14 DAY TRIAL // Investigations conducted by experts at the Concordia university have revealed that people who are constantly bitter are at a higher risk of becoming ill. Failing at things that are important to a person has been linked to a similar effects.
The research team analyzed the connections between all these three aspects of the study, as well as the reasons for why some people tend to shun bitterness at one point in their lives, only to embrace it a few years later. Very few investigations have been conducted to cover these issues.
The leader of the research team, Concordia psychologist Dr. Carsten Wrosch, has been involved with studying the link between negative emotions and health for the better part of the last 15 years. His work included analyzing how regret or sadness changes people.
It was only recently that the expert decided to concentrate his attention on bitterness. This type of behavior is relatively widespread in today's society, for a vast array of reasons. In certain cases, psychologists agree, a person is entirely justified to feel this way, but certainly not always.
“Persistent bitterness may result in global feelings of anger and hostility that, when strong enough, could affect a person’s physical health,” Dr. Wrosch explains. Past studies have shown that stress, for example, can have a negative effect on a person's overall health status.
In the study, which he conducted with Concordia PhD student and coauthor Jesse Renaud, the scientist determined that multiple failures are the leading cause of persistent bitterness in the general population.
An important component is also accounted for by anger and accusation, the two scientists go on to say. The two aspects can be collectively named acrimony. What this implies is that people oftentimes seek to place the blame on someone or something other than themselves.
“When harbored for a long time, bitterness may forecast patterns of biological dysregulation (a physiological impairment that can affect metabolism, immune response or organ function) and physical disease,” Dr. Wrosch explains.
Some time ago, German psychiatrist Dr. Michael Linden proposed that bitterness be classified as a mental health issue, due to the potential it has of causing great damage. He proposed the name post-traumatic embitterment disorder (PTED) for the condition.
“In order to deal with bitter emotions there may need to be something else required to enable a person to overcome the negative emotion – that something is forgiveness,” Dr. Wrosch concludes, quoted by PsychCentral.