Depression Learning

Does Anger Feed Depression?

Although anger isn’t a symptom of clinical or major depression, anger is usually associated with the disorder in some way. Where there is depression, there is emotional pain, and there may also be some hidden anger that is not being expressed. In many people with depression symptoms, such as with emotional pain, feeds anger and anger fuels the reactive cycle that causes imbalances in brain biochemistry. What is depression in comparison to anger? Anger, emotional pain and depression all have one commonality between them. These three states of being are all negative feelings and emotions which are produced chemically in the brain. However, you are not totally at the mercy of biology and chemistry. You can change how you react to life’s stresses and maintain balance in your brain chemistry.

For many people who suffer from depression symptoms, it may be difficult to know exactly where the emotional pain ends and the anger starts. If you have ever been fighting depression, you may have seen first-hand how easy it is to get upset and angry. For many people, their symptoms feed their anger and possibly inappropriate responses. You may express anger in a very dramatic way and you may feel better for awhile, because you have let some of the emotional pain out in their expression of anger. An explosion of anger is like loosening the lid on a pressure cooker. The steam will rush out and pressure will be equalized inside and outside of the cooker.

Some believe that you should never get angry, but it isn’t healthy to hold anger inside. It is better to express your anger in a positive way. You should acknowledge that you are angry. To suppress your anger, and act out in a disingenuous way may be seen as a form of passive aggression, which isn’t healthy. It’s not good for you or anyone to express your anger in a negative or threatening way. It is believed that people who express their anger in healthy ways are less depressed than people who hold in all of their feelings.

All too often, for the sake of being polite, people don’t say what they mean. The individuals that most often become depressed are those who have repressed anger. A fictional case study for repressed anger might be that one friend (Jane) has angry feelings toward her friend (Betty) for canceling twice on spending the day together. Jane is angry, but because Betty is her friend she doesn’t say anything. Jane’s hurt feelings from her perceived rejection causes anger to fester inside. Jane represses the anger. Betty stops by Jane’s house one day and just to visit for awhile, and Jane explodes on Betty for no apparent reason. Rather than expressing her hurt feelings in a calm way, Jane overreacts and the anger floods out like a raging river. Immediately, Jane feels better for getting her feelings off her chest, but soon afterwards she is ashamed and feels guilty for her outburst. The shame and guilt Jane feels starts a biochemical process in her brain, and a “switch” is flipped and she develops depression symptoms.

There are good ways to express anger, and there are bad ways. A bad way to express anger may be walking off your job because your boss constantly humiliates you in front of your peers. It’s happened many times, but you didn’t say or do anything in response. The final time your boss humiliates you is the last straw. You walk off your job, which you could be fired for. A good way to express your anger in the same situation might be to acknowledge your anger, and acknowledge that your boss is being unprofessional. Rather than react negatively, stay on your job and file a formal grievance against your boss for harassment and unprofessional behavior toward you. By filing a grievance action against your boss, you have channeled your anger in a positive way. Depressed individuals rarely acknowledge anger when it is brewing, because they may not recognize it. Anger is an emotion that that tells you something isn’t right. Anger is a necessary emotion; it tells us when something isn’t right and needs to be addressed.

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