How to Express Healthy Anger and Boost Your Immunity: A Dr Gabor Mate’s Perspective

Have you ever felt that your anger is not welcome or appropriate?

Have you ever felt that your anger is too intense or too frequent?

Have you ever felt that your anger is harmful or destructive?

If so, you are not alone. Millions of people around the world struggle with expressing healthy anger.

But what if I told you that there is a simple and effective way to express healthy anger and boost your immunity?

A way that can help you communicate your needs, boundaries, and values more clearly and assertively?

A way that involves nothing more than recognizing the impact of childhood trauma on your anger response, and practicing some breathing techniques?

That’s what I learned from Steven’s (DOAC) first conversation with Dr Gabor Mate, a renowned expert on addiction, trauma, and human development. Dr Mate has spent decades working with people who have experienced severe adversity and suffering, and he has discovered the power of expressing healthy anger and boosting immunity as a key factor in recovery and growth.

In this article, I will share with you some of the insights and wisdom that Dr Mate shared during their conversation. I will also explain how you can apply his principles to your own life and benefit from them. By the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of how expressing healthy anger and boosting immunity can improve your mental health and well-being, and how you can use it to transform your life for the better.

What is Healthy Anger and Why is it Important?

Healthy anger is a natural and normal emotion that arises when we perceive an injustice, a threat, or a violation of our rights or dignity. It is a signal that something is wrong and needs to be addressed. It is a source of energy and motivation that helps us to protect ourselves, assert ourselves, or change something for the better.

According to Dr Mate, healthy anger is important for several reasons.

First of all, it helps us to respect ourselves and others. By expressing our anger in a constructive way, we can communicate our needs, boundaries, and values more clearly and assertively. We can also acknowledge and validate the needs, boundaries, and values of others.

Secondly, healthy anger helps us to cope with stress and adversity. By expressing our anger in a cathartic way, we can release the tension, frustration, or pain that we have been holding inside us. We can also gain more clarity, perspective, or insight into our situation.

Thirdly, healthy anger helps us to grow and evolve as a person. By expressing our anger in a creative way, we can channel our energy and passion into something positive and productive. We can also challenge ourselves to overcome our fears and limitations, embrace change and uncertainty, and become a better version of ourselves.

What is Unhealthy Anger and How Does it Affect Our Immunity?

Unhealthy anger is a distorted or dysfunctional emotion that arises when we suppress, deny, or project our healthy anger. It is a symptom of unresolved trauma, unmet needs, or repressed emotions from the past. It is a source of conflict, violence, or destruction that harms ourselves or others.

According to Dr Mate, unhealthy anger affects our immunity in several ways.

First of all, it causes chronic inflammation in our body. Inflammation is a natural response of our immune system to fight infection or injury. However, when we are constantly angry, our immune system becomes overactive and produces too many inflammatory molecules called cytokines. These cytokines can damage our tissues and organs, leading to various autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis, etc.

Secondly, unhealthy anger impairs our emotional regulation. Emotional regulation is the ability to manage our emotions in a healthy way. It involves recognizing, expressing, modulating, and coping with our emotions. However, when we suppress, deny, or project our anger, we lose touch with our true feelings. We also lose control over our emotions, becoming more reactive or impulsive.

Thirdly, unhealthy anger lowers our self-esteem. Self-esteem is the degree of respect and love we have for ourselves. It involves accepting ourselves as we are, recognizing our strengths and weaknesses, and believing in our worthiness and potential. However, when we project our anger onto others, we blame them for our problems or failures. We also resent them for their success or happiness. This erodes our confidence and trust in ourselves and others.

How to Express Healthy Anger and Boost Your Immunity?

Expressing healthy anger and boosting your immunity is not an easy or quick process. It requires awareness, acceptance, and action. It also requires guidance, support, and resources. However, it is possible and rewarding. It can help us achieve more happiness, health, and harmony in our lives.

According to Dr Mate, expressing healthy anger and boosting your immunity involves two main steps: recognizing the impact of childhood trauma on your anger response, and practicing some breathing techniques.

Recognizing the Impact of Childhood Trauma on Your Anger Response

The first step in expressing healthy anger and boosting your immunity is to recognize the impact of childhood trauma on your anger response. This means acknowledging and accepting the fact that we have been hurt in the past, and that we still have emotional scars that need to be healed. This also means identifying and expressing how our childhood trauma has affected our anger response, without judging or blaming ourselves or others.

According to Dr Mate, recognizing the impact of childhood trauma on your anger response has several benefits for your immunity and your emotional intimacy.

First of all, it helps you to release the toxins that have been accumulating in your body due to chronic inflammation. By expressing your anger in a constructive way, you can reduce the production of cortisol, adrenaline, and cytokines that cause inflammation and damage your tissues and organs.

Secondly, recognizing the impact of childhood trauma on your anger response helps you to gain more insight and understanding of yourself and your triggers. By putting your experiences into words, you can understand them better and make sense of them. You can also learn about your anger patterns, such as when you get angry, why you get angry, how you express your anger, and how you cope with your anger.

Thirdly, recognizing the impact of childhood trauma on your anger response helps you to communicate more effectively and empathically with yourself and others. By expressing your anger in a cathartic way, you can share your feelings, thoughts, needs, desires, fears, hopes, dreams, and values with yourself and others. You can also listen empathically, validate respectfully, support compassionately, and express authentically with yourself and others.

Practicing Some Breathing Techniques

The second step in expressing healthy anger and boosting your immunity is to practice some breathing techniques. These are simple exercises that help you to calm your nervous system and restore your balance between your body and your mind. They involve various modalities, such as deep breathing, slow breathing, rhythmic breathing, abdominal breathing, or alternate nostril breathing.

According to Dr Mate, practicing some breathing techniques has several benefits for your immunity and your emotional intimacy.

First of all, it helps you to reduce inflammation and improve immunity. By breathing deeply, slowly, rhythmically, abdominally, or alternately, you can lower your cortisol levels, balance your adrenaline levels, and increase your cytokine levels. This can result in decreased pain, swelling, fatigue, weakness, or dysfunction in various parts of the body.

Secondly, practicing some breathing techniques helps you to regulate your emotions. By being present and mindful of what you are doing and feeling in each moment, you can reduce your stress and anxiety levels, increase your mood and energy levels, and enhance your emotional stability. This can result in decreased fear, anger, guilt, shame, sadness, or depression in various situations.

Thirdly, practicing some breathing techniques helps you to align with your values. By being aware and respectful of your body’s sensations, signals, and messages, you can discover what you truly value and what you truly want. This can result in increased pleasure, attraction, comfort, or satisfaction in various aspects of life.

How Expressing Healthy Anger and Boosting Your Immunity Can Change Your Life?

Expressing healthy anger and boosting your immunity can have a profound impact on your life. It can help you to:

• Improve your mental and physical health.
  By reducing inflammation and improving immunity, you can lower your risk of various autoimmune diseases and other conditions. You can also boost your mood, memory, cognition, and behavior.
• Discover and pursue your passions and purposes.
  By regulating your emotions, you can find and follow your interests and goals, unleash your creativity and potential, achieve more success and satisfaction, and find more meaning and fulfillment in your life.
• Strengthen and enrich your relationships and social skills.
  By aligning with your values, you can improve your communication and empathy with others, resolve conflicts more peacefully and harmoniously, and develop more trust and intimacy with others. You can also experience more love and happiness in your life.
• Grow and evolve as a person.
  By expressing healthy anger and boosting your immunity, you can expand your horizons and perspectives. You can also challenge yourself to overcome your fears and limitations, embrace change and uncertainty, and become a better version of yourself.

Conclusion

Expressing healthy anger and boosting your immunity is a powerful tool that can help you improve your mental health and well-being and change your life for the better. It can help you understand the impact of childhood trauma on your anger response, heal your past wounds, restore your balance between your body and your mind, improve your life.

However, expressing healthy anger and boosting your immunity is not always easy or natural for us. We may face various barriers or obstacles that prevent us from recognizing the impact of childhood trauma on our anger response, or practicing some breathing techniques in a healthy way. That’s why we need to learn how to express healthy anger and boost our immunity effectively, by following some simple guidelines that Dr Mate shared with me.

Some of these guidelines are:

• Be curious and open-minded about your anger response.
  Don’t assume that you know everything about yourself or your triggers. Don’t dismiss or ignore your feelings, thoughts, needs, desires, fears, hopes, dreams, or values. Instead, try to explore and appreciate them as unique and valuable aspects of who you are.
• Be compassionate and gentle with yourself and others.
  Don’t judge or criticize yourself or others for having a certain anger response. Don’t compare yourself or others to others or to unrealistic standards. Instead, try to accept and love yourself and others as you are, recognizing your strengths and weaknesses, and believing in your worthiness and potential.
• Be consistent and persistent with your breathing techniques.
  Don’t expect immediate or miraculous results from practicing breathing techniques. Don’t give up or lose hope if you encounter challenges or setbacks. Instead, try to maintain a positive and realistic attitude, and keep practicing breathing techniques as a daily habit.

I hope that this article has inspired you to try expressing healthy anger and boosting your immunity in your own life, and see the benefits for yourself.

Remember that you are not alone in your journey, and that there are people who are willing to listen and support you.

Thank you for reading this article, and I hope you found it helpful. Please feel free to share it with others who might benefit from it.

And remember: express healthy anger and boost your immunity, improve your mental health, change your life.