The Connection Between Depression and Anger

Anger can be a common emotion among people experiencing major depression. You may feel angry at the world, angry about events from your past, or even angry at yourself. This anger can be intense and difficult to control, to the point that it worsens your depression and affects your personal and professional relationships.

Depression vs. Anger

Major depressive disorder is more than just passing sadness. It is a diagnosable mental health disorder that involves feelings of low mood combined with other symptoms such as trouble concentrating and/or sleeping, loss of interest in pleasurable activities, diminished emotional expression, irritability, feelings of guilt, hopelessness, self-doubt, and more.

In contrast, anger on its own is not a diagnosable mental health condition. Rather, it is an unpleasant but common emotion that everyone experiences from time to time. Feeling angry when something upsets you is natural. However, feeling uncontrollable, maladaptive, or otherwise inappropriate anger can signal an underlying problem, particularly when you also have symptoms of depression.

Anger can be part of depression's diagnostic picture, but not always.

Healthy expression of natural anger is not a problem. It becomes unhealthy when it is repressed, uncontrollable, or explosive, and interferes with daily life and relationships.

Types of Anger in Depression

Anger can take several different forms when it's part of major depressive disorder. Below are some examples of the types of anger you might experience while depressed.

Irritability

Irritability is a feature of depression itself. If you have depression, anger may show up as snapping at others over trivial things or being unable to handle small disappointments without reacting negatively.

Hostility

Going a step beyond irritability, a person with depression who expresses anger outwardly may become hostile toward others.

Anger Attacks

Rapid, intense onset of anger (also sometimes called an anger attack) can also be a feature of depression. These rapid-onset attacks are often inappropriately triggered by trivial matters and can take others by surprise.

The Link Between Anger and Depression

Some evidence suggests that serotonergic dysfunction may be partly to blame for both maladaptive anger and major depression. In other words, the neurochemicals in your brain may be out of balance. For this reason, medications used to treat depression may also help relieve symptoms of anger.

Anger Turned Inward

Sigmund Freud believed that depression results from anger repressed and directed toward oneself, rather than being expressed externally. Indeed, anger turned inward (known as internalizing) is common in those who are depressed. This act of turning anger inward can worsen the severity of depression, setting up a vicious cycle.

Listening to your inner critic can worsen depression, making it difficult to do things that could help alleviate symptoms (e.g., doing activities you once enjoyed, spending time with other people, exercising, etc.). This leads you to feel more powerless and negative over time.

Anger Turned Outward

Those who are depressed sometimes turn their anger outward (known as externalizing) instead and lash out at those around them.

Depression can amplify negative emotions that can be hard to control, and afterward, you might feel bad about how you expressed yourself—setting up a situation that feeds on itself and that is difficult to escape.

Eventually, it may lead to problems in your personal and professional life. For example, if you are unable to deal with stress in the workplace, you might lash out at coworkers, managers, or even customers. If you struggle to control your anger around friends and family, this can strain relationships.

Treatment for Angry Depression

Treatment for depression that includes anger is similar to treatments for depression alone. In short, medication and therapy are both empirically validated treatments for depression that can help alleviate feelings of anger, hostility, and irritability.

Therapy

One specific type of therapy that might be helpful for angry depression is emotionally focused therapy. Developed by psychologist Les Greenberg, this type of therapy categorizes anger as either adaptive or non-adaptive.

• Adaptive anger helps motivate assertive (rather than aggressive) action. Imagine you have gained weight because of unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise. You might feel adaptive anger at yourself for letting the situation get out of hand, but you also might feel motivated to make and follow a healthy eating and fitness plan. In this way, adaptive anger is controlled and directed positively.
• Maladaptive anger in this example would instead lead to a downward spiral of self-pity and hopeless inaction. In essence, maladaptive anger involves giving away your power, making you feel helpless. This type of unhelpful anger is thought to be rooted in traumatic experiences.

Moving From Maladaptive Anger to Adaptive Emotions

Emotionally focused therapy transforms your maladaptive emotions by addressing their root cause. One way is by verbalizing your critical inner voice. For example, in the case of gaining weight, the critical inner voice might sound something like this:

The idea is to give the critical inner voice some words, as though someone else is speaking them. This involves expressing feelings behind thoughts and using "you" statements, allowing you to separate yourself from those thoughts.

The next step involves responding to the critical inner voice and answering back against the criticisms. In this way, you are essentially "taking your own side." For example, in the case of the critical inner voice that talks about your weight gain, you might respond to that voice in the following ways.

Emotionally focused therapy has been shown to help relieve depression, raise self-esteem, and reduce distress in interpersonal relationships.

Medication

Medication can help you reduce feelings of anger and irritability. Although it's not a direct treatment for anger, addressing your depression symptoms can have an indirect effect on feelings of anger.

Anger Management Techniques

Anger management techniques can help you manage depression-related anger. You might attend anger management classes, read an anger management self-help book, or find a support group,

Coping With Angry Depression

You can do a few things on your own to manage anger-related depression. Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Develop self-compassion, as mentioned earlier
• Manage triggers
• Stand up to your inner critic
• Respond to your inner critic in a journal
• Accept, rather than fight, your anger
• Express your anger in healthy ways
• Alleviate anger before it deepens by being more assertive or venting your emotions appropriately
• Exercise to release endorphins, your brain's feel-good chemicals

Just Breathe

Another helpful approach is to learn mindful breathing, which can help calm you in an angry moment. There are a variety of breathing techniques including belly breathing, box breathing, pursed lip breathing, and the 4-7-8 approach.

Breathing helps bring your body into a state of relaxation and increases oxygen flow in your body. This helps you get control of the fight-or-flight reaction you might experience when your anger is triggered.

To practice box breathing, find a comfortable place to sit or lie down. Then, go through these steps. Each counts as one cycle.

• Exhale for a count of four
• With empty lungs, hold your breath for a count of four
• Inhale for a count of four
• With filled lungs, hold your breath for a count of four

Then, repeat this cycle four times.

With that said, when we are relaxed, we are able to think more clearly, use better judgment, and regulate our emotions. We can ease those angry flare-ups by bringing our body and mind into a more peaceful state.

Be Present, Be Mindful

If you tend to ruminate on negative thoughts that fuel your anger and sadness, try mindfulness meditation. Whenever you feel your mood shifting in the wrong direction, take a few minutes to focus on the present moment, being aware of everything going on within you and around you.

Try not to focus on the past, or worry about the future, just stay in the right now. Notice your thoughts and feelings as they come, but don't hang on to them, and don't judge them as wrong or inappropriate. Simply acknowledge them, say 'hello' if you like, and let them go.

Stretch for Relaxation

If you're feeling motivated enough to try, the act of stretching itself can help reduce stress and improve your mood. We tend to hold a lot of tension in our muscles when we are upset, which contributes to irritable and angry emotions. We might feel our teeth clenched, our fists balled up, and our shoulders in knots. Stretching is a good way to release that tension to help you feel more at ease.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is another way to release muscle tension from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. You can do this anytime throughout the day, and it can be a nice way to wind down before drifting off to sleep.

Through a series of tensing and relaxing of muscles throughout your entire body, you begin to gain awareness of how much tension you are holding onto in different areas, and then you can consciously relax those muscles. As you release the tension in your muscles, you can imagine you are releasing your worry, your sadness, and your anger.

Develop a Support System

Sometimes you need to express your deepest, ugliest feelings with someone who can listen, and not try to fix you or judge you. Turning to someone you can rely on for support can be helpful.

If there is nobody in your personal life to fill this role, try joining a support group specifically for depression and/or anger. There, you'll find others struggling with the same challenges, and there is no risk of feeling ashamed for expressing yourself honestly. You will be with people who can provide genuine support from a place of understanding.

In addition, if you join a group with a facilitator, you might discover helpful strategies to better manage your depression and anger. A support group that understands what you are going through is important, especially if you begin relapsing after treatment.

Key Takeaways From Verywell

Since depression makes you prone to a range of negative emotions, it is not a surprise that anger can be found among the feelings experienced.

If you are struggling with anger and depression that is impairing your daily functioning, see a mental health professional for advice, diagnosis, and treatment. Options will likely include therapy and/or medication. Start with your family doctor, who can treat you or direct you to a specialist.

Remember that you're not alone in your feelings. Many people struggle with anger and irritability related to depression. This is not a personal failing on your part, and it might not be within your control. However, you can learn some coping strategies that can help you escape a bad mood, manage your anger, and feel better.

Lastly, don't feel ashamed about reaching out for help. In fact, making yourself a priority in this way might be exactly what it takes to improve your relationships and feel better about your daily life. Treat yourself with the same kindness and respect you would show a friend who came to you for advice. You deserve your own self-compassion.