Stress again-anger related

In the blog on mindfulness I talked about the recommendation by the Cleveland Clinic lecturer to spend a few minutes a day on clearing our minds focusing on the moment. This was recommended related to that lecturer's interest in prevention of brain diseases and health for caregivers in the such diseases as Alzheimer's Diseases, Parkinson's Disease and frontal lobe stroke. In today's newspaper is another article recommending the same type of stress reduction. This time the focus was for women with heart disease-especially disease of the small coronary arteries.

A small part of this article mentioned that one of the primary stressors causing this type of heart disease is anger. Unfortunately the article did not expand on the role of anger in creating stress and leading to heart disease but it certainly caught my attention. It caught my attention because I believe anger is such a part of women's addiction. I believe unresolved anger causes a kind of chronic anxiety and tension. And the bad news is some of us deal with that anger by drinking and drugs. And the further bad news is that we learn that the drinking and drugs relieves the anger and stress----at the beginning. Sadly for many the reality is that the drinking and drugging causes its own anxiety, stress and self anger, and self hatred. It becomes the cycle of addiction. Relapse after relapse is so often connected with unidentified and unresolved anger.

 Issues related to this continuing spiral of anger and addiction often include the issues of abuse-physical, sexual, emotional. When we are finally able to acknowledge the anger, we have the chance to work through it, to identify what happened, to name the feelings. The anger may return as we continue to "work it through" but we have the opportunity to "write the end of the story."(Read the chapter on "Anger and Abuse" in "Broken by Addiction-Blessed by God.") I also believe this issue of anger is primary in men's addiction. Issues of men's sexual abuse remains a huge, often undisclosed problem in their disease of addiction and relapse.

Again, I truly believe this issue of anger keeps so many trapped in addiction---and leads to other chronic physical and emotional illnesses.

Pay attention to the messages your body gives you. Your body messages are a gift. Are you holding tension in your shoulders, your jaw, your mouth, your legs? Could it be related to anger? Tense it up---release it. Find a few minutes to sit-focus on the moment--release.

Find Peace.
Blessings-Penny