Scientific Research And Medical Findings: Part IV
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
With anger (and it’s components of fear, anxiety, rage), so obviously an emotional and mental state common to all of our species, and most other species as well, isn’t there some scientific and medical data that can help? The answer is both yes, and no. While research has been and continues to be conducted, and certain behaviors or symptoms are well studied and documented, our actual understanding of the neurochemistry of anger has been enhanced only meagerly.
For better or worse, research begins with Freud. His theories linked anger, as well as most other things, to unconscious fear. His theories and conclusions were often far too simplistic and narrow to be of certain value, which reduced much of his work to commonplace, modern-day ridicule: “I am afraid of homosexuals, therefore I am a homosexual.” However, his focus on hidden fears was nonetheless very valuable in that it started a process of thinking about fear and anger.
The first real attempt to scientifically study anger was made by Walter Rudolf Hess in the 1920’s. These first anatomical attempts to understand anger provided a great breakthrough. Inserting electrodes into various areas of the mid-brain, researchers focused on the thalamus, a part of the brain that was poorly understood, but thought to have some relationship to our basic animalistic drives, instincts and functions. Direct stimulation in this area produced a consistent and predictable response; defensive posturing, agitation and all the classic mannerisms of preparing for attack. Other researchers were able to replicate the experiments and theorems on the subject of anger began. The subject of the research was not a human, but a cat.
J.W. Papez began a line of research that was expanded by others. It involved “mapping” the specific circuit of the thalamus and other subcortal structures that appeared to be involved with the primitive mechanisms of emotional behavior in general. This “circuit” has come to be called the limbic system, and is now viewed as the central pathway linking perception on one hand with metabolism and emotion on the other.
With a clear map, psychosurgery became inevitable. Operations on epilepsy patients who could not respond to drugs were conducted for their survival. Lobotomies and other cortical operations were used as a last-resort efforts for intractable psychotics. However, physiologists were becoming increasingly aware that human anger and emotional rage was a much different and more complex thing than the basic aggression response found in animals. “Despite these increasingly complicated differentiations, sweeping generalizations were made about controlling social anger based on limited anatomic studies of specific rage.” (Gaylin, 54.) More studies needed to be done in order to truly negate anger.
Beyond the physiology and anatomy of anger, we are equally ignorant of the neurochemistry of anger. Because the human brain continues to defy our best efforts to classify and clarify its functioning components into simple cause and effect processes, experiments have not yielded concrete results. Experiments are always controlled and isolated, yet the brain seems to consistently yield new information beyond our ability to control. Redundancies of systems, interconnectivity, the ability to restore or create new synaptic pathways to repair damaged elements… If it sounds like a futuristic, self-aware computer, and perhaps it is. But the functions of thought and especially emotions continue to defy physical definitions of function.
The first modern research of the anger problem began approximately twenty years ago when researchers began to develop personality “types.” The Type A personality was discovered to be linked to heart disease, but “…the lethal component of type A personality was anger.” (Charles Spielberger, University Of Southern Florida 9/14/04.)
While modern chemicals (drugs) produce desirable results, or at least the results desired—for combating such symptoms as depression, attention deficit, and aggression, we must equally acknowledge the failure of these drugs to act consistently across all patient cases, or even over time on the same patient. The nature of chemicalization means that once introduced into the system it will spread throughout the system. As Gaylin points out in his book The Rage Within (1984), “How are we to know, at this point, how many of the variables we have controlled? The chemicals themselves may react differently in different locations.” With our lack of knowledge of the brain’s functional structures the chemical approach to altering or adjusting behavior seems to be unreliable at this time. With so much of what we thought we knew yesterday to be proven untrue tomorrow, chemical introductions may have unforeseen future consequences.
Recent discoveries of the effects of naturally produced chemicals such as endorphins seem to point to a new era of understanding. As Gaylin is one of the only medical doctors currently writing on the subject of anger and anger management. It seems prudent to look at several key points he makes on the topic of our current level of understanding in regards to the brain’s chemistry: “But nothing—let me repeat, nothing—can be definitively said at this point about the chemistry of emotion, despite all the claims and counterclaims…In all these experiments, equally competent researchers have found contradictory results.”
At this point I must interject a call to attention. While so few medical doctors are writing about or addressing the subject of anger, there is hardly a fifteen minute span where media advertising does not promote the use of some chemical (drug) for the purpose of depression, stress, anxiety, (insert your own symptom), all of which have been proven to be linked to aggressive anger. There is, after all, an acknowledged awareness of anger as a large and growing problem in our society. If we are going to introduce a medical solution, wouldn’t it be advisable to have a medical consensus? The answer here is that despite well meaning medical professionals, a powerful pharmaceutical industry makes a lot of money by selling its products. Unfortunately, the more nebulous and mystifying a problem such as anger, the more opportunity there is to promote (and the more willingness there is to receive) a “solution in a bottle” as it were. It is easier to take a pill every day than it is to change your patterns of thinking, especially if insurance will cover the cost. This is itself a pattern, habit and current condition of our culture, and anger management counselors should be aware of it.
If there is so little that we know for sure, is there anything that remains that we know for certain? Yes. We know quite a bit about the physiological symptoms of anger. Simple “before, during and after” measurements of body chemistry and physiology produce a pretty clear picture of what changes occur, even if we understand little about how the brain communicates the messages for these things to happen.
If we remember the “fight or flight” reactions of primitive humanity, it is obvious that our ancestors needed to act quickly and aggressively to each threat if they were going to remain alive. That means they would need enhanced energy for periods of up to 10 minutes. After the first ten minutes, the surprise of immediate danger would lessen, and more logical faculties would be needed. At the first danger, the brain releases Corticotophin-releasing-hormone [CRH], which travels to the adrenal cortex in the brain and stimulates the release of adrenalin and cortisol.
Adrenalin increases lung capacity, heart rate and respiration. Pupils dilate and the epidermal cilia rise, increasing sensitivity. (These cilia [hairs] are literally the raising of “the hair on the back of your neck” that we’ve all experienced, and are the same kind of trigger reaction that cause the bushing out of a cat or dog under duress. In our case, lacking enough body hair to make it a menacing tactic, it merely increases sensitivity). The digestive system is shut down and blood flow is shunted away from major organs. The liver dumps fats and sugars into the bloodstream for energy.
Cortisol causes red corpuscles to become “sticky,” generating a clotting agent in case of wound and injury, and also triggers a dramatic increase in insulin, which encourages storage of body fats. So, while maximum energy is being dumped into the body, the body is also preparing itself to replenish those stores as soon as possible to prepare for the next emergency.
Now, this system is pretty dramatic and probably functioned quite well when we were still hunter-gatherers. However most common day fear and stress factors (the anger triggers) are not life and death situations. Unfortunately, your brain cannot distinguish the difference between a life and death situation and everyday stress: it reacts precisely the same in both situations. So, as you read the memo from your boss, listen to a child throw a temper tantrum, or sit deadlocked in traffic, your body is undergoing massive chemical reactions designed for you to expel a massive amount of energy, and for shortly consuming a massive amount of energy. All this unused energy leaves you on edge, heart pounding and, usually in ten minutes or so after the adrenalin fades, with an increased appetite. This energy factor explains why many who suffer from chronic anger or stress can be workaholics or have weight problems. Depending on the personality, the increased energy may drive some to expend the energy in obsessive exercise rituals or work, while others may internalize the energy rush only to succumb to the messages of appetite while that unused energy is restored in the form of body fat.
Needless to say, all of this translates into physical risks and medical problems. For many years, the medical community has been aware that the “anger components” or “predispositions” like stress and anxiety definitively lead to and exacerbate high blood pressure, stroke, migraine headaches, tension headaches, muscle spasms, constipation and a host of other illnesses and complaints. Prolonged or habitual stresses and anxieties can produce hypertension, colonitis, bulimia, strokes, heart attacks, migraine headaches and more.
Though we’re unsure exactly and specifically how the brain stimulates the body, we know what those stimuli produce:
1. Senses are made more acute. Blood flow and adrenalin cause physiological reactions that enhance hearing, smell and vision. Touch becomes more sensitive and is magnified. The pupils dilate for better night vision, which may change the focus during daylight.
2. Blood chemistry is altered by the flooding of adrenalin and cortisol (a blood coagulant for clotting in case wounds are inflicted). The liver dumps more fats and sugars into the bloodstream for energy stimulus.
3. Heart rate and perspiration increase, maximizing flow of blood and oxygen.
4. Digestion and other “non-essential” fight or flight functions shut down.
It doesn’t take much imagination to picture just how destructive anger can become. While we may only be cognizant of the “feeling” of our anger—clenched jaw, knot in stomach, sweating, feeling hot and/or hyperventilating—the reality of what is actually happening is far more disturbing. The image of an “internal time bomb” is not far off; explosive energy potential locked within a combined space.
This “time bomb” analogy applies to both expressed and unexpressed anger. The truth is that all people get angry, and anger produces chemical and physiological changes. Unexpressed anger can be even more dangerous because it “…keeps a person aroused physiologically which can lead to health problems.