Depression is often associated with sadness but there is little talk of another emotional reaction.
Emily Blackwood
HuffPost US
If you have ever been a victim of a fishtail on the road or if you have bumped your toe against a coffee table, you know that the level of anger can pass in no time from 0 to 100. In General, getting excited is part of human nature. But in some cases, permanent anger can be a sign of a deeper problem: depression.
A study of 2014 shows that anger – both manifest and repressed – is an indication of mental health disorder. Psychologists assume that people who have difficulty managing their anger pose a risk of depression. Experts have even described this mental illness as “anger directed at oneself” or “interiorized”.
“It doesn’t always look like depression, but it is,” says Marianna Strongin, a New York clinician psychologist.
Science shows that anger is associated with “more severe symptoms and a worse reaction to treatment” when it indicates a mental disorder such as depression. Our specialist therefore encourages people who feel more angry than usual to seek help rather than to obscure their feelings.
“A patient will say that he noticed – or that his friends noticed – that he was more involved. Yet even if he has come to treat his anger problem, when we dig a little, we realize that it is usually symptomatic of depression. “
Rather than sadness or feeling of emptiness – traits that are generally lent to people in depression – some will develop a propensity for anger. Marianna Strongin explains that it is because it is often easier to feel angry than to experience darker emotions.
“Sadness is much more difficult to live,” she adds. It is a phrase when anger is a verb: it crosses you. Sometimes depressive people condition themselves not to be sad and get rather angry. “
According to the American Institute of mental health, most of the 16.2 million Americans in depression are women between the ages of 18 and 25. But psychologist Sherry Benton, based in Florida, believes that it is usually in men that anger masks depression. “They have a natural inclination for isolation, and they all the more feel the need to disengage from social relationships, even those that are healthy. Anger is an invisible secondary symptom of this state of fact since being aggressive is an effective way to repel people. “
To the extent that men push back their loved ones and completely conceal their depression, it is more likely to be fatal. About 17% of men experience severe depression at least once in their lives, and they are four times more likely than women to die by suicide, according to a report from the Harvard Medical School.
This is not to say that women do not manifest a depressive state by anger. Bess Meade, artistic director, designer and writer living in Oregon, was diagnosed depressive at the age of 19, with anger as the main symptom. She understood that the situation escaped her when she yelled at a colleague during a meeting and broke a window at an ex.
“My mother has made comments in the past about the fact that I looked angry and that I should do something,” says the young woman, now 29 years old. “I think I considered depression to be a weakness – which I don’t think anymore – and I was hesitant to call a cat, a cat when I was younger.”
She has managed to control her troubles and symptoms of anger through antidepressants and the adoption of a healthy lifestyle.
“I started taking yoga classes at the height of my depression about a year ago, and I really feel like it has allowed me to develop my body and breath consciousness, which can help me get out of the Roach.”
Anger is never just anger. It is always revealing something that is not working.
-Marianna Strongin, clinical psychologist
In addition to medication therapy, breathing practices and exercises, keeping a diary can be a useful tool to control his anger and go back to the source of depression, takes over Marianna Strongin. She suggests to her patients to write down their negative thoughts, then to ask questions and look for clues as to whether or not they are truthful.
“If the thought is: ‘ I am null ‘, I will ask: ‘ what makes you think you suck? When you have anxiogenic thoughts, you have to follow them with answers. “
Whatever tools are used, the first step is to ask for help. Talking with a mental health professional can help control the depression and the symptoms that accompany it.
“Anger is never just anger. She’s always revealing something that doesn’t work. “
