The average adult sees the ‘red mist’ 28 times a month – or a staggering 336 times in a year, it has emerged. A lack of sleep and financial worries were revealed to be the biggest contributors to feelings of anger and frustration, while relationship issues also take their toll.
Hunger, IT problems and poor customer service are also bad for our blood pressure- as are cold callers, rudeness and job fears.
Researchers studied the habits of 2,000 people to discover how our tempers impact on our lives, and just how often we let our angry side get the best of us.
It also emerged six in ten of us admit they regularly find themselves getting annoyed over trivial things without knowing why.
And worryingly, one in four confessed they sometimes reach a level of anger where they risk ‘losing control’.
The research, which was commissioned by leading health and wellbeing mutual organisation Benenden Healthcare, also found one in four people describe themselves as having a temper.
Lawrence Christensen, Head of Communications & Strategy at Benenden Healthcare said:
”This is all about maintaining positive mental wellbeing and taking steps to ensure a balance in our emotions.
”Everyone knows life is hard and everyone has their own coping mechanisms, but Brits are still experiencing frequent occasions where they let their angry side get the better of them – 28 times a month seems a staggering frequency, almost once a day.
“Anger can manifest itself in a number of ways and on a variety of levels, but it is important that we recognize when we might be going too far.
”These days, there is a wide range of ways in which people can seek assistance for anger management if they think they are seeing red all too often.
”On the flip side – bottling up anger can sometimes be just as detrimental to your mental wellbeing if it leads to a constant feeling of frustration – but again, talking things through with the right person in a calm manner can help dissipate anger.”
One third of Brits would describe their partner as having a temper, and claim they have to accommodate their partner’s mood within their relationship.
In fact, one in four people say anger has an impact on their relationship overall, while one in three have a particular incident they regret to this day after losing their temper.
A sharp tongued 64% say their anger makes them likely to snap at people, while a third say they deal with it by just going very quiet.
One tenth have stormed out of a meeting before; while one in five have thrown their phone in anger.
One quarter has made someone else cry after their temper got the better of them.
The study found it takes the average Brit around half an hour to calm down after getting themselves worked up.
Day to day factors like cold callers, bad customer service and supermarket self-checkouts are some of the most anger-inducing experiences of modern life, while rudeness, last minute cancellations and internet faults are likely to put the average person in poor mood.
Respondents cited mornings as the most likely time to experience bouts of rage, with the worst time of the week found as Monday lunchtime.
A mindful one in six moderate their drinking because they have experienced extreme anger when drunk and wish to avoid making the same mistakes.
When it comes to controlling anger, people feel going for fresh air or confiding in a friend works best, while four in ten people would be comfortable seeking professional advice should they feel they were becoming angry too often.
Lawrence Christensen added:
”It’s a positive statistic that four in ten would be willing to seek professional advice if they felt they were becoming angry too often – but this seems at odds with the fact that Brits are seeing red 28 times a month.
”This raises the question: at what point does anger become too much or too often – and how do we prevent ourselves reaching this point?”
Marcus Leonard, Cognitive Behaviour Therapist at Oakdale Group – a partner of Benenden Healthcare said:
”Professionally, anger can be seen as a socially accepted way of dealing with vulnerability. People experience anger as a result of unmet expectations, i.e. the expectation of being told the truth or of people being polite.
”It is important for people to recognize that anger, expressed appropriately, can be perfectly natural and may often even be useful. In my experience, when people lose their temper, they can best handle it by giving themselves space to reflect and taking quiet time to think about what they’ve done and exercising self-compassion.
”One of the threads that runs through anger management therapy sessions is the notion of giving the individual space to reflect on their actions in a non-judgemental vacuum which works very powerfully.
”Effective communication is also useful in every relationship to ensure that our frustrations don’t ascend to unmanageable levels.”
DAY TO DAY ANGER TRIGGERS
1. Tiredness
2. Rudeness
3. Being lied to
4. Finance worries
5. Bad customer service
6. Being overworked
7. Cold callers
8. Being hungry
9. Being on hold
10. When someone can’t make decisions
11. When someone doesn’t get back to you
12. Worry about relationships
13. Dealing with slow internet
14. When people don’t turn up last minute
15. Losing work when your computer crashes
16. Worry about job stability
17. Self-service supermarket check outs
18. Worries about work performance
19. Dealing with big corporations
20. Feeling ill
