Dr Robert Nicholson, from Saint Louis University, studied 422 adults, 171 of whom suffered from headaches. He assessed how angry the participants were, how much they internalized their anger and how severe and frequent their headaches were.

The study revealed that bottling up anger is more likely to cause headaches than depression and anxiety, both of which have been linked to headaches.

However, Dr Nicholson warns that letting your anger out may not always be appropriate. “Yelling at your boss could cost you your job. Making an obscene gesture at a driver who cut you off in traffic could lead to road rage.

“What I would hope to do is help people learn ways to lengthen their fuses so they avoid becoming angry,” he said.

Dr Nicholson recommends taking three deep breaths when you are angry as this lowers your internal anger meter. He also recommends identifying the kinds of people, situations and events trigger your anger and says that changing your environment, by going for a five-minute walk or turning the radio up in the car, can help diffuse your feelings.

Telling others how you feel in an assertive, non-confrontational way can make you feel better and lets others know how they have annoyed you. However, if expressing your anger will cause more harm than good in the long run, it is best to vent your rage by telling a friend rather than berating the person who wronged you.

Dr Nicholson also suggests letting go of things beyond your control and recognizing that you can only change yourself and responses to others, not what others do to you. Getting angry will not fix the situation and will only make you feel worse, he warns.

Forgiveness is a useful coping strategy but is hard to master, Dr Nicholson says. “Whether the wound is from someone else or is self-inflicted, the greatest power you have is the ability to forgive and let it go. It won’t change the past, but neither will being angry.”

The research is published in the journal Headache.

© HMG Worldwide 2003
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