Is Resentment Bad For Your Health?

Who has never felt mistreated? Who has never been invaded by resentment?  These reactions are relatively normal, but we need to know that rancor is bad for your health.

Sometimes a friend has made a bad joke or a criticism behind his back. Or you needed someone who ended up putting you at the bottom of their priority scale.

Maybe it’s your teacher who didn’t recognize your effort, your parents who didn’t realize the difficulties of surviving in today’s world, or your partner who fell in love with someone else. All, at some point, go through situations like the ones described above.

Emotions and health

It would be nice if negative emotions were accompanied by warning messages and if educational programs dedicated some of their sections to teaching how to control them. We’re talking about a hazardous material. There is irrefutable proof that poorly managed negative emotions can be considered the greatest danger facing our health.

For example, depression is associated with measurable changes in immune functioning. People with depression have a higher risk of having a heart attack than people with no history of depression. On the other hand, depression appears to increase the risk of osteoporosis in women. In men, depression predicts a decrease in muscle strength after a period of three years.

Anxiety also appears to be associated with the development of heart problems. Also, it can delay recovery after surgery. On the other hand, it is well documented that chronic hostility can be a risk factor for heart disease and even death.

What do we mean by rancor?

Anger is a feeling that very well represents the emotional state of many people. It stands out, like all emotional states, for generating behaviors that tend to keep the person in that state. On the other hand, it is often accompanied by a degree of stubbornness or blindness that makes it very resistant to the steps we try to take to get rid of it.

In this way, rancor indicates an injured person. Whether they have been treated unfairly, their expectations dashed, or their trust betrayed, the person may feel anger and resentment. In other words, it is a feeling of rejection to those who caused the discomfort.

On the other hand, if we express it as a tendency, we could say that a spiteful person is one who hardly forgets the differences after an argument with a couple or a friend, or takes a long time to assimilate what happened, forgive and forget.

How is resentment bad for your health?

To analyze this topic, Witvliet et al. (2002) studied the emotional and physiological consequences of acting motivated by rancor. They did this through an experiment. College students were asked to choose real interpersonal offenses they had experienced in the past. Most of these offenses came from friends, boyfriends, siblings, or parents.

These offenses included circumstances such as rejection, lying, or insult. Subsequently, researchers collected reports and psychophysiological data. These data included heart rate, blood pressure, and facial muscle tension.

Reporting data was collected while students imagined a response to these offenses, either indulgently or spitefully. In the indulgent condition, students had to think about feelings of pity or empathy for those who had offended them. In the condition of rancor, they were asked to remain in the role of victims. They were asked to focus on the damage and try to be spiteful.

How we think influences health

Is it possible that the two ways of thinking about the same problem have changed the mood and physiology of the study participants? The answer is yes. When they indulged, participants felt more empathetic and forgiving. However, when they were bitter and resentful, they reported more negative, hostile, and sad feelings and loss of control.

There was also an increase in eyebrow tension, increased heart rate, blood pressure, and skin electrical conductivity. Let’s think that the increase in skin conductivity indicates a greater activation of the autonomic nervous system, which prepares us to act when we perceive a threat.

Another discovery was even more surprising. After finishing the experiment, students were asked to relax. However,  individuals who imagined feelings of resentment were unable to relax. The state of high physiological activation that had been achieved by imagining past infractions was very difficult to eliminate. That is, they were upset or anxious for much longer.

Resentment: a dangerous attitude

What implications do the results of this study have? Experiencing fleeting feelings of hostility is certainly not enough to harm our health. However, people who tend to ruminate offenses indefinitely are insisting on a habit that is very dangerous to themselves. Feeding anger, with the consequent physiological reactions, can have negative consequences for the functioning of the cardiovascular and immune system.

That’s why fostering resentment can be dangerous to our health. While it’s not always easy, forgiving those who offend us can reduce our stress and increase our well-being. We can compare the effects of resentment to carrying a burden that even affects our physical health because it can make us sick. For this reason, for our emotional health, it is important to prioritize well-being, consciously deciding not to continue to harbor this grudge against what has happened.