DAY 279 -AND SO HE BECAME RED WITH ANGER!

Day 279

For the long weekend, we went up to the country with my brother-in-law’s family. We rented a condo located in a complex that has two pools, a whirlpool, a steam bath, etc. We have been going away on labour day weekend for the past three years and I feel that it’s a great way to end the summer and stock up on vitamin D.


We drove up in two cars and inavertently, my brother-in-law parked his car in the parking spot of another condo owner. On Saturday afternoon, an angry and very agressive man came knocking on our door, screaming that we had ruined his weekend! Because we were parked in his spot, he decided to park in an illegal spot and his car was towed away. It was going to cost him 100$ and he wanted my brother-in-law to pay for it.

As I witnessed that man get upset to the point of losing all sense of reason, I started to think of how anger is an emotion that makes people lose control and sometimes even get violent. I’ve already talked about how important it is for your mental health to learn to manage anger (see Managing your Anger),  but anger can also have an impact on your physical health.  It triggers the body’s ‘fight or flight’ response and, when it's left unmanaged, it can eventually lead to short and long-term health problems including:

- Headaches
- Digestion problems, such as abdominal pain
- Insomnia
- Increased anxiety
- Depression
- High blood pressure
- Skin problems, such as eczema
- Heart attack
- Stroke

The matter of the fact is, it is natural to sometimes get angry. The idea is to learn to cope with the emotion without making it affect your own physical and mental health, as well as the health of those  around you.

Learning to breath, getting away from the situation until your thoughts are clear, counting up to 10, doing exercise are all great ways to manage anger.  In the end, although you need to express your feelings, it has to be done with level-headedness so that you don't end up ruining your relationships, your health as well as your day!

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