
Humans experience a range of emotions from happiness to fear and anger with its strong dopamine response, but love is more profound, more intense, affecting behaviors, and life-changing.
Fear, like other negative emotions, can trigger our anger. For example, we might feel anger in response to our fear when someone suddenly cuts in front of us while driving down the highway. Similarly, fear of Covid19 can certainly trigger anger toward the virus.
Anger Can Be a Necessary and Useful Emotion:
In doing so anger makes it clear to us who we are. It tells us for example if our space has been invaded, if our freedom has been squashed, if our pride has been injured, if the way we see the world has been invalidated, or if our feelings have been ignored.
Sigmund Freud believed that depression results from anger repressed and directed toward oneself, rather than being expressed externally. Indeed, anger turned inward is common in those who are depressed.
Suppressed anger can be an underlying cause of anxiety and depression. Anger that is not appropriately expressed can disrupt relationships, affect thinking and behavior patterns, and create a variety of physical problems.
The Anger Iceberg represents the idea that, although anger is displayed outwardly, other emotions may be hidden beneath the surface. These other feelings—such as sadness, fear, or guilt—might cause a person to feel vulnerable, or they may not have the skills to manage them effectively.
Anger is a secondary emotion
Typically, we experience a primary emotion like fear, loss, or sadness first. Because these emotions create feelings of vulnerability and loss of control, they make us uncomfortable. One way of attempting to deal with these feelings is by subconsciously shifting into anger.
Is anger a choice? If you believe you can change your response, then the answer is yes. Anger is an important primary feeling which indicates danger and that some of our needs are not being met, yet it remains one of the most undesirable, controversial and one of the least understood emotions.
Summary. The long-term physical effects of uncontrolled anger include increased anxiety, high blood pressure and headache. Anger can be a positive and useful emotion, if it is expressed appropriately. Long-term strategies for anger management include regular exercise, learning relaxation techniques and counselling.
Anger is an emotion characterized by antagonism toward someone or something you feel has deliberately done you wrong. Anger can be a good thing. It can give you a way to express negative feelings, for example, or motivate you to find solutions to problems. But excessive anger can cause problems.
When we become angry, our brain has sent us a message that we need to deal with a threat, such as a rival we must contend with or a need that isn't being met. It is a common misconception that we must vent our anger in order to cope with the perceived threat.
Not all anger is linked to anxiety, but often if individuals take a step back and uncover what is triggering their anger, they may discover that they are showing signs of fear and panic, which may be the root of an anxiety disorder.
The addiction of anger
The first step to breaking the habit of behaving in an angry way is to understand that anger is an addictive emotion. It's powerful and causes surges of adrenaline which over time become physiologically addictive.
Many people say that one of the most difficult emotions to handle is anger. Anger can weaken your ability to solve problems effectively, make good decisions, handle changes, and get along with others. Concerns about anger control are very common.
Rage (also known as frenzy or fury) is intense, uncontrolled anger that is an increased stage of hostile response to a perceived egregious injury or injustice.
Studies have identified anger as being a secondary emotion. A secondary emotion is an emotion fueled by other emotions. For example, if you become hurt in some way, you might express this negative emotion instead of emotional and physical pain – it might be easier to express anger than express hurt.
Anger Can Lead to Self-Improvement
Anger can make you a better person and can be a force of positive change. It provides insight into our faults and shortcomings. If looked at constructively, this can lead to positive outcomes. Just like motivation, it can lead to self-change.
Anger is essentially a control tactic. Underlying anger is fear. The most common fear is not feeling in control of a person or event. Anger is an attempt to control one's own world by attempting to control the actions of others.