The Relationship Between Anxiety and Anger

Anger is one of the most common emotions we encounter in our daily activities.

In a study published in 2012, researchers found that a large sample of people with elevated anger levels met the diagnostic criteria for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) (Deschênes et al., 2012, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy).

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On an empirical level, consider how someone struggling with anxiety often has difficulty sleeping, and how this lack of sleep can make them more irritable toward stimuli that, under normal circumstances, would barely bother them.

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Another way these two are connected is through depression. The high rates of comorbidity between anxiety and depression are well known. The low mood that characterizes depression leads a person to think negatively, which in turn causes greater distress, and so on... This, in turn, reinforces depressive symptoms, causing the person to perceive environmental stimuli as negative and to react accordingly.

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On the other hand, this anxiety-anger relationship is bidirectional… Anger can also trigger anxiety, since afterward the person may have anxious, intrusive thoughts about the consequences of such behavior (e.g., that they might lose their job, or that it might result in losing a loved one, etc.).

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