Irritability is leading edge of anger and an important human problem. Irritable humans are unpleasant. They are dysphoric and have a ‘short fuse.” The term “temper” has been used to describe the emotional style of a person. A good-tempered person is friendly and stable, easy to be with. A bad tempered person is unfriendly, unstable, difficult, irritable and often angry. Irritability is a more functional term than "bad temper" and suggests that something is wrong in the brain of the irritable person.

Anger is a program that is ready to be triggered at any moment. Big anger is described as rage. Angry outbursts are always unwelcome and sometimes are very dangerous. Much publicity is given to rage which is just another word for anger. Rage is often described in terms of the circumstances when angry outbursts are destructive.

Emotional stability is achieved by maintaining inhibition of anger. Irritability involves increasing the gain on incoming signals so that the trigger threshold for anger is lowered. Little frustrations and annoyances can then trigger angry responses.

Some people are more consistently irritable and antisocial. Since anger causes more anger, irritable people will leave a trail of anger and dysphoria wherever they go. Irritable people have been described as “toxic.”

Nicer people will increase their anger threshold when dealing with an irritable person to keep the peace, but there are costs and limits to that accommodation.

There is a chemistry to anger/rage.  Humans routinely ingest or inhale chemicals that increase irritability and lead to destructive anger. Coffee is an obvious example. If you add alcohol, cocaine, amphetamines, antidepressants and a host of sympathomimetic agents in cold remedies, cough syrups and weight loss products, then you have a chemical recipe for an angry society.

Irritability usually has environmental and chemical causes. An irritable mechanic will curse at the cars he is fixing, bad mouth customers, call his apprentice “stupid and lazy” and go home to shout at his children and fight with his wife.  The mechanic’s brain was disturbed by the five bottles of beer he drank last night, the eight cups of coffee he drank that day, the polycyclic hydrocarbons he inhaled  from car exhaust and by the folic acid deficiency he suffered because his diet is mostly junk food, hamburgers, coffee and beer. He became more belligerent after taking an antidepressant prescribed by his MD.

All Alpha Online nutrient formulas, books and starter packs are ordered online. Alpha Online ships through the Post Office to all destinations in Canada, Continental USA, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and US Military. Prices are listed in Canadian dollars. Alpha Nutrition ® is a registered trademark and a division of  Environmed Research Inc., Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada. In business since 1984. Online since 1995. Persona Publications is also a division of Environmed with a separate online site dedicated to downloading eBooks, other digital documents, and multimedia.