Anger and Rage

It usually begins in the belly. A pulling, a tightening, a pressure rising upward. Your chest becomes tight, your breath shallow and fast, your jaw clenches. Your hands ball into fists, sometimes without you noticing. Your face grows hot, your heart beats harder, your field of vision narrows. Somewhere behind your eyes a roaring arises that makes you almost deaf to everything except the one thing burning in you right now.

That is anger. And before you can form a single thought about it, it is already there — complete, physical, unmistakable. Medicine would explain what is happening in your nervous system at that moment: the sympathetic nervous system surges, adrenaline and noradrenaline flood your blood, the liver mobilises energy, the muscles are flooded with oxygen. Your body is getting ready — to fight, to defend, to confront.