How to Cope with a Uncontrollable Anger
Anger is an emotion that everyone will experience at various points in their lives. In fact, it’s a feeling that’s necessary to experience because it acts as a form of protection against potential threats. However, if you find yourself frequently developing clear signs of pent-up rage within you, it might mean you have what’s commonly referred to as a "short fuse" or a hot temper. So perhaps you’re frustrated with a service provider who messed up your order, or with the driver in front of you in traffic who simply refuses to move, or maybe you even tend to "lose it" when your favorite team loses—either way, such outbursts could indicate something more serious. Having a quick temper is something that can negatively affect your well-being, both physically and mentally. Not sure if your passing irritability is natural or if you truly have a short fuse? Don’t know how to deal with the feeling? The following article will provide you with both the signs of a fiery temper and tips for coping with it.
Signs of a Fiery Temper
There are many widely accepted and understandable ways to express your
anger; for example, yelling, glaring looks, or even crying—these are all
healthy and natural ways to express the distress a certain situation
causes you. But if you’re characterized by a fiery temper and a short
fuse, your anger might seem almost primal and could be marked by the
fact that you:
Get irritated easily
Experience shortness of breath when you get upset
Feel your vision blurring
Experience a rise in blood pressure
Your pulse races when confronting the source of your anger.
An outburst of a fiery temper sometimes comes without any warning; it’s
an explosion of emotions. At times, it can certainly cause embarrassment
for the person experiencing it.
How Does a Fiery Temper Negatively Affect
Quality of Life?
If you’re prone to unpredictable and uncontrollable outbursts of anger,
this behavioral pattern could leave you vulnerable to several negative
and problematic social, physical, and even psychological consequences.
A. Can Cause Blood Pressure Issues
If you frequently feel anger, you might eventually find yourself in a
situation where your blood pressure keeps rising. In fact, rage is so
effective at raising blood pressure that it can undo all the work your
body does to lower it while you sleep. Moreover, since anger causes an
increase in the production of catecholamines and corticosteroids, which
affect the body’s stress response, repeated feelings of rage can lead to
heart rhythm disturbances and blood vessel issues. These effects are
responsible for the common link between anger and ischemic heart
disease.
B. Can Lead to Poor Health Choices
A fiery temper and constant anger can also affect your lifestyle; if
these are prominent traits of yours, other negative characteristics
might emerge as a result. Perhaps in an attempt to calm your nerves
after an outburst or out of guilt for losing your temper again, you
might develop problematic and blatantly unhealthy habits, such as
smoking, excessive caffeine consumption, eating calorie-laden foods, or
overindulging in alcoholic beverages or drugs.
C. Can Increase the Risk of Bulimia and
Eating Disorders
This might seem like a problem associated with adolescence, but in
truth, it’s not. Eating disorders of various kinds, particularly
bulimia, can develop at any age, and heightened anger can certainly act
as a catalyst for this. The negative emotions stemming from anger can
lead to a need for continuous, unregulated eating followed by
intentional vomiting. This connection is more prevalent with impulsive
personality traits—and it can definitely manifest even in later stages
of life beyond adolescence if you’re prone to excessive anger.
D. Can Increase the Risk of Traffic Accidents
It’s pretty normal to get annoyed at the irresponsible driving of others
on the road or to wonder why the slowest driver is the one right in
front of you. But when a bit of caution isn’t mixed into our feelings
toward others on the road, and uncontrollable anger builds up while
driving—the results can be devastating. If you regularly experience
what’s known as "road rage," research shows a link between this behavior
and an increased risk of traffic accidents. This might happen because
you’re too focused on your raging emotions rather than driving, leading
to insufficient focus on the road itself—and even loss of control over
the vehicle, causing accidents.
E. Can Cause Feelings of Anxiety
If you’ve already experienced anxiety attacks in your life—a phenomenon
that’s neither rare nor insignificant—you’re surely familiar with the
physical sensations that take over during such moments, like excessive
sweating, trembling, and rapid breathing. To some extent, this isn’t all
that different from anger outbursts, and if, in addition to anxiety,
you also find yourself frequently losing your calm over trivial or
significant reasons alike, there’s a good chance that your anger and
anxiety are intertwined. Various studies have found that the appearance
of heightened and frequent anger can be linked to the physical symptoms
of anxiety.
How to Cope with Anger?
4 Helpful Methods
It’s entirely possible that after understanding the particularly
negative implications of a hot temper, a short fuse, and excessive anger
outbursts, it no longer seems appealing to you or like a natural part
of life you just have to accept. True, just like joy and sorrow,
expressing anger in response to things like a broken promise or a missed
opportunity is completely normal, but when anger episodes become more
frequent—it’s time to start dealing with it and addressing it. In this
area, we have some good tips that can help you begin managing your anger
more effectively.
A. Try Positive Self-Training Techniques
When you start feeling the unmistakable signs that anger is building up
inside you, try focusing on positive self-training methods like deep
breathing to calm yourself down. Pairing breathing with calming
self-affirmations that help ease the anger can also contribute to
controlling the rage and gradually distancing it. Repeating this
practice until the feeling softens and your mood stabilizes can help you
prevent outbursts, as well as the negative consequences that come with
them. You can try performing these 7 breathing exercises to relieve
stress, and also press on the pressure points outlined in this
article—which help reduce and eliminate feelings of anger.
B. Talk to Your Loved Ones
Just as you’d turn to the people you love and value when painful things
like heartbreak or joyful events like a promotion happen in your life—so
too can you call them and talk to them when you feel a loss of control
and a fiery temper starting to seep in. It’s a good and healthy way to
cope with this feeling, and there’s no need to be ashamed of exposing
this vulnerability to them—you know they’ll support and contain you so
you can calm down and ease the anger. Your friends and family can
absolutely serve as a "support group" and calm you until the worst
passes.
C. Keep a "Mood Journal"
A good way to cope with anger and identify how often you adopt this
feeling is to keep a journal where you track your emotions. In such a
journal, which can be entirely personal to you, note the events that
trigger your outbursts, as well as the thoughts running through your
mind when it happens. This will help you better understand your emotions
in order to deal with them more effectively and ultimately overcome
them.
D. Seek Professional Help
Ultimately, if your emotions are too intense and volatile, and it feels
hard to contain and control them through self-help, there’s no shame in
seeking professional assistance to help you take matters into your own
hands. Professional therapists—whether psychologists, psychotherapists,
or specialists in anger management —can help you
start identifying negative emotions and controlling them, thus
suppressing anger outbursts. Through such therapy, you might learn
different, healthier ways to cope with the triggers that spark your
fiery temper outbursts.
In Summary
As mentioned, under normal and controlled circumstances, anger is a
logical and acceptable part of life. However, when it spirals out of
control and becomes your defining trait, it’s harmful, destructive, and
requires addressing. While a fiery temper and a short fuse are powerful
feelings, it’s important to remember that anger is something you can
ultimately manage; with breathing techniques, support from loved ones,
and professional help if needed—you’re capable of overcoming it. Keep in
mind that the goal isn’t to completely eliminate anger from your life
but to prevent it from overpowering you and defining your mental
well-being. Adhering to the anger management methods we’ve recommended
can help you bring those feelings under control.
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