Angry With Your Spouse? Let It Out

Jan. 30, 2008 — -- Here's the latest word on surviving an angry marriage: have a fight. It could save your life.

A new study out of the University of Michigan has produced a startling finding. Couples that suppress their anger when they have been unfairly attacked, either by the spouse or someone else, are twice as likely to die earlier than persons who admit they are angry and deal with their problem.

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that suppressing anger can be deadly because it drives up blood pressure and contributes to anxiety and depression, but this study takes it a bit further. If one spouse suppresses his or her anger, that individual is likely to die earlier. But if both spouses suppress their anger, the odds go through the roof.

"What intrigued me was the percent of double deaths, where they both died," research scientist Ernest Harburg said in an interview.

Harburg and his colleagues have been studying several hundred families in the Michigan village of Tecumseh since 1971. For the latest study, published in the January issue of the Journal of Family Communication, the researchers divided 166 couples into four groups, one of which consisted of couples where both spouses described themselves years ago as unwilling to show their anger.

Three of the groups consisted of couples where one or the other might suppress anger, but not both. Both spouses have died in only 6 percent of those couples.

But in the fourth group, where both spouses suppress their anger, 23 percent of both the husbands and the wives have died.

That, Harburg said, is extraordinary because there have not been a lot of deaths among the study participants, so 23 percent of both spouses is a very large figure.

Harburg, who at 81 is one of the nation's leading experts on anger, said Americans are reluctant to show their anger, and that makes the anger less likely to go away.

"Anger is interesting in the American culture," he said. "You're not supposed to express your anger. That's the norm, and we have to ease out of that norm and say it's healthy to express your anger and move on to solve the problem."