Stress and Anger

There is positive: getting married, a new job, new house, or negative stress: employment termination, the current pandemic, and politics. "Hyperstress and hypostress are defined as too many tasks to handle, or not enough, and it causes bored feelings" (Cahn & Abigail, 2014, Ch.8.1). These two, I was not aware of, and it makes sense, but I believe it can still fall into distress or eustress depending on how they are handled. Anger and communication often do not mix well and can cause miss understanding, untrue words that were stated with frustrations but not true. "Anger is the most destructive emotion in social relationships, seen as a way to force a change through control over the target" (Cahn & Abigail, 2014, Ch.8.2). Forcing change on an object is one thing, but using that force on another person is hostile, and in most cases, underlying other emotions are being repressed when anger is present.

As there are different types of stress, there are different types of anger. Reflective anger and resentment. "Resentful is sees unfairness, is vengeful, distancing oneself from the situation, victimization: the other is more rational coping and cognitive responses" (Suchday et al., 2007, pg.10). When looking at a situation from the more positive, eustress, anger, than one may be able to be objective and not play the blame-game or claim victim of the situation.

Stress and anger not only affect communication abilities but health as well. "Negative consequences of anger experience and expression of anger was related to greater stress, less adaptive coping, and poor health" (Diog et al., 2005,pg.24). The study later goes on to say that the social support system increased health functions in the body and the mind when the study group was faced with stress and anger.

Stress is just part of life. It is how one reacts to stress that impacts health, mental function, and the outcome. In my option, most situations can be viewed from positive sides. I personally see the pandemic in five or ten years to have developed improved community resistance and the government to improve the food system that aids in body healing; it is how I turn the fear that is being created into a positive. But according to my personality quiz from last week, I look at the long-distance term to start with. I see stress as normal in life. If one is not stressed or challenged in one way or the other, then one is not growing, developing, and hopefully becoming better. As a personal trainer, if the muscles and body are not being challenged, stressed and getting micro-tears, then the muscles will breakdown, joint will freeze up, and the person will be a typical 60-year-old in a wheelchair with handfuls of medication just to cope for the next thirty years of a miserable life. As with the body, the mind, feelings, social and other dimensions of health need to be stressed. But anger doesn't need to be part of it, learning how to make anger a positive influence is what will help the communication and conflict improve. I find age, maturity, and experiences make handling anger in conflict more effective.

References

Cahn, D. D., & Abigail, R. A. (2014). Managing conflict through communication (5th ed.) [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/ (Links to an external site.)

Diong SM, Bishop GD, Enkelmann HC, Tong EMW, Why YP, Ang JCH, & Khader M. (2005). Anger, stress, coping, social support and health: modelling the relationships. Psychology & Health, 20(4), 467–495.

Suchday, S., Friedberg, J. P., Almeida, M., Larkin, K. T., & Adonis, M. N. (2007). Angry thoughts predict stress & health among college students in Mumbai, India. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 31(4), 559–572. https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/10.1007/s10608-006-9039-4