Today I’m pivoting from my planned post to chat quickly about an experience that actually happened yesterday, prompting a short flurry of “refresh my memory” research and a quick yet intensive interaction with an acquaintance.
This acquaintance (let’s call him CS) happens to have two offspring away in college; said offspring happen to be home visiting for a long weekend, and during this visit CS was shocked to find his previously fairly happy kids now imbued with what he termed a “deep and abiding sense of anger and rage”. Without chasing the rabbit too far down that rabbit hole, it appears said offspring were angry about any and everything imaginable, and hell bent on making sure any and everyone within earshot knew it and joined in the rage-fest.
CS and his wife were quite taken aback, and were also quick to opine that the expression of rage and anger is part of the ‘coming of age’ experience on campus these days, part of ‘woke’ culture among youth, and in fact quite possible a very reasonable response ‘to the way things are these days’.
Is the World a More Angry and Rage-Filled Place Today?
CS at one point opined, probably in defense of his vexed progeny, that the world is a hard place today, and there’s much more to be angry about than ever before.
Reflexly I personally countered that I’m not quite sure that’s true; anger is classically thought to be seeded or driven by disappointment, frustration, rejection, fear, and judgment among other things – all challenges that have poked and prodded humans for centuries.
IMHO many of us live in a cultural milieu where being perpetually angry or enraged is deemed to be a virtuous state, particularly if one is able to cite a particularly egregious reason that someone or something has pissed us off – see, it’s really not my fault I’m angry – it’s yours (theirs).
My immediate suggestion to CS was that he nudge his progeny away from the rage and anger movement simply based on what we know about the impacts these emotions have upon human physiology.
A Quick Reminder of the Physiology of Rage and Anger
Most neurophysiologists agree that with the first spark of anger-inciting stimulus, the amygdala activates initially, which then drives the hypothalamus to to respond, most notably by releasing CRH (corticotropin-releasing hormone).
CRH signals the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which among other things drives the adrenal glands to pour out what most refer to as the stress hormones – cortisol, adrenaline, and noradrenaline.
There are of course many other hormonal changes happening during this “rage” window, but we know that the big three stress hormones create a cascade of physiological responses – increased heart rate, blood pressure, arterial tension, as well as increased blood glucose and blood fatty acid levels. Thyroid function is suppressed as is T-cell function, gut blood flow and metabolism decrease, and your mouth gets dry.
As you well know chronically elevated cortisol imparts a host of really bad impacts, including a few lesser well known ones too, such as suppressing activity in the prefrontal cortex (one of the areas where judgement ability is housed) and the hippocampus (impacting short term memory and creation of new memories).
Rage and Anger Can Be Useful in Bursts, But Beware the Chronic Trap
While there’s no doubt a role for rage and anger at times in life (for most of us as part of the fight or flight response), attempting to live for days and months at a time perpetually enraged and angry is an absolute disaster from a physiological standpoint, to say nothing of mental health perspectives as well.
Granted, it’s a stressful world today, and while the world has always been a stressful place to trod, falling into the trap of perpetual rage, anger, is physiological catastrophe; anyone selling the concept that rage and anger is the only way to impact the world today is beckoning you to navigate a dark and rocky path, a path that will harm you over time.
One of my personally favorite of Mark Sisson’s Primal Blueprint Laws is “Avoid Stupid Mistakes” (don’t do stupid things). From a physiological standpoint alone (not to mention the mental health issues, which are potentially even more impactful), choosing to be perpetually enraged and angry falls into the category of doing stupid things. There are far better choices for your life.
More to come.
