How many times have we heard that we shouldn’t be angry? Many of us are taught that anger is always a bad thing and try to push the feeling away. New research however, has shown that the so-called negative emotions, such as anger also have an upside.

You may have already seen the movie “Inside Out”. While entertaining us with brilliant humour, also shows how all the emotions can be useful, including Anger. This red fiery headed cartoon emotion helps to make sure everything is fair for the character Riley and energises her to make some important decisions.

Professor Barbara Fredrickson, a psychologist who studies emotions was interviewed on the ABC’s All In The Mind radio program. “There is no emotion that needs to be forever banished. If you are experiencing some injustice, anger is useful in our response to that injustice”, explains

Professor Fredrickson.

More evidence based studies are revealing that good mental health does not mean denying that at times you feel angry. Dr Sarah McKay, a neuroscientist, has written about how we can put our negative emotions to good use. She talks about Dr Robert Biswas-Diener, a positive psychologist, and his book The Power of Negative Emotion. “Trying to shoot for 100 percent happiness is unrealistic – those folks who are comfortable with being both positive and negative are the healthiest, and often the most successful,” says Biswas Diener (The Upside of Anger).

Of course anger with violence, abuse or lashing out is not healthy. Sometimes it helps to get some support with how we manage anger if it feels out of control. Relationships Australia have an article on Acknowledging Your Anger that is worth a read. They also have lots of education programs and counselling for those that may want more support “Anger is neither good nor bad. It’s what you do with it that matters. Keep checking in with yourself by asking’ Is my anger helping or harming this situation,’” Biswas-Diener.