Anger and Anxiety

Did you know that anxiety can be displayed in the form of anger? Many people automatically associate anxiety with fear, but really it couples with distress. This distress can come out in many forms when it is triggered.
Breaking it all down, anxiety is a fear.

A lot of people become angry when they are overwhelmed, consumed, feeling scared, feeling helpless or powerless. We become angry when we cannot control something, or when something is out of our hands. Some of us with true anxiety may crumble under the weight of the situation or we may burst out in anger because we feel like there is nothing we can do to fix it, cope with it or even combat our own feelings toward it. Either way, this anger is a form of fear with an extreme, mad response.

We are scared of what is happening or going to happen, but instead we may snap at you or we may scream when we don’t mean to, all because this fear is trying to be expressed but is completely overwhelming us.

Majority of the time, anxiety is based on our fight/flight responsiveness. Even without the presence of danger, once this response is activated, our body and our mind automatically reacts. When fear cannot be exhibited, irritation and a loss of control type of anger is what can happen as a result.

Anxiety is like a story we tell ourselves in our mind about something that we lack. We become frightened that we lack confidence, strength, ability to adapt or overcome, we get scared that we cannot respond the way we really want to or say no, or even say yes to something. But honestly, our mind tells us that we lack that one thing that we THINK we need to be successful in what we are trying to do or accomplish.

Because we do not want to exhibit the fear that we have, we react in anger. It is like a scared little child in our mind that instead of cowering like we want to, we roar really loud, hoping to scare our own fears away. Sadly though, our roars of fear affect other people in the form of this anger.

Anxiety is an angry beast that sadly affects too many people. If you are one of those individuals that suffer from real and true anxiety, and not just the daily anxieties of life, you are not alone. If your loved one suffers from a type of anxiety, be aware that when they respond in anger it may just be a sign that they are scared and overwhelmed and need a little extra care and love. This too shall all pass in time.