Based on my experiences, What am I thinking about expressing anger

Base on my experiences in observing about expressing anger, what do I think about those generalizations in anger articles?

After finished reading through all these three articles, “The Anger Factor”, “The Great Catharsis Debate” and “Manners, Emotions and American Way”, realized various general ideas, and then discovered one general theme run into these three articles, I , from my own background and knowledge about anger, principally agree with almost all that these articles say.

The author of “The Anger Factor” claim that expressing anger may do physical harm should be scientifically true. I agree with all of this statement simply because I had some experiences about this. When I was young, one of my cousins had problems with his heart and high blood pressure because of cholesterol. I wondered why the doctor adviced him to avoid angry and stressful situation. I figured out that he got a heart attack and spent series of serious nights in a hospital because he had a big argument with another cousin on such an insignificant issue. Afterwards, he seemed to be angry and his face turned red, then he lied down on the floor and his hand clutched with his heart. Then everyone was shocked and seriously realized that anger and stress were not only dangerous for him, but also for others who were getting old. Another piece of evidence came from my own experience. When I feel angry, my heart rate is running high and I feel uncomfortable to do everything or can not do it as same as I can when I'm in a good mood. I always have a headache when I feel angry or stressful which some people tell me that it can lead to migraine which is a severe recurring headache.

I also agree with “The Great Catharsis Debate” which Carlson and Hatfield suggest that catharsis, instead of alleviation of stress, may worsen the situation. From my experience with people that I have related with for all of my life, I have never seen that their anger disappeared after they expressed it. Seemingly, when somebody shout loudly or hit a pillow aggressively while they are angry, it helps them somewhat feel better in my opinion. Nevertheless, anger is still in their minds and cannot be relieved by repeating shouting or punching something. Furthermore, expressing anger always worsens situations especially when expressing with human. I have had an experience while I worked in a company. I always had meeting with a manager to discuss about an engineering project. Regarding his position, I normally had to obey his opinion and if there was a crash in decision, I had to let his opinion go. However, one day, I thought that my opinion was really perfect and I could support it fully, but he still opposed my opinion which I thought that there was no reason to argue and thought that he just wanted to have his way. Thus, I lost my temper that I can’t control it anymore. The result was, therefore, I had to move to another section in my company. I realized that if I could control my anger as much as possible and tried not to express it, I wouldn’t get in trouble. Again, I’d say that expressing anger is beneficial only the situation that don't involve with other people, otherwise it’s unfavorable.

However, I still have questions regarding the general statement in “Manners, Emotions, and the American Way” which states that American have a problem in controlling anger because of their individualism and competitiveness. From my experience in the United States, I truly admire American ways of expressing feeling. I think that American can express everything as their mind even if it differs from others. For instance, in my country, Thailand, people usually can not speak or express whatever they want because Thai culture emphasizes on respect and self-restraint. Therefore, I’d say that American have less anger management problem than some other people because after American express their anger, for example, in a serious meeting, it’s over while Thai have to keep their anger that can erupt unconsciously. Thus, I think that being frank is one of the best ways of dealing with anger.

From the whole articles that I have read and experiences from my educational and career life, expressing anger may benefit or worsen the circumstances which relies on many factors such as cultures, people or occurrence. Therefore, I’d recommend that people should be taught to manage their anger properly.