It is common for someone with (or in recovery from) post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to experience anger. In fact, because the experience of anger is so common among people with PTSD. Although anger can often lead to unhealthy behaviors (for example, substance use or impulsive behavior), the experience of anger in and of itself is not a bad thing. It is a valid emotional experience that can provide you with important information.
In general, even though emotions may often feel unpleasant or uncomfortable, they serve a very important purpose. Emotions are essentially our body's way of communicating with us. Emotions can communicate information to other people, give us information about our environment, prepare us for action, and deepen our experience of life.
Anger in particular is an emotion that is often about control. When we experience anger, our body may be telling us that we feel as though things are out of our control, or that we have been violated in some way. Anger can motivate us to try to establish control (or a sense of control) over a situation. Given this function of anger, it makes sense that a person with PTSD may often experience anger.
The experience of a traumatic event can make you feel violated or constantly unsafe. It may also make you feel as though you have little control over your life. In addition, the symptoms of PTSD can give you the sense that danger is all around and there is no escape. The extreme fluctuations of internal experience among people with PTSD (for example, constantly fluctuating between emotional numbing and intense anxiety) may also make you experience your inner life as chaotic and out of control. Considering these symptoms, it seems completely understandable that you may experience anger, as your body is attempting to communicate to you that things feel out of our control."
source/ full article here: http://ptsd.about.com/od/relatedconditions/a/PTSDanger.htm
"When is anger a problem?
Anger becomes a problem when it harms you or people around you. This can depend on whether you express your anger, and how you express it.
Often if you feel angry, it’s about something that is happening to you at the time. This is usually something that is over quickly, for example, sounding your horn if another driver causes you to brake suddenly.
Something happens that makes you angry, you express your anger and then move on.
When you don’t express your anger, or express it at inappropriate times or in unsafe ways, this is when it can damage your health and your relationships.
This is especially so, if something has made you angry in the past and you didn’t express your anger at the time – because you felt you couldn’t or didn’t want to – then that anger can get ‘bottled up’ or ‘suppressed’.
This can have negative consequences in the longer term – you may find that when something happens to annoy or upset you in the future, you feel extremely angry and respond more aggressively than is appropriate to the new situation.
Trying to suppress your anger may also lead to other types of behaviour, such as responding in a ’passive aggressive’ way e.g. being sarcastic or unhelpful, or refusing to speak to someone. Or you may find that you are getting angry too quickly or too often, sometimes over quite small things.
You may feel you are unable to let go of your anger.
If you can’t express your anger in a safe or constructive way, this can be bad for your emotional, mental and physical health.
Whether your anger is about what is happening now or something that happened in the past, it can make you do things that you will regret later.
Therefore, it is important to learn to understand your anger and also some techniques to limit the chances of it coming out in a way that is damaging.
Learn your triggers
To start recognising your triggers you might find it helpful to keep a diary or notes about the times you have felt angry. Think about the last time this happened:
• What were the circumstances?
• Did someone say or do something to trigger your anger?
• How did you feel?
• How did you behave?
• How did you feel afterwards?
If you do this for a period of time, you will probably start to see patterns emerging. For example, you may be getting angry every time a senior male colleague tells you to do something. This could be because you had an unpleasant experience in the past with another male authority figure e.g. your father, or a previous boss. Or it may be you get angry each time you’re in a situation you have no control over.
Just recognising what is making you angry can sometimes be enough to help, and you may feel that it’s something you can then work out for yourself.
However, if you are finding it difficult to recognise your triggers, you may want to try talking to someone who is trained to help you understand your feelings and the reasons for them."
source/more tips on managing anger here: http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/anger/managing-your-anger/#.UyH6ZvnV8qc
some more information about anger and how to deal with it can be found here:
http://www.moodjuice.scot.nhs.uk/anger.asp
http://www.new-synapse.com/aps/wordpress/?p=19
http://www.apa.org/topics/anger/control.aspx?item=2
http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/anger.html
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