Anger is a normal emotion that often signals that one feels wronged.  It can either be helpful or harmful.  If one is being harmed, for example, and is in need of taking immediate corrective action, anger can facilitate one’s ability to do so appropriately (e.g., a woman is attacked as she walks alone and summons her anger to fight off her attacker). 

However, anger can become harmful to one’s self or others when it becomes inappropriate, chronic, and unmanageable. Anger can be a sign of unrecognized or unresolved sadness, pain, hurt, or loss.   These underlying feelings can fuel behaviors such as the following:

• Overreactions (outbursts out of proportion)
• Verbally abusive language
• Physical Assaults on others
• Self-injurious behavior
• Tension held in the body (clenched fists or jaw, glaring looks, etc.)
• Substance Abuse / Dependency

In some cases, unmanageable anger is a diagnosable mental disorder, such as with Intermittent Explosive Disorder.  Anger can also be an associated feature of other mental health disorders (e.g., Mania, Borderline Personality Disorder, etc.).

It is important to note that suppression of anger can also have harmful effects.  For example, a person’s inability to acknowledge anger may cause the manifestation of physical illness.  

Perhaps one of the best examples of someone who has used anger both appropriately (to fuel an ability to become a successful boxer) and inappropriately (to physically assualt others) in his life is the professional fighter Mike Tyson, who has recently opened up about some of the underlying pain that has fueled his anger.  In the following video with Oprah, you can see how Mike struggles with his underlying pain in the numerous times that he becomes choked up while talking about his losses:

 Mike Tyson Talks With Oprah Winfrey

What Can Be Done About Anger?

In order to reduce the intensity and frequency of angry feelings and increase the ability to recognize and appropriately express angry feelings as they occur, one must first begin to talk about the things that makes one angry.  This is where talking to a trained psychologist may be beneficial, as psychotherapy techniques, will help you:

• Verbally acknowledge anger
• Identify targets of and causes for anger
• Identify pain and hurt of past or current aspects of life that fuel anger
• Verbalize feelings of anger in a controlled, assertive (versus aggressive) manner

The American Psychological Association offers the following information about anger and anger management: Control Anger Before It Controls You