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If the latest Gallup poll looking at the world’s emotional health is right, we’re getting angrier, with 22 per cent of us reporting feeling angry last year compared to 18 per cent in 2014. Given that anger, at its pointy end, can fracture relationships, cause fear, injury and even death, this sounds like bad news. But is anger always a bad thing? No, insists Dr Olivia Metcalf, a behavioural scientist from the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. Instead, she says we need to distinguish between healthy anger and problem anger. “Anger is a normal, healthy emotion. You can think of anger as your self-protection, if it means you’re defending yourself against a threat or some kind of injustice. It’s making a stand and saying you need to be treated better,” says Metcalf. “Anger can also motivate us to protect others, to get things done or act for change. A protest against political violence or discrimination, for example, is anger in action. It’s a bad thing, especially for women, if we suppress our healthy anger.”
