From 1st to 7th December, it’s Anger Awareness Week. Its aim is to identify anger as a disturbing social issue that needs to be brought out into the open and effectively addressed. Of course it is a disturbing social issue with the modern world’s increase in domestic violence, youth crime, classroom disturbances, stress-related illnesses and such as road rage.
Anger Awareness Week will help people by promoting the right ways to calm down and to deal effectively with this emotion, be it their own or that of others. As well as this, the organisers will be promoting its Keep Your Cool Over Yule Kit, which gives tips on handling anger and how to defuse difficult situations.
It looks like this is needed, as:
- More than 50 per cent of Brits have family disagreements over Christmas.
- One in four say their relationship comes under pressure over the festive period.
- Calls to the relationship support charity Relate go up by around 60 per cent.
- The average time for the first family argument on Christmas Day is just before 10am.
However, if channelled correctly, some anger can in fact be a positive rather than negative force. For instance, there would likely still be slavery, apartheid in South Africa, and it was also anger directed in a purposeful way that stopped the Nazis and that gained the vote for women.
But if someone is carrying anger around all the time they will be more restless, irritable and discontent. It’s not good at all for your health: anger is thought to contribute to heart conditions and increase heart attack risk; it can badly affect the liver; tension from anger can give muscle aches and headaches; it can cause skin conditions to start or flare up; then there’s one of the most common consequences of anger – stomach complaints such as gastritis, and it is also thought to be a factor in stomach ulcers.
So none of this is good at all. One thing that’s ideal to let off a bit of steam is exercise. The gym has everything you need for some positive de–stressing. Come and see us some time soon.
