yes, therapy helps!
Angrofobia (fear of anger): symptoms, causes and treatment

Angrofobia (fear of anger): symptoms, causes and treatment

February 29, 2024

The word angrofobia refers to excessive fear of anger . It is a fear of others' anger and also of fear getting angry or being perceived as an "angry" person. Although it is a phenomenon that has not been studied by psychopathology, it is a term that is used with some frequency in colloquial language, an issue that makes it worth reviewing.

We will see next what is the angrofobia as well as some hypotheses about its causes and consequences.

  • Related article: "Types of phobias: exploring the disorders of fear"

What is angrofobia?

As its name says, angrofobia is irrational or excessive fear of anger. It is, on the one hand, the fear of getting angry. This means that It is feared to experience feelings of anger, anger, annoyance or dislike towards one or several people. On the other hand, it is a fear that other people experience these feelings towards oneself.


Being a phobia, we can say that the irrational fear that characterizes it arises from the combination of external stressors , these may be objectively harmful, or not; with a certain personal scheme of coping with said events.

Although not all cases occur, phobias can generate a clinically significant discomfort, that is, they can affect the way in which the person performs their daily activities. If it is a phobia of the emotion of anger, it is most likely that, if this discomfort occurs, it would affect the way in which the person relates.

That is, while anger is one of the basic emotions and is present in the most everyday interactions , a person with fear of such emotion may have some difficulty in establishing and maintaining interpersonal links. For the same reason it could be considered a type of social phobia.


However, this phobia, as we have said, is not a disease or a clinical picture that is recognized as such by specialists. It is a term that is part of the colloquial language and that is used more in the literary narrative to express the fear of anger, and also its consequences.

Why fear anger?

Anger is an emotion that has been traditionally studied and analyzed as a "negative emotion". On the one hand, it has been cataloged as such due to its association with situations of conflict involving a series of physical discomforts ranging from increased blood flow to increased heart rate and the presence of a significant amount of energy, which can sometimes be channeled aggressively or violently.

From the above, we have generated a whole series of rules about who, when, how and where it is appropriate to get angry, and in what circumstances or towards what people are not.


  • Maybe you're interested: "How to control anger: 7 practical tips"

The contradictory socialization of anger

The socialization for which many people have gone through anger has been to stop it, or in any case, exchange it for calm, control, relief, pauses , or by minimizing the situations for which we have become angry. Even, the previous thing has happened by cataloging of "fools" once we have become angry. From young people we are asked, on the one hand, to avoid experiencing anger, or at least to prevent their expression from being obvious; and on the other hand, we demand the opposite: express it, since it is the best way to channel properly (Renata-Franco and Sánchez Aragón, 2010).

The emotional education towards anger has been contradictory, which often forms part of both the family and the school, the media and the scientific theories about emotions. Thus, a culture of fear of negative emotions, such as anger, has been generated and generalized, by the idea that the latter can prevent us from both happiness and the achievement of personal goals, such as the interaction and fulfillment of the duty to be social. .

From rejection to fear of "negative emotions"

If we go a little further and we are more specific in this matter, we can see that, in fact, there are some profiles of individuals who have been historically and socially allowed to feel or express their anger in certain ways; and there are other profiles of individuals to whom the same forms have been denied. For example, externalized anger in the form of physical aggression or high-sounding words may be more socially accepted in masculinity than in femininity.

Faced with such a reaction, people can then receive reprimands and rejections. In fact, it is common to use the adjective "angry" or "angry" to talk about certain people and justify the few intentions of living with them.This question is one of those that can trigger a progressive fear of anger and a denial of that emotion that triggers irrational fears.

In this sense, angrofobia can manifest itself in different ways in different people: some may be afraid of being perceived as angry, and socially rejected thanks to that perception ; and others, they may be afraid to unleash other people's anger. The consequence in any case can be to avoid expressing opinions, thoughts or behaviors determined by fear of being perceived as people who get angry easily, or because of fear that others get angry with them.

Treatment of irrational fear of anger

After having experienced a contradictory emotional education about negative emotions such as anger, and without having reinforced solid coping schemes in the face of conflicting situations that can provoke such emotion, it is expected that some people will develop an excessive need to avoid anger in all its expressions .

As happens when any need develops excessively, exposure to the event that triggers the stress (in this case, anger), can cause significant discomforts, ranging from states of stress or anxiety, and their physical correlates, to Obsessive thoughts and withdrawal behaviors that protect against the perceived risky event.

Therefore, one way to prevent angrofobia is to analyze the components that surround such irrational fear and work to reconcile, outside the contradiction, an emotional education truly oriented to assertiveness. It is necessary to work with mental health professionals to guide the process through psychotherapy.

Bibliographic references:

  • Retana-Franco, B. and Sánchez-Aragón, R. (2010). Tracing in the past ... ways to regulate happiness, sadness, love, anger and fear. Universitas Psychologica, 9 (1): 179-197.

Angrophobia, Stupid! (February 2024).


Similar Articles