Angry! It is not a laughing matter. My grandson tells me there is one teacher at his school who shows no respect to the boys in his class and that makes him very angry. So is anger a state of mind?

Is anger so funny to us that it is used as comedy? Some of us have seen the movie a couple of years ago about anger management. It is said to be great comedy. Whenever you turn the television on you will see some sit com where one of the characters is angry and that seems to bring about hoards of laughter. Anger is not a laughing matter at least not to the person on the receiving end of it.

Is anger a state of mind, I suppose it is. Happiness, contentment and joy are also states of mind. You can wake up in the morning feeling great whether the sun is shinning or not or you can get up on the wrong side of the bed as the saying goes. Some people hate the first day of the week and that makes them angry, others hate their job so first thing in the morning they are angry. My grandson tells me that there is one teacher at his school who shows no respect to the boys in his class and that makes him very angry. So is anger a state of mind?

Anger has physical effects on the body. If you cannot express your anger is it detrimental to your health? In Chinese medicine they believe anger affects the liver. Anger creates stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. With the constant flow of these hormones health problems can arise in the short term, problems such as headaches, high blood pressure, depression, insomnia to name a few.

Anger will affect your love ones and have a negative impact on the family. This negative feeling will also be directed towards the person who is angry. In the end it will make everyone, including the angry person fearful and guilty which does not help the situation. Members of the family will be walking on eggshells so as not to upset or cause an angry reaction or an argument. This causes stress all round and ill health within the household

There are many causes for anger. I have an uncle of 80 years who is frequently angry and uses quite obscene language to the people who are trying to help him. Does old age make people angry or is it just old age. I myself get angry if I am not feeling well or things are not going right on a particular day. Getting on the bus, driving, waiting in traffic the list can go on and on and we all have various degrees of tolerance.

We need to keep a check on our feelings and reasoning when we meet situations that will frustrate and eventually make us angry. Getting angry in traffic is a waste of energy because short of taking another route there is nothing that can do about it. Kicking the dog only hurts the poor dog and breaking plates costs money for replacements. Hurt feelings with your family cannot be mended easily so we need to keep a check on our reactions to situations.

How to manage your anger, well there are a number of ways to do this and one way is to seek professional help if you believe things are out of control