Conveying Anger, Character Guide

Conveying Anger,

Introduction:

What is anger? Anger is defined as the strong feeling of annoyance, displeasure or hostility that one might feel towards anything or anyone. [1] It is usually aroused in someone, by a perceived 'wrong doing'.

Physical Signs:

The following are a list of physical actions or 'tells', that suggests the character in writing is angry, or greatly displeased/annoyed or hostile. More than one can occur at the same time, but all of them at once is nigh physically impossible and not very 'realistic'.

• Snapping (Verbally)
• Sarcasm/Insults
• Deeper Tone of voice
• Shaky or raised voice
• Edged laughter (Sharp)
• Engorged vein's, typically around the side of the head
• Stomping, slamming doors shut, pounding on tables/walls/thighs
• Nails digging into own palm
• Closing up bodily posture (Crossing arms/Covering chest)
• Curling lips/flattening lips
• Red face
• Glaring
• Increased pulse and a pounding heart
• Grinding teeth
• Quivering/Shaking muscles
• Perceivable tightness in the eyes/expression
• Cunning wit, jeers or taunts
• Invading personal space
• Cold, hard eyes/gaze
• Rolling up sleeves, or loosening a collar. As though preparing for a fight
• Jerky motions, particularly around the head
• Interjecting people when they speak, rudely for the most part
• Repetitive jerky gestures
• Baring teeth
• Manhandling objects or people, with less regard for their health
• Sweeping arm gestures
• Holding elbows wide away from the torso, with the chest puffed out
• Sweat 
• Flared nostrils
• Heat flushes through their body
• Muscular tensing

Mental Signs:

How should a character act when they're angry/furious? When one's angry, they tend to act 'irritated', and when someone is irritated, they're easily made more so by small things that build up. The character may become poor at listening, making talking them down difficult. They might jump to conclusions, paranoia can become heightened. The bodies jumping to as many conclusions as the mind is, which serves to form a nasty circle that can easily spiral out of control for the character. As such, irrational reactions can be had towards otherwise irrelevant things, and the character may demand for immediate action, remedial or not, to be made to rectify their anger or source of anger. In extreme cases of anger, one might fantasize violence, or take inappropriate actions or risk as a result of satisfying the emotion.

For characters suffering from long-term anger issues, they can expect ulcers, increased blood pressure consistently, skin problems such as acne and eczema. [2] Their belongings might suffer also in the extreme, as they may take their anger out onto these belongings/friends/family, otherwise known as projection.[3] Those that consistently suffer from Anger, may also turn to self harm, or harming innocent bystanders. Generally, it can be expected that injuries that require surgery, or any other form of accident or trauma, requires longer to recover from as a result of the chronic Anger.

Suppressed Physical Signs;

What happens when someone tries to suppress their anger though? There are physical and mental signs of someone attempting to hide their anger. Whether those signs are visible to others or only to that individual, a character will often do one of the following... [4]

• Carefully controlling their tone
• Sore muscles and jaw
• Headaches
• Excusing themselves
• Hiding their hands and feet, presumably to hide any clenching or twitching, or out of habit
• Withdrawing from the conversation, becoming quiet
• Slanting the body away from the source of the anger or frustration, turning side on for example
• Passive aggressive comments, as a way of outletting the feelings
• False and fake smiles, forced
• Slow steady breaths, carefully controlled or subliminal

Possible causes;

People can become angry for any number of reasons. Being rubbed the wrong way, feeling helpless or trapped. Even those with something initially unrelated, like being generally depressed or feeling despair, can lead someone to develop anger. Some common causes, however, are having a subconscious desire to put others down, having a compulsive need to stand up to others or defend themselves, having an overall pessimistic outlook on life - overconfidence, having a history of unhealthy relationships with others via conflict - or even just straight believing themselves to be right, and everyone else to be wrong. Often, self-delusion and misunderstanding, are the most common causes of short term or even long term anger. [5]

Reference

1. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/anger
2. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/anger-how-it-affects-people
3. https://www.britannica.com/science/projection-psychology
4. https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/repressed-anger.htm
5. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/anger-management/art-20048149