What Happens in Your Brain When You’re Angry

You’re heart’s pounding. Your muscles are tense. Your face feels like it’s on fire. In other words, you’re angry! We all know what anger feels like in our bodies, but what’s really going on in our heads when it feels like we’re about two seconds away from flipping a table?

Whether it’s one of those minor daily annoyances or something much bigger, a lot is happening in your brain when you get angry. “When you are angry, your ‘fight-or-flight’ response is activated, and your heart starts to beat faster,” explains Noah Kass, DSW, LCSW. “Simultaneously, the part of your brain responsible for rational thinking—the prefrontal cortex—becomes less active.”

Basically, your body’s built-in alarm system comes online when you’re angry. And while this response can be helpful specifically during times of conflict, danger, or distress, sometimes “flight-or-flight” can do more harm than good. After all, these responses that once helped your ancestors survive don’t exactly come in handy when you’re answering a passive-aggressive email or stuck in traffic.

Knowing how to deal with your anger is key. And lucky for you, you can learn how to manage your emotions with these therapist-approved tips down below. Ahead, you’ll find everything you need to know about what happens to your brain when you’re angry and how to build anger resilience.

The Brain’s Response to Anger

If you’ve ever gone from completely chill to boiling over with rage in what feels like mere seconds, you’ve probably wondered how such dramatic shifts in mood happen. The answer lies in your brain’s built-in alarm system. It’s the good old fight-or-flight response at work. Your brain senses a threat and then prepares your body to either stay and deal with it or find some way to escape.

“Anger is a very old and fundamental emotion,” says psychiatrist Alex Dimitriu, MD. “During such episodes, the emotional system becomes more active, while the prefrontal cortex (the thinking brain) gets suppressed. This can lead to irrational or regrettable behavior, intense outbursts, or violence at its worst.”

This process involves several key areas of the brain:

The Amygdala

The amygdala is a tiny, almond-shaped brain structure associated with emotions, memory, and learning. It plays a fundamental role in emotional reactions, including anger and fear. It’s an alarm alerting you to danger, but it sometimes has a bit of a hair trigger. It has a tendency to overreact to things that are actually completely harmless. When something triggers feelings of anger—whether it’s a minor irritation or a legit threat—the amygdala hits the panic button, which signals another part of the brain called the hypothalamus.

The Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus is a structure found deep within the brain that plays a part in maintaining homeostasis and influencing the body’s autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is the part of your nervous system responsible for controlling unconscious processes like respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, and digestion. 

It also makes up part of the body’s hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which regulates how you respond and deal with stress. When the hypothalamus activates the ANS, it triggers a series of reactions in your body. Your heart rate picks up, and you start to breathe faster and more shallowly. 

The Prefrontal Cortex

While the amygdala and hypothalamus are all about sounding the alarm and preparing your body to deal with the threat, another region of the brain called the prefrontal cortex is there to evaluate the situation and dial down the emotions if necessary.

The prefrontal cortex is an area of the brain right behind your forehead. It’s responsible for things like judgment, reasoning, and self-regulation. “The prefrontal cortex is among the most recent evolutionary additions to our brains,” Dr. Dimitriu explains. “It’s the part of our brain that works to control impulses, plan ahead, consider consequences, as well as come up with solutions.”

It helps you evaluate situations, control your behavior, and manage your feelings. You can think of it as the level-headed, realistic part of your brain that tries to talk you down from doing things you might later regret.

When you get angry, the amygdala and prefrontal cortex are in conflict. Your amygdala is screaming that there’s a threat and you need to respond RIGHT NOW, while the prefrontal cortex urges you to calm down and think things through.

“The limbic system, of which the amygdala is a part of, takes control to assure survival, and in the absence of the prefrontal cortex, some inappropriate responses may occur,” Dr. Dimitriu explains.

That’s why you might lash out or send that angry text before the calmer, more rational part of your brain has a chance to catch up and give its input.

Brain Chemicals

It isn’t just certain structures in the brain that influence how you experience anger. Your brain’s neurochemicals help fire things up and determine how you feel and respond. These include:

• Adrenaline: Also known as epinephrine, adrenaline is a stress hormone that plays a role in the fight-or-flight response. When you face a threat, it stimulates the nervous system so your body can react quickly.
• Cortisol: This is a naturally occurring steroid hormone that is often produced when we are under stress. It helps regulate the body’s blood pressure and inflammatory response. Prolonged exposure to cortisol is linked to a number of serious health problems.
• Norepinephrine: Norepinephrine (aka noradrenaline) is a hormone that plays a role in mood, stress, and attention. It helps make you extra alert and focused on what’s making you mad.

These neurochemicals boost alertness, which, Dr. Dimitriu notes, can sometimes cause tunnel vision or hyperfocus. That’s why it can be so hard to focus on *anything* other than your anger.

The activity in your brain kept your ancestors alive (back when they needed to flee or fight serious threats in order to survive). The problem is that our brains don’t differentiate between serious threats (running from a prehistoric predator) and less threatening anger triggers (another car driving too slowly in the passing lane).

Recognizing that fact can help you understand why anger sometimes gets the best of us. It’s why we might make bad decisions, get worked up over small annoyances, and have trouble seeing things from someone else’s point of view. It’s also why we sometimes get “anger blindness,” or those times when you’re so mad we just can’t think straight.

Physiological Changes During Anger

When you are feeling angry, your brain is also sending out neurochemicals and signals that fire up your body so you’re physically primed and ready to deal with the problem. These include:

• Heart speeds up
• Blood pressure increases
• Muscles get tense
• Breathing becomes quick and shallow
• Digestion slows down
• Body temperature rises

When “things get heated” during an argument, it’s not just a metaphor. Your body *literally* gets hotter and more tense.

And that’s just what’s going on inside. There are also often outward physical signs, which is why you can sometimes spot an angry person just by looking at them. Because of all the internal changes happening in your brain and body when you are angry:

• Your face might become flushed
• Your pupils may dilate
• You might start to sweat
• Your jaw and fists might clench
• Your posture may change

Anger also tends to snowball. The physical and mental experience of anger sets off a cognitive/emotional feedback loop that can make you feel even angrier.

Anger and Mental Health

We all get angry, but there are times that anger might be a sign of something deeper. Evidence suggests that many people who experience symptoms of mental health conditions also report having problems managing their anger. 

Dr. Dimitriu notes that, in many cases, people with strong anger reactivity may also have mental health conditions, including anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, and, more rarely, mania. “Hypersensitive people may feel more than most and react more strongly, and this too may lead to anger outbursts,” he says.

Some conditions that are associated with anger include:

Depression

Sadness is a core symptom of depression, but it’s not the only one. For many people, particularly men, anger is often their primary symptom of depression. If you feel like you’re always irritable, frustrated, or angry, it’s worth talking to your doctor about whether this symptom might be tied to depression.

Anxiety

Anger and fear are both linked to the amygdala. A lot of the reactions that happen in your brain when you’re angry are similar to the reactions when you are anxious. If you are experiencing symptoms of anxiety, that means that your brain is already in high alert mode. So, when something triggers feelings of anger, it may hit faster or harder than it might if you were in a more relaxed state.

ADHD

If you have attention deficit hyperactvity disorder, you might already have a more challenging time when it comes to regulating your emotions. Research suggests that folks with ADHD struggle more with emotional dysregulation, which means they often have a tough time managing feelings of anger.

BPD

Anger is a common symptom of borderline personality disorder, a condition marked by unstable emotions, behaviors, and relationships. Sometimes dubbed “borderline rage,” it can lead to explosive, uncontrolled episodes of inappropriate anger. Why this anger is so intense isn’t entirely clear, but some evidence suggests that people with BPD tend to ruminate over angry feelings, which makes anger last longer and triggers bursts of aggressive behavior.

PTSD

Following a trauma, the brain’s alert system may kick into overdrive. Research has found that people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often experience difficulty managing their feelings of anger. The result? Normal, everyday situations end up triggering intense feelings of anger and irritability that are out of proportion to the situation.

Bipolar Disorder

Anger is also a common symptom of manic and hypomanic episodes of bipolar disorder. During these mood episodes, people often experience increased irritability and aggression.

It’s important to remember that anger is sometimes a sign that there is something deeper going on with your mental health. Paying attention to your symptoms and seeking treatment for underlying mental health conditions can help improve your ability to cope with feelings of anger.

Long-Term Effects of Anger on the Brain

Occasional anger isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can help you understand when something is wrong so you can take steps to fix the problem. 

The problem is when anger becomes excessive, prolonged, and difficult to control. 

Anger Can Rewire Your Brain

If you keep hitting your mental alarm system day in and day out, it eventually starts to rewire how your brain works. Essentially, anger can beget more anger. “Repeated episodes of anger may certainly fortify the pathways that lead to more anger,” Dr. Dimitriu says. 

Your brain’s amygdala (aka the fear and anger center) can also become more reactive. Your prefrontal cortex, which is so critical for reigning in excess anger, develops less connectivity. Essentially, the stress pathways in your brain become like a well-worn path, which makes it much easier for the stress and anger signals to fire.

It Can Affect Your Cognitive Abilities and Mental Health

“Chronic anger can lead to cognitive decline, impact stress responses, and worsen mental health conditions,” explains Dr. Kass. “It often co-occurs with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance abuse diagnoses. Additionally, it has been shown to increase the risk of cardiovascular and other health-related issues.”

Repeated, chronic anger also takes a toll on other cognitive abilities, like memory, concentration, and decision-making. Ever notice how it’s harder to recall things that happened during an outburst of anger? Or have you ever made a poor, impulsive choice in the heat of the moment?

Anger Hurts Your Health

It’s not just your brain that suffers. It can also have lingering effects on your body. 

Long-term anger can result in:

• An increased risk for cardiovascular problems
• A weakened immune system (and greater susceptibility to illness)
• More digestive problems
• Problems falling and staying asleep (which can contribute to greater anger reactivity) 

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. There are things you can do to reduce your anger, retrain your brain’s anger response, and develop new coping strategies. Research suggests that with time and practice, you can repair the damage anger has caused to your brain and body. Stress pathways can be rewired, and with continued practice, regulating your emotions will become much easier.

Changing your brain’s response to anger is a lot like learning a new language–it takes time and effort, but the rewards are well worth it. The first step is to learn more about what’s happening in your brain (hence, why you’re here) so you can better recognize and manage your anger. 

Managing Anger: Psychological and Neurological Approaches

Finding strategies that will work for managing your anger depends on things like 1) what’s causing it, 2) how severe it is, and 3) the resources you have available to you. 

For occasional, minor feelings of anger, simple things like counting to ten or taking a few deep breaths can be a great place to start. These tactics can help cool you off and focus your mind in the heat of the moment, so your prefrontal cortex has a chance to catch up and offer some sage advice. 

Some people may find these tactics underwhelming. Sometimes, you need a more serious strategy to help tame anger and get it under control in the long term. 

Strategies that can help include:

Prevention

Don’t let anger catch you off guard. Head it off at the pass by:

• Getting regular exercise: Hitting the gym isn’t just good for your body; it can actually change how your body responds to stress. Research suggests that regular exercise can lower stress levels and release feel-good endorphins that can help prevent feelings of anger in the first place.
• Improving your sleep: Even minor irritants can set off big feelings of anger when you’re tired. Focus on getting enough sleep and take steps to maintain a regular sleep schedule. In other words, lay off the revenge bedtime procrastination and make sure you are going to bed and waking up at the same time each day. Create a soothing bedtime routine and keep those screens out of your sleep space (the Internet will still be there tomorrow, 😉).

Know the Signs

It’s also helpful to learn your own personal anger triggers. “Recognizing early warning signs of anger helps prevent escalation,” Dr. Kass says. “Anger is a surface emotion, masking deeper feelings like fear, disappointment, or denial. Identifying the underlying emotion can help. For example: ‘I feel scared,’ ‘I feel disappointed,’ or ‘I feel something is unjust.’”

Signs of anger can be physical, mental, and behavioral, so keep your eye out for indicators so you can take action to eliminate the trigger or find a way to reign in your irritation before it gets out of hand.

Coping When Anger Strikes

When your anger is rising and you need an *immediate* outlet, consider trying these proven hacks:

• Box breathing (inhale 4, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4) and other breathing exercises
• Progressive muscle relaxation, which involves practicing tensing and then relaxing muscles throughout the body
• Cold water on your face (cold water can activate the vagus nerve and increase the body’s parasympathetic response to induce feelings of calm and relaxation)
• Label your emotion (literally saying ‘I’m getting angry’ can help reduce the intensity of your emotions—a phenomenon known as affect labeling)
• Ground yourself in the moment with the 5-4-3-2-1 technique (name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste)

What do you do if it’s *really* bad and you’re starting to feel out of control? In these cases, give yourself a time-out. Communicate your need for a break and remove yourself from the situation. Do what you need to do to relax and give yourself time to calm down.

Long-Term Strategies to Improve Anger Resilience

It’s also important to take steps to build your resilience to anger over the long term. Some strategies that can help include:

“Start an anger diary to track triggers and coping strategies. A helpful question to ask when angry is: ‘What am I going to do about it?’” Dr. Kass suggests.

Takeaways

Anger doesn’t have to be your enemy. By understanding what happens in your brain when you’re angry, you’ll be able to recognize that anger often serves as an important signal. But you’ll also be able to see that your anger isn’t always appropriate given the specific situation. Knowing this can help you recognize your stress triggers and manage your response effectively. 

The key? Star with something small. Pick a strategy and practice it regularly, and consider talking to a mental health professional if you need some extra help dealing with feelings of excessive anger.

“For anyone with frequent anger episodes, it helps to speak with a professional to understand the roots of the behavior, the underlying level of anxiety or sensitivity, and what can be done to lower this,” Dr. Dimitriu says.