PREVIOUS: Anger & Co-dep #3

BOOK: “When Anger Scares You: How to….”

QUOTE: “If you’re not pissing someone off, you probably aren’t doing anything important” ~ Oliver Emberton (Excellent serious cartoons)

2. OTHER PEOPLE’s Anger (cont.)

WHY we’re afraid:
• Other people’s anger reminds us of one or more raging adults we grew up with. Those terrifying experiences effected our developing, sensitive nervous system. (“Trauma & child’s Brain“)
Unless we’ve done a lot of rage-discharge-work, our body is still warehousing all the old terror those adults (& siblings) continually caused us. (“The Body Keeps the Score” synopses)

So now, whether someone is angry directly at us OR just being near someone who’s very angry, our fear can get activated so intensely, it feels like every nerve is on fire!
AND –
• we assume we will get hit, or worse – the way we were as kids
• we don’t know what to say – don’t have clever comebacks, or logical responses (See: “Effective Responses” )
• it triggers our own hidden anger that we’re trying to keep down  (posts: Anger & ACoAs)

MORE ACoA dichotomies
• Co-deps are microscopically focused on what others are saying & doing, to figure out what they want from us. We think that if we can & then provide it, it will ensure a continued connection (because of our FoA).
🧊BUT: this is our narcissism, & desire for symbiotic acceptance – not actually trying to understand who someone else actually is

• Because of very real trauma we grew up with, we experience everyone & everything in the world as dangerous.
🧊BUT: because it was so overwhelming, to survive we trained ourselves to avoid seeing danger – anywhere – a turtle with its head pulled in.
So we’re oblivious to all kinds of cues from other people in the present – a kind of emotional Asperger.
We miss hints that someone is:
• belittling, insulting or making fun of us
• anxious to leave, but too polite to say
• angry, annoyed, bored, hurting, scared, upset…..

FACIAL SIGNALS
ANGER: Eyes down, narrowed, tense, or staring, furrow between eyes, brow pulled down, lips drawn tight or raised in squarish shape – muscle movements show when we feel aggressive, frustrated or threatened. Researchers think we make this ‘face’ to protect itself in a physical conflict (furrowed eyebrows protect eyes….)

CONTEMPT: when we literally look down our nose at someone with suspicion or in derision – lowered brow or eyes looking to the side. The main feature is that only one side of the face is pulled tight. (If both sides are / were pulling, we’d be swallowing or salivating)

DISGUST: Here the muscles above the upper lip are pull up, raising it the mouth, wrinkling the nose & narrowing the eyes – as if smelling something foul. Often the mouth opens & the tongue comes out, as if needing to throw up.

USEFUL – know the difference in motivation, between:
BAD anger-expression: used to control others thru intimidation, OR anger at oneself to control other emotions we don’t want to feel,
vs.
HELPFUL anger-expression: to protect ourself from some external danger, OR to indicate that we’re not thinking / acting in our best interest (have somehow abandoned ourselves)

POSITIVE
BUT we also miss positive responses which could heal us. Being ‘oblivious‘ + S-H prevents us from seeing the available benefits all around us which we could accept from people who :
– are available to encourage, help, play with, support, teach….us
– honor, complement or validate us
– are appropriately sexually or socially interested in us

• ⬆️ FACE: “Lie to Me” TV series actor Tim Roth – w/ more micro expressions

Interesting:  French neurologist Duchenne de Boulogne figured out how to tell a real smile from a fake one.
REAL: requires both zygomatic major cheek & orbicularis oculi muscles be active (raised cheeks + outer part around the eye socket that pulls down eyebrows & skin below), especially since very few people can voluntary contract those eye muscles.   (More…)

ARTICLEs: Fear of anger //“How to stop absorbing other people’s emotions” // Micro-expression Training video // How We Read Emotions from Faces + brain // (QUIZ re. 20 Emotions) 

NEXT: Anger – ways to react #1