Amma has been the inspiration behind this post, telling me repeatedly that I should write about how my anger has thankfully subsided post the events from 13 years back. These are the outliers, sticking out like a sore thumb:
Amma has been the inspiration behind this post, telling me repeatedly that I should write about how my anger has thankfully subsided post the events from 13 years back. These are the outliers, sticking out like a sore thumb:
Amma has been the inspiration behind this post, telling me repeatedly that I should write about how my anger has thankfully subsided post the events from 13 years back. These are the outliers, sticking out like a sore thumb:
Instances of my anger causing irritation to those around me:
* I was guilty of gnashing my teeth at one time to let off steam. Sadly, my paternal uncle was renowned for the same habit, prior to receiving a kidney donated by his wife, Geetha Periamma, who always loathed that characteristic of his
* My shoulder slipped following a workout at the Slam fitness studio on Velachery main road [https://share.google/6sXTH6LNuPm1K1aBH] I visit; a consultant orthopedic doctor at Prashanth hospitals [https://prashanthhospitals.org/doctor/dr-arumugam-s/] nearby recommended a shoulder brace for me and advised me to minimize the overt flexing of the shoulder joint and wearing T-shirts or cut baniyans. I was more than a handful to Amma and Appa at home at that time, not heeding the doctor's recommendations and doing otherwise...
There have been woeful instances of my anger boiling over here and there, such as when my kick smashed the windshield in Mohan's car(a Suzuki Baleno) in Hyderabad when I reacted to him faulting me for not reminding him to take the right turns when needed, and included other reactions I cannot believe I was guilty of: spitting, for one.(we were traveling in his car). I was uncontrollable then--I am by nature very sedate, hence find descriptions of my bad behavior hard to digest, particularly when those instances affected close family adversely. Of course, I am loath to see myself as a confirmed villain, and prefer seeing character development, hopefully mostly positive( repentance included), after instances of bad behavior.
My anger has been responsible for so much negativity overall in the past, that I have decided to analyze the workings of my brain and correlate it to current events and instances of under-performance or non-performance. The process of moulding the brain's reactions to current events involves several key areas of the brain:
The Amygdala
The amygdala is a tiny, almond-shaped brain structure associated with emotions, memory, and learning. It plays a fundamental role in emotional reactions, including anger and fear. My TBI( following hydroplaning of my car in 2013) was a frontal-lobe injury.
It’s an alarm alerting you to danger, but it sometimes has a bit of a hair trigger. It has a tendency to overreact to things that are actually completely harmless. When something triggers feelings of anger—whether it’s a minor irritation or a legit threat—the amygdala hits the panic button, which signals another part of the brain called the hypothalamus.2
The Hypothalamus
The hypothalamus is a structure found deep within the brain that plays a part in maintaining homeostasis and influencing the body’s autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is the part of your nervous system responsible for controlling unconscious processes like respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, and digestion.
It also makes up part of the body’s hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which regulates how you respond and deal with stress.3 When the hypothalamus activates the ANS, it triggers a series of reactions in your body. Your heart rate picks up, and you start to breathe faster and more shallowly.
The Prefrontal Cortex
While the amygdala and hypothalamus are all about sounding the alarm and preparing your body to deal with the threat, another region of the brain called the prefrontal cortex is there to evaluate the situation and dial down the emotions if necessary.
The prefrontal cortex is an area of the brain right behind your forehead. It’s responsible for things like judgment, reasoning, and self-regulation. “The prefrontal cortex is among the most recent evolutionary additions to our brains,” Dr. Dimitriu explains. “It’s the part of our brain that works to control impulses, plan ahead, consider consequences, as well as come up with solutions.”
It helps you evaluate situations, control your behavior, and manage your feelings. You can think of it as the level-headed, realistic part of your brain that tries to talk you down from doing things you might later regret.
In my case, the different episodes of my anger have always tended towards the dramatic but their recollections have not been as sustained as they could have been.
One such had me reacting to a splint I had on my left hand(I have had to use two splints: one was following a tendon release and targeting the ring finger, and the other was to ease the flexion contracture of the pip joint of my little finger, whose knuckle is very stiff, causing the finger to hover above the palm, or above any flat surface the palm is resting on. My mother declares that the pip joint work was not helpful at all, because the knuckle is still bent.
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